If you are new to Starcraft, or new to Real Time Strategy games in general, then you really need to start out on either Casual or Normal difficulty. As a die-hard Starcraft veteran who also played Warcraft 3, Company of Heroes and Dawn of War, Hard difficulty was, well, Hard.

Following on the footsteps of Blizzard’s (and the entire worlds’) highest grossing game of all time, World of Warcraft, there are achievements in Starcraft 2 for everything. And now, there are no single player ‘cheats’ you can use to get the achievement since you have to log into Battle.net for the achievements to count.

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td><img src="" /><td></tr><tr><td><td></tr></table>Because of the achievements, the Starcraft 2 campaign will have a lot of replay value for a lot of people. On top of the missions being extremely unique, there are achievements for doing ‘bonus’ objectives on certain difficulties. These achievements also reward the player with portraits they can use on their online Battle.net profiles and are a great way to show off your gaming prowess to your friends.

The story is epic, but the end is such a cliffhanger that you may not feel satisfied by it. That’s probably what Blizzard wants because they want you to purchase the two upcoming expansions featuring the Zerg and Protoss campaigns. I’m not going to tell you the ending, so if that’s what you’re looking for, go play the game!

Because it does a great job combining RPG and RTS elements, has very deep tactical and character choices for the player to make, excels at making each mission unique and memorable, and has a ton of achievements to keep players coming back, the Starcraft 2 campaign is a great leap forward for the single player experience with Real Time Strategy, or any other kind of game.

Another groundbreaking feature in the Starcraft 2 campaign is the ability for you to upgrade units and buildings and even choose different research paths to augment your forces and increase the tactical depth of the game.

The campaign is mainly controlled from Raynor’s flagship, the Hyperion. On the ship, you can talk to other characters on the Bridge, visit the cantina to pound a few brews, purchase mercenary contracts or even play a mini Galaga-style arcade game, go to the Laboratory to choose your next path of either Protoss or Terran research, or go to the Armory and purchase powerful upgrades for your units.

This brings a level of choice to the game. On a single play through, you will not be able to afford all of the mercenaries and all of the upgrades. You will have to choose which units you like to use the most and upgrade only those. This makes the units you build on a mission that much more strategic. Should you go with upgraded Vikings or non-upgraded Goliaths to deal with enemy air? This makes the choice that much more significant, and that much more appealing for gamers.

There are also a few missions in the campaign that force you to choose what to do. This will have an effect on how the stories of certain characters end up. Blizzard has also hinted that the choices you make in this campaign may have effects in the upcoming ones. Since what paths you chose Mercenaries are a different avenue a commander may take. Mercenaries are basically “super” versions of normal units that are available for an increased cost and in limited amounts. They could, however mean the difference between success or failure on a mission.

More on the Starcraft 2 Campaign in Part 3.

The Starcraft 2 campaign is the greatest campaign ever for a Real Time Strategy game. Game maker Blizzard Entertainment delivers a top-notch RTS experience combined with compelling characters and a storyline that makes you feel almost as if you’re playing an role playing game.

The story follows rebel leader Jim Raynor, who was a hero who helped save the universe in the original Starcraft, but has been painted as a terrorist by the diabolical Arcturus Mengsk, the dictator of the “Terran Dominion”, which began as a rebel movement against the galaxy’s former corrupt government, the Confedaracy. The Dominion under Mengsk’s rule turned out to be just as, if not even more, corrupt than the Confederacy, which is why Raynor quit following Mengsk and why Mengsk uses the controlled media to mar Raynor’s reputation.

In the beginning of the campaign, you find Raynor at a small bar on a fringe world and fallen on hard times. He is confronted by his old partner in crime Tychus Findley, and it’s not really clear whether Raynor can trust him or not.
The campaign is designed beautifully with compelling cut scenes featuring the best digital animation created to date. The story unfolds through a twisting mire of unique missions that challenge the player to do something new in each one, often adding a new unit to command in the process.

For example, in one mission your objective may be to harvest a special type of gas from a planet while evil and overzealous Protoss are trying to seal the geysers forever. Another mission tasks the player with stopping Dominion trains before they reach their destination, and in yet another the player takes control of a single unit that fights alongside friendly computer-controlled forces to assault a massive enemy base.

These are not your run of the mill RTS missions. Perhaps the single best thing the Starcraft 2 campaign accomplishes is making every mission unique.

(part 2 …)

Nintendo’s American president stopped by to show off the new Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii and in the process confirmed a 2011 release date for Nintendo 3DS.

The sequel to the 1998 hit “Starcraft” once again pits three races against one other: Terrans, the Zerg, and the Protoss. It’ll offer a single-player game as well as a revamped Battle.net matchmaking system. The original game shipped more than 11 million copies, including one expansion, “Brood War.”

StarCraft II will run on a vibrant new 3D-graphics engine capable of rendering beautiful landscapes as well as massive army sizes. The speed, responsiveness, and epic-scale battles that made the original StarCraft such a memorable game are all realized in 3D with this brand-new engine.

Screenshots and video can be found on the Starcraft 2 Web site.

The publisher also released a new trailer on the game’s official website. The brief video introduces a U.S. Army Ranger, presumably stationed in Afghanistan, who’s trying to contact his family overseas before a mission. An EA account is required to view the new footage, so be sure to log in if you’re interested in an early look at the game.

More details at Blogsdna.

Jill Valentine (Resident Evil), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), or Rubi Malone (WET).

78% of male gamers that were asked the question said, Yes, I am attracted to the female character in a game.

The winner from the 3 finalists was Rubi, followed by Jill in 2nd place. Lara was 3rd.

What about female gamers?

They chose Nathan Drake from Uncharted, followed by Prince of Persia, and Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil.

To view the entire article (which lists top 10 in each of the 2 categories), visit this press release.

Following up to the fan favorite release of FFVII and FFVIII, PS3 and PSP owners will have a new and exciting opportunity to immerse themselves, once again, into the world of Final Fantasy.

Considered by many gamers to be a must-play title (in other words, one of the best FF versions) for any RPG fan, FFIX will soon to be available for North American fans via the PlayStation Network. If you missed Final Fantasy IX during the early PlayStation era, or are dreaming of reliving the time-tested FFIX adventure, your chance is coming soon.

Nintendo blamed the weaker financial performance on several factors, including a recent price drop on the Wii, fewer strong Wii titles, appreciation of the yen, and poor global sales.

Demand for the Wii was down in the first part of the fiscal year due to slower consumer spending during the recession. But the company said sales of the game console did rebound over the holiday-shopping season. For the full fiscal year, Nintendo sold 20.5 million Wii consoles compared with 26 million the previous year.

(full story at CNET)