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Hi-def Starcraft 2 Zeratul/Kerrigan Cinematic

I remember when I first saw this on the massive screen at last year’s Blizzcon, and how it completely floored me. Blizzard’s always been really good with their cinematic production, it really shows now with the recently released HD version of that very same trailer. Granted it doesn’t have the screaming cheers and explosion that the 2008 Blizzcon footage has but hey, it’s Starcraft 2.

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Starcraft The Dark Templar Saga Part 1: Firstborn

I’ve never really done a book review before so I’ll give it my best shot. I’ll break it down for you guys, hopefully that will make it easier to keep up with my ranting. Here’s the back cover synopsis of the 1st book in the Dark Templar Saga trilogy:

Jake Ramsey – an unassuming, yet talented archeologist – has been given the chance of a lifetime. hired to investigate a recently unearthed Xel’Naga temple, he knows this latest assignment will open up whole new possibilities for his career. Yet, when Jake discovers the remains of a long-dead protoss mystic, his hopes and dreams are irrevocably drowned in a flood of alien memories. Bonded to the spirit of the dead protoss, Jake has become the sole inheritor of the protoss’s total history – every event, every though – every feeling.

Struggling to maintain his own fragile identity amidst the raging psychic storm in his mind, Jake soon realizes that he has stumbled upon a secret so cataclysmic in magnitude – that it will shake the very foundations of the universe.

Overall Opinion

I’ll go right ahead and say it, Christie Golden is most likely my favorite author of all time. Her Warcraft books were incredible and it seems her pure raw talent flows perfectly through to the Starcraft universe as well. The writing is superb. The pace in the book is strong and to the point, you only get sidetracked for a few moments at most when going into the background of a character or supporting role; and even then you only go deep enough to give a basic yet solid understanding of the type of person this character is so you can better see the main scene play out. There isn’t any convoluted pages of ranting text and there isn’t useless and needless distractions. Everywhere you are taken as you read has to do with the message trying to be communicated, everything in some way has to do with the main story and helping you really empathize and feel as if you’re in it.

One time when the author is showing how the ancient protoss are first discovering written language and developing these basic concepts I was smiling so wide and felt chills go down my spine. I thought to myself, “God if only I could be watching this in reality, how ancient mankind was first able to make the connection, that spark of genius that lead to the first ever written language of pictures. How fucking cool would that be to see that look of pure amazement and happiness when the first man learned that dragging a stick in the dirt could make images.” It sounds corny and really nerdy of me, but that spirit of discovery and adventure is like a drug to me; and this book delivers the thing on a silver platter.

Difficulty

The vocabulary in the book is good. It’s moderately advanced but nothing too crazy. You’re not going to fall asleep trying to read this book. Too many times I’ve been told “Hey Rick you NEED to read this book its so great and award winning and-” the list goes on for a while. I read the first two pages and feel dizzy because the author is so full of himself he’s going through the fucking thesaurus about 40 times a sentence. I hate that shit. Stories don’t need to be written like a Harvard level dissertation on 14th century literature to be good.

The imagery in the story is very clear and you would have to be simply not paying attention to miss the point. The only time I ever caught myself stumbling on words or rereading a sentence was when I came across names of certain protoss or words in the protoss language because, frankly, they were alien to me and I couldn’t identify it at first glance. Its easy to pick up though, and I found myself buying it and reading and completing it all in one day.

My kids were kind of shocked I was able to sit still for so many hours awake reading this book all day yesterday, took me about 8 hours.

Plot Summary

This is the first in a trilogy but no worries, I have all three books and will get started on the 2nd sometime this week. The story opens up with Jake being stuck on some ass of a planet with very little in the way of supplies, equipment, or comfort. He’s in the middle of some archeological dig with his team and the conditions are pretty crappy. He gets a message from the son of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, Valerian Mengsk. Valerian has asked Jake to head an expidition into an at the moment unknown Xel’Naga temple and find out what’s inside. En route he meets RM Dahl (Rosemary) who has also been hired on as head of security and charged with protecting Valerian’s investment.

Jake eventually finds the way into the heart of the temple where there are hundreds of Khaydarian crystals (protoss stuff) and the body of a dead protss and her ship in some sort of time frozen state. Upon touching the corpse, Jake is assaulted by the not-so-dead protoss’ conscience and that massive psi-assault turns out not to be an attack after all. The dead protoss is a Preserver that has the entire history of the entire protoss race as well as their emotions, memories, and feelings inside her mind; the “assault” was her transfering herself into Jake’s mind as well as physically altering his mind so that a mere human was capable of taking it all in.

Rosemary, under orders of Valerian, betrays Jake and incarcerates Jake’s entire team (while Jake is in a coma dreaming about ancient protoss history). Her orders were basically to take Jake back to Valerian for questioning and “debriefing”. It gets a little muddled here but to quickly recap: Rosemary is nothing more than a hired merc, Jake has his own mind as well as the mind of Zamara (an ancient protoss) in his skull, on top of everything he has now inherited the archived complete collection of the Khala which is the protoss psychic collection of all their emotions and thoughts and memories. Think of it as a “hive mind” kind of thing, its explained so much better in the book, but this is a review/summary.

The marines arrive and place EVERYBODY “under arrest” including Rosemary and her team, and lock them in the battlecruiser’s brig while they head back to Valerian. All parties fear the worst as Jake comes to the realization that he’s probably going to become some experiment where his brain will be poked and prodded and then eventually he’ll be killed off like the others. With the forced help of Zamara, he removed the resoc (resocialization, treatment given to space marines since they used to be prison inmantes. Its like a lobotamy that represses all their old memories of the terrible things they did and makes them into obedient atomotons) of a marine and that marine frees Jake before going off on some mad revenge killing spree on the ship. Jake frees Rosemary because Zamara tells him too, they both escape the ship and the book comes to a close. I also want to mention that Zamara is trying to get Jake to realize something so that she can proceed with her mission, whatever that is, and the proccess of this is very fucking cool.

Jake constantly slips into sleep or some sort of catatonic state in which he is reliving the life of the most ancient protoss and following along. He pretty much is this old protoss named Temlarr, who happens to be the partner of the most important protoss in history who discovered the secrets of the makers and established the Khala which is the joint consciousness of the protoss race.

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Another Starcraft 2 Fansite Q&A

For the Starcraft fans on my site, here’s a fansite Q&A batch with some pretty sweet information. As some of you know there was a big how-to-do thing at Blizzard HQ a few weeks ago where numerous fansites and press members were invited under a strict NDA (non-disclosure agreement) to basically play Starcraft 2 a lot. The NDA has been lifted and a lot of the information is being published.

This one comes from Starcraft2.net/pl and here is the English translation:

1. Dustin said on BlizzCast #8 that the Banshee is a very powerful air-ground unit vs. ground defenses. What are the chances of Banshees against ground units? For example is it equal 5 Banshees against 5 Stalkers or the Banshees have to run if they notice Stalkers.
Yes, the Banshee can be a very strong anti-ground air unit but it is definitely not unstoppable. For example, Marines and Thors can be great ground counter units for Terran and Hydralisks for Zerg are also good. And just like the example in the question, Stalkers with blink ability and High Templars with psionic storm can be counter Banshees as well.

2.Zerg can move and regenerate faster on creep. Terrans have medivac, the mechanical units can be fixed by SCV. Do you think that is a good idea for Protoss to regenerate shields faster when they are near pylons?
Protoss currently has the Shield Battery ability on the Obelisk, which recharges the shield of the target friendly unit or area. This is an active ability that drains energy from the obelisk, but is a similar concept to the one suggested.

3. Do you have any plans for Infested Protoss? If yes, what sort/kind of unit will it be?
Based on the lore, the Protoss do not become infested. The combination of the two result in a hybrid race.

4. Question is about replays. Do you plan to create a feature to see what that player saw during the battle? It’s like if I was behind him while he was playing and I was watching his screen.
There are more advanced functions and options implemented in the current replay system. If you select a certain player in the replay, you can opt to see that player’s camera while he or she is controlling units, buildings, and spending resources. Additionally, you can select the options for all players’ Units, Army, Spending, Production, and APM status to view all statuses simultaneously in a replay.

5. What will happen when we double push a hotkey of a group of buildings? (4 lairs for example at one hotkey) Our screen will move to the first lair in a group? Or to set point of all or maybe to the point where everything crosses? (Point of gravity)
When you designate multiple units or structures as a group and the units or structures are spread out in different places, selecting the group by double pressing the hotkey, your screen will go directly to the place that you have the largest amount of consolidated units or structures first. If you have the same amount of units or structures on different positions of the map, your screen will go to the closest one to your current location.

6. What is the status of a nuke? Range, cast time, power etc. And sub-question: will the air be contaminated for some time (10-20 seconds) and affects the units after the blast?
You can arm a silo with a Nuke at the Ghost Academy and it will take 60 seconds. Upon completion, a Ghost can call down a nuclear strike at a target location dealing up to 300 (+200 structures) damage to enemies in a large radius. There will be a period between the casting of the Nuke until the Nuke actually hits its target, in which the Ghost must stay alive. There will be no contamination for the ground or the air after the blast.

7. Several SCVs can repair buildings together. So why can’t they work together to build a new one? Sub-question: Does SCV have an ability (or is it planned) “Patrol and repair?”
In order to keep the game balanced, SCVs aren’t able to build structures together. SCVs can repair the damaged structure or mechanical units together, while also costing more resources. However, the SCV does have an auto-casting repair ability, so when you give a command to a SCV to patrol while auto repairing is activated, the assigned SCV will repair the structures or mechanical units around it automatically and will continue their patrol.

8. Question about Protoss drop. We can see that Protoss players often do reaver drops. Now when we don’t have this unit, we can drop Dark Templars, because Colossus are too weak for killing drones/SCVs/Probes (it’s a conclusion after watching many battle videos.) Is there any alternative tactic of drops by Protoss, or this element of a Protoss game was excluded.
Colossus is as great of a worker killer as the Reaver in the original StarCraft. The Colossus has 2 attacks with 23 damage each and gives splash damage, so it can kill drones and probes with a single shot and SCVs with two shots. If the Protoss player is trying to harass the enemy’s economy by killing workers, dropping Colossi from the Warp Prism right next to their base is a possible option, while Dark Templars can also be very devastating as well.

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