Mobile Computing News

Photo: jontintinjordan

27 July is a little over two weeks away, and an entire generation of PC gamers are salivating at the mouth. More so, an entire nation, South Korea, is preparing to come to a stand still. StarCraft II is available for pre-order and it’s safe to assume PC gaming as we know it will come to a dramatic halt.

What is it?

In case you’re either really young, or you’ve been living under a rock, StarCraft is a Blizzard developed RTS game that rose to prominence in the late 90s. And while its popularity waned in the West as time passed, it only gained more and more traction in South Korea where it is a national sport televised on prime time TV. And the best in the nation at that game are considered celebrities. You read that right – a video game as a sport and a gamer as a celeb, it’s that big of a deal.

The basic idea, which pretty much cemented the motif for all real time strategy games, is you have to manage your base and resources so that you have a strong enough attack force to overwhelm your enemies. Naturally, your enemy, whether she be human or controlled by the computer, is rather opposed to being overwhelmed and needs to build along a similar strategy to avoid getting beat. And that is the general dynamic behind this game.

Setting and release schedule

Starcraft II has three character classes from its first game returning, in its classic rock-paper-scissors balancing act. Human exiles from earth known as the Terrans, the Zerg and the Protoss, with Zerg being a bunch of insectoids and the Protos, a psionic powered species.

The release has been divided into three games, with this first one subtitled StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, and the next two scheduled to be subtitled Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. Each title will focus on a specific race, starting with the Terran, Zerg and Protoss respectively.

This is a very friendly reminder to pre-order as soon as possible if you don’t want to be left out of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty circle of love. If watching competitive South Koreans has taught us anything, you need as much practice as possible if you even want to stand a chance.

Look out for our review closer to the 27 July 2010 release date. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is being developed for Mac OS X and PC simultaneously.