Starcraft Rules!

My name is Derek and I'm a computer gamer. Yes, I'll admit I typically spend around 10 hours a week, usually late at night, running around a virtual world eliminating the enemy. What probably makes me different than most computer gamers, however, is the limited number of games I actually play. I rarely play, for example, single player adventures. I load the game and go directly to online multiplayer mode. I also don't play any old game that comes around. I've never played Doom, Half-Life, Diablo, or Quake. When it comes to the Star Wars universe, I've played just about everything: Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy, and Battlefronts stand out as my favorites (multiplayer, of course).

Despite my obession with virtual Star Wars reality, there's one game on which I've logged more hours than all other games combined: Starcraft. Years ago--we're talking the summer of 1998, I think--I was at the top of my game. My gaming partner and I, he always played Terran and I always played Protoss, competed in tournaments and managed to do quite well. Over time, the game lost some of its luster and eventually found its way to my Computer Software box.

This week, I dusted off Starcraft/Starcraft: Broodwars and gave it another play. You know something, this game is still damn fun to play! While I've been retuning my skills against the computer (I'm dreadfully slow), I know it's only a matter of time before I venture back to the Battlenet realm. There's nothing quite as satisfying as watching legions of fully upgraded zealots and dragoons march across Big Game Hunter, annihilating opposing Terran, Zerg, and Protoss forces. I've never been one to worry about the more technologically advanced units in the upper branches of the tech tree. Keep it simple, maintain an advantage in numbers, and overwhelm the enemy. A lightning reaver strike on the enemy's supply lines can prove devastating: no crystals or gas equals no new units. A strike behind enemy lines also proves effective for drawing forces away from perimeter defenses.

Tactics aside, the games still plays suprisingly well. Even after all these years, the biologically oriented Zerg still creep me out a little. Yuck.