Press B 308: StarCraft I & II

Today, we look back at what is surely Blizzard's forgotten franchise: StarCraft. From the Queen of Blades to Raynor's Raiders, we talk about the legendary real-time strategy classic and wonder why it doesn't get the love, and Zerg hugs, it may deserves.

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00:00 --> 00:29 Uh, guys, she lost her hair, her humanity, and any chance of a peaceful existence, just like us. Today on— Crash Bandicoot Show.
00:29 --> 00:31 God, I hope my connection holds up.
00:31 --> 00:35 Don't time out on your— over the intro.
00:35 --> 00:37 Yeah, don't buffer over the info there, Chard.
00:37 --> 00:39 He did, he did time out over the intro.
00:39 --> 00:41 Literally as we go live.
00:42 --> 00:43 Oh no.
00:43 --> 00:44 Well, is he done?
00:44 --> 00:48 I'm gonna roll, I'm gonna roll with it. Oh, here we go.
00:48 --> 00:49 Okay, we'll fix that in post.
00:49 --> 00:52 Yeah, we'll fix it. Well, no, we won't.
00:52 --> 00:53 Okay, we're fine.
00:53 --> 01:10 All right. Okay, well, welcome everyone to another episode of Press B to Cancel, your favorite podcast. Today, retro. I'm your host, Sinistar. Uh, I'm not alone though. I'm joined with 2 of my favorite people. Chard, how are you?
01:10 --> 01:17 I'm disconnecting, but I'm here. I survived. I survived the great disconnecting. It's okay.
01:17 --> 01:20 All right. And, uh, Jake, how are you?
01:21 --> 01:26 Oh, you know, it's, it's been a week, but I'm glad to be here and glad to talk about a really iconic franchise.
01:26 --> 01:46 Yes, for sure. So for those that may not have gotten the cryptic, uh, uh, one-liner, it was about a little unknown character named Kerrigan from a little unknown game called StarCraft.
01:46 --> 01:46 Amy Kerrigan.
01:47 --> 01:50 Yes. Yeah. So not Nancy Kerrigan.
01:51 --> 01:51 No, Nancy Kerrigan.
01:55 --> 01:57 Is that the one that fell down the lead pipe or the one who did?
01:58 --> 02:00 I think she was the one that got piped.
02:01 --> 02:03 Okay. Definitely not our Kerrigan.
02:05 --> 02:23 All right. So we're talking StarCraft. We're talking all things StarCraft, which all 3 of us have experience with. Um, it is retro. I wanted to bring up that it was released in 1998. So it is old enough to drink and then some.
02:23 --> 02:25 It was a high school favorite of mine.
02:26 --> 02:55 So yeah. Yeah. So, uh, it's a, for those that don't know, for those that have been hiding in a box, uh, this is a real-time strategy. Uh, it is based on the, um, Warcraft 2 engine, but modified. Uh, of course Warcraft 2 was an amazing RTS as well. But this, to me, this kind of took it to the next tier, the next level. Uh, we'll talk the story in a little bit, but what do you guys have to say? Jake?
02:55 --> 03:28 So when I got a computer late in life, I think I was, uh, I might've been 17, I think when I first got my first PC and I got it from a friend of mine, I bought his old PC and As the style was at the time, I just said, just give me your PC as it is now. Don't worry about it. Just leave the games installed for me, which was something we would never do nowadays. But anyway, uh, he had StarCraft installed on it and I did get a chance to play StarCraft, uh, on my old computer, but then I had a hard drive issue and I had to replace that 500 megabyte. Yes. Megabyte hard drive. And I lost it.
03:28 --> 03:29 That was huge back then, man.
03:29 --> 04:10 It was. Yeah, it was. Yeah. So I, I only got a chance to play a little bit. All I remember mostly from originally playing it was the intro. Right. This is, this is another example of Blizzard used to nail the cinematics and their presentation. And as much as I loved Warcraft II, when it came to the presentation and the style, StarCraft was it, right? Like they really went places with the style, the whole sci-fi setting, the Marines and just the, the Zerg, like the whole style of it was just iconic. So I didn't play a whole lot of it originally. I did later play a port of it on the N64. I rented it and I can talk about that later on. So I have a little bit of experience with the first game. But, uh, it's more of the second that I'm more familiar with.
04:10 --> 04:14 Nice. Chard, how about you? How about some recollections?
04:14 --> 05:01 This was a first day purchase for me. I was a big Warcraft 2 fan, uh, when that came out and I was like, oh bro, they're putting this shit in space. Oh my God. Let's go. Like watching the Marines march around and then you get to, you get to play as all 3 races. So you had the 3 different races to play as, as opposed to just orcs and humans. You get a third race that was in there. You get to play like, you could be the enemy or you could be like this weird alien race that's running around. And then the Terrans, you could be the humans and stuff. And then you could just kind of pick and choose. And I really dug that, you know, it wasn't just a reskinning of a different race with the same kind of characteristics. There were certain aspects to each race to expand or to work on that you had to work around, like the pylons or the creep.
05:01 --> 05:01 Yeah.
05:01 --> 05:18 All that other stuff. I thought that was really fucking cool. And as we, we go deeper into the story, I'll tell you more stories of my— a buddy of mine growing up and I, we were like, we were the terrors that played this online. And we were really, really good for a long time.
05:18 --> 05:19 So nice.
05:20 --> 05:25 I don't have any awards or anything. But I'll tell you, we had a lot of people rage quit when he and I were playing together.
05:25 --> 05:37 So. I, I played this game so much back in the day. And this was back in the day of like dial-up modems and the internet. Right. I mean, this is— Yeah.
05:37 --> 05:39 And we're flying.
05:39 --> 06:31 I played this so much that I, I dreamt strategies. I would wake up and I would have a strategy in my head. I would be playing the game in my dreams. And yeah. So this, I'm with you, Warcraft. I mean, it was orcs and humans, like it literally was in the name. Right. And now we've got 3 races. Holy crap. And one of the things that Blizzard for sure did, at least during this era, was absolutely, almost effectively perfection-level balancing. There was always a way to defeat a strategy that another team could come up with. There was always a, you know, okay, well, they've come in with siege tanks. Well, now I need to bring in flyers. Oh, they've got Marines. Well, now I need to bring in a Ghost or whatever and shoot from the sidelines, you know, et cetera. Right.
06:31 --> 06:32 Yeah. The facility.
06:32 --> 06:39 Yeah. I mean, yeah. And of course the super weapons, right? The super weapons. So, yeah.
06:39 --> 06:57 And like how, how hard that is to do, right? When it's like, uh, 3 races and they're all asymmetrical, right? They're completely different. Like Chard was saying is like, and I didn't quite realize that, but the orcs and humans, I think maybe one unit was different between the 2. Otherwise it was just appearance. It was just cosmetic. But StarCraft was such a, such a different game.
06:58 --> 07:19 Yeah, there was like the bombers and the sappers and there was the whatever, you know, and they were essentially the, I mean, yeah, they were, they were pretty well a reskin, right? With, with different, I mean, obviously one of the other things about Blizzard with these RTSs is every single, every single, uh, uh, unit had a great voice entry, right? Yeah. Yeah.
07:20 --> 07:20 Good to go.
07:20 --> 07:21 Yeah.
07:21 --> 07:21 Yeah.
07:22 --> 07:24 In the pipe, 5 by 5, you know?
07:24 --> 07:24 Yeah. Yeah.
07:25 --> 07:25 Yeah.
07:25 --> 07:32 Yeah. And like so many different lines, it wasn't just one or two lines. Every character had multiple lines and you could just sit there and click on them.
07:32 --> 07:33 Right.
07:33 --> 07:48 That's, that's the thing about the N64 version that I played was they took, they took all that out. I think every unit had one line and otherwise it was cut out. Even the intro, they had a shorter intro movie and then it was slideshows for the rest of the cinematics for the rest of the game. Right.
07:48 --> 07:49 'Cause yeah.
07:49 --> 07:55 N64 things. You missed so much. 'Cause so much of the charm is really, is really on the PC with that audio.
07:56 --> 08:23 Even, even if you kept clicking, like they would give you like annoyed, like quips, you know, if you kept bothering them, they'd say something like, would you stop? Like, like move me or whatever. It's, it was, it was great. They really did some really deep thought into this particular RTS. And I, I love like Rise of Nations. And I'm, there's a couple other RTSs out there that I'm pretty good with. But to me, to me, StarCraft was like pinnacle. This was like peak.
08:23 --> 08:23 Yeah.
08:23 --> 08:39 RTS for me. And there wasn't much that could really, really tackle this. And I mean, we had StarCraft 1 for years before we even had a chance to play StarCraft. Literal years, like 2010, I think.
08:39 --> 08:57 I think it was a little earlier than that. Let's see. 2000. Oh, that's— sorry, my mind palace is in the wrong place. I had the wrong thing. No. So the, the games came out and, um, where's my timeline? Sorry, folks.
08:57 --> 09:00 Well, 'cause it was the original and then it was Brood War, right? So there's, there's—
09:00 --> 09:01 Yeah. They had the DLC.
09:01 --> 09:03 Oh, you're, you're right.
09:03 --> 09:11 2002. I know it was. For StarCraft 2. Because I had just started dating my wife when that came out and we went out and picked it up at a midnight release. Okay.
09:11 --> 09:12 Yeah. Okay.
09:12 --> 09:16 That's a long fricking time to wait for StarCraft 2 to come out.
09:16 --> 09:16 Yeah.
09:16 --> 09:39 Well, To be fair though, I mean, I, I really feel like, and, and when I play, I still play this to this day. I played, I played StarCraft a week and a half ago. And really when they came out with the first expansion, we'll get to the story in a minute here, but when they came out with Brood War, that was, I mean, I, I argue it's the perfect RTS.
09:39 --> 09:39 I can see it.
09:39 --> 09:44 You know, like just the additional units and the balancing that they did was just flawless.
09:45 --> 09:45 Right. Right.
09:46 --> 09:46 Yeah.
09:46 --> 10:23 So, well, I mean, it's so perfect. It spawned an entire industry in Korea, right? Esports was huge down there. I doubt they play StarCraft these days. It's probably League of Legends, but I mean, there's a good 15, maybe 20 years. I think it was all StarCraft down there. And a large chunk of that was Brood War because of how balanced that was, right? Like it to balance, to do a patch to StarCraft was, was you had to be very cautious what you're changing because it had a wider impact than just average players playing a game, right? Like the esports aspect of it was huge. That game was one of the original esports, right? It was like that and Counter-Strike, really.
10:23 --> 10:36 Yep. Right. But I mean, the quality of life changes on that are like massive, but we were getting, I mean, in 2000, in 1998, we were getting games fully released. Like we're not getting this hokum crap that we're getting right now.
10:36 --> 10:36 No.
10:36 --> 10:46 That's like, yeah, playtest it for a bit and we'll fix it as you play it. And you're like, No, when you first fired that thing up, you got some good stuff and it was, it was good start to finish.
10:46 --> 10:54 And that DLC came on a CD, right? Like a pressed CD. There was no downloading this. This was on a pressed CD.
10:54 --> 11:06 So yeah, this was not DLC. This is back when we used to have expansions, like proper expansions, like meaty. Yes, more expensive, but gameplay mechanics, story, like 8 hours extra content.
11:07 --> 11:44 Yeah. Yeah. So real quick, let's go, let's talk story. Because my opening one-liner was based, was a pretty direct reference to a character named Kerrigan. So the simple bullet-pointed story, I took notes today. I did research, guys. Millennia ago or millennia, yeah, millennia ago, an ancient species called the Xel'Naga engineered 2 races, the Protoss and the Zerg, which are 2 of the races that are in the game. But then they were essentially largely wiped out by their own creation, primarily the Zerg.
11:44 --> 11:45 Shocker.
11:45 --> 12:00 Um, yeah, so basically, and then centuries before the game begins, uh, Earth's United Earth Directorate tries to solve overpopulation and launches colonists into space.
12:00 --> 12:01 Like you do.
12:01 --> 12:50 Computer malfunctions, strands them light-years from home. So they're cut off from Earth. They end up in what is essentially Protoss space, and the Protoss kind of try to hide, but then the Zerg basically are like, hey, we want to assimilate these because we see psionic potential. So, um, basically the story starts, the campaign starts, and the Zerg are now going after the Terrans. And, um, and, and, and then, uh, you have within— and this, this was something, 'cause I watched the cutscenes today as well. I didn't realize this 'cause I haven't played the campaign in so long. This is almost a direct allegory to like the Confederate United States.
12:50 --> 12:50 Yeah.
12:51 --> 12:54 Like it is a direct— like they even use Confederate flags at points in the— Yeah.
12:54 --> 13:02 It's the Terran Confederacy. Like it's, it's definitely, and there's like, Yeah. Jim Raynor has a Southern accent, if I recall correctly. Like, they lean into it. Yeah.
13:02 --> 13:03 Uh-huh.
13:03 --> 13:04 Yeah. Yeah.
13:05 --> 13:12 So, and then there's of course a terrorist faction, um, uh, who basically is trying to take over Mengst?
13:12 --> 13:13 Mengst.
13:13 --> 13:14 Mencht? I—
13:14 --> 13:15 yeah. Mengst, I think.
13:15 --> 13:44 Um, yeah. And so he actually attracts the Zerg to the capital city And lets the Zerg kind of take it over. And then he abandons the people that are involved, including this character, Sarah Kerrigan. And so she gets captured and she kind of disappears. And that's the end of the Terran side of the missions. And then you start on the Zerg side.
13:44 --> 13:44 Right, right.
13:44 --> 13:54 The Zerg campaign. And all of a sudden you've got this thing that's incubating and this mother, you know, this mother, not Mother Brain, but oh, Zerg Overmind.
13:54 --> 13:54 Overmind.
13:54 --> 13:55 Overmind, yeah.
13:57 --> 14:19 And it's, you know, kind of talking. It's like, hey, I need you. It's talking to this thing that's incubating and you kind of get these missions to go and learn the Zerg. And it turns out that the thing that's incubating is Kerrigan, who's been morphed into a human-Zerg hybrid and now known as the Queen of Blades.
14:19 --> 14:20 Yep.
14:20 --> 14:23 So, um, she, uh— She's badass.
14:23 --> 14:23 Yeah.
14:23 --> 14:24 Oh yeah.
14:24 --> 14:33 And for those who are looking at the thumbnail or on the artwork of today, today's episode, you'll see that the Queen of Blades is prominently on the thumbnail. All hail the Necroqueen, you know.
14:33 --> 15:27 Yes. Uh, anyway, so she, she basically, um, she deceives the Protoss because the Zerg and Protoss have kind of always been at a head since, uh, since they were created. And, um, she allies now with Mengsk and, and Raynor. Raynor's this guy that has the southern accent. He's pissed at the Confederate because they left everybody to be captured by the Zerg. And she basically, she has this battle that brings in the Protoss, and then she turns on those allies and allows the Zerg swarm to— she gets control of the Zerg swarm. Basically, she has a coup against the Overmind.
15:27 --> 15:27 Yeah.
15:28 --> 16:13 And, um, and, and so she becomes the dominant power in the sector. And then you get this double agent, Samir Duran, who comes in and says, hey, I work for a far greater power, and basically says that there's a pro-Zerg hybrid. And that's actually kind of where the campaigns, the campaigns end. So that's actually where, like, StarCraft 1 ends. So kind of left the story open for StarCraft 2. Now I don't, I have never played the campaign of StarCraft 2. I have played the multiplayer a lot and I love the multiplayer, but I have not played the campaign. I think, I think Jake, you, you mentioned that you—
16:13 --> 16:52 Yeah. I mean, I, for me, these games are, it was more of the story. Like even going back to World of Warcraft 3, right. Which again, I, I'm not a huge fan of RTS games, but I played it that game so much because of the story and the cutscenes and the cinematics. And it was much the same with Wings of Liberty. Like when I seen the, I saw the trailers of that game and I saw the hype my friends had for the original, which I'd played a little bit, but not, not as much as they had. And then I saw the trailers and the, and the opening to the campaign. I'm like, I was hooked. Right? Like the story in this game is so great. Um, like, was this before, this is after Warhammer, right? Like they took inspiration from Warhammer 40K.
16:52 --> 16:53 Warhammer is Pretty old.
16:53 --> 16:53 Yeah.
16:54 --> 16:55 I mean, Warhammer's old. Yeah.
16:55 --> 17:15 Warhammer's old. They must've, because like the idea of like the Space Marine when the guy's getting fitted with the armor and it's like his prison, he's in, but there's just that, that and seeing Space Marines in Warhammer. I know they're different universes, but seeing that it felt lifted, but it was really iconic to see him in that trailer getting outfitted in the armor and then to see Kerrigan in the trailers is badass. Right? Like it's—
17:15 --> 17:15 Yeah.
17:15 --> 17:34 Like that was worth it. And then, so I down— I did, I did buy it. And I didn't beat the campaign, but I played a good chunk of it. And the story is what kept me going the longest. Um, the reason I don't finish the game is much like the other games like Warcraft is, uh, the defense missions where you have to stay alive for 30 minutes.
17:34 --> 17:34 Yeah.
17:34 --> 17:55 That mission alone is what makes me bounce off these games, right? This might honestly be a Sisyphean game for me because I'd love to go back and play StarCraft II and all the expansions and see what the story was. I missed out on all that. But the defense missions, we're hanging on for 30 minutes and it's the last 5 fucking minutes where they just throw everything at you. And that's where I crumble.
17:55 --> 17:56 Yep.
17:56 --> 17:56 Right.
17:56 --> 18:06 And that's what messes me up because I like these games, but I'm terrible at them. I was more of an Age of Empires kid. Right. So to play this, it was, it was very difficult, but, but yeah, that opening sequence and opening story was pretty iconic.
18:06 --> 18:42 Yeah. Yeah. So, um, and if I remember right, I, when I was doing my research today, I think that, I think that the Blizzard movie division, not, not movies as far as like, right. I mean, obviously they did the Warcraft movie, but I'm talking like the cinematics were kind of born for this. And then of course Diablo has its epic cinematics as well. But yeah, so like, and I love it because it's kind of those early like rendered, like the characters are a little bubbly looking a little bit.
18:42 --> 18:43 A little bit squat.
18:43 --> 19:05 Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. And the, and the mouths don't move right. And, you know, but I love that. I love that intro where like, you know, the Marines killing off the Zerg and then he sees the guy that's just sitting there and he looks over and he's like, what's going on? And the guy just points up and there's the battlecruiser, you know? And it's like, oh, so epic.
19:05 --> 19:17 So, yeah. So I know you played a lot of, you played a lot of both, right? You may have not done the campaign for the second game, but you played, you played the gameplay. I don't remember much of the gameplay of the first game. How different was it in the sequel?
19:17 --> 19:53 So, um, I mean, obviously there are a few, um, unit differences, but for me it was really there were some quality of life differences added in StarCraft II. Uh, things like, um, uh, when you summon a worker in the case of like the Terrans, the SCV, or in the case of the Protoss, the probe or whatever, it'll just automatically start working. It'll like, oh, I'm close to the minerals and I'll just start doing it. Where StarCraft 1, you have to do that manually.
19:53 --> 19:53 Right.
19:53 --> 20:29 Right. They added a quality of life that says like the amount of units that are idle and you can go click on your idle, you know, click on it and see what units are idle. Um, uh, so I mean, it really was the quality of life things. They changed some of the, Um, the, the, uh, unit limitations, like on quantity, et cetera. Um, but I mean, it's largely the same. Um, I think there might be a couple extra units that I, I kind of never play with because I'm like, hey, I'm just going to play StarCraft II StarCraft I style.
20:29 --> 20:29 Right.
20:30 --> 20:34 You know, bring the, bring the same strategy with you to the new game. Yeah.
20:34 --> 20:35 Yeah.
20:35 --> 20:39 It works. Spin up your Protoss and go do blimp death, right?
20:39 --> 20:40 Let's go.
20:40 --> 20:41 Yeah. Right.
20:41 --> 21:01 Well, the thing with StarCraft 2 especially was there was so much gameplay. You didn't even need to touch the campaign, right? This is the game that had, um, really great modding support kind of built in. I guess they call them custom games. And that, that custom game systems is something they had in Warcraft 3. And that's why we have Dota, right? It came from custom games in Warcraft 3.
21:01 --> 21:01 Yeah.
21:01 --> 21:32 Although I didn't get really anything similar in StarCraft 2. You could go on any, any other week when it was, when it was new and just hop on. And there was somebody had tinkered with settings and changed and made a complete radical game type, uh, every other week. Like there's always something new to check out in custom games. And I did a lot of that. I messed around a lot of that, a lot with that. I used to play around with the map editor quite a bit. Like I, it was definitely a game that was fun to tinker and play with if you didn't necessarily want to do the campaign too. So lots to do, lots of game in that. And then it got 3 expansions, no, 2 expansions, which is—
21:32 --> 21:34 Yeah. Well, I think it's the original and 2 expansions.
21:34 --> 21:36 2 expansions, yeah.
21:37 --> 22:16 Well, so going back really quick to StarCraft 1, and this continued across to StarCraft 2, uh, also the map editor. Like, and that was one of the things that my, my family and I did, my friends and I did, were, oh, we got tired of playing Big Game Hunters map with, uh, with 8 people. Let's go make a map, right? Like, I'm tired of chasing resources. Let's just make the turtle map so we can just turtle like mad, right? Yeah. Um, and so, yeah, I mean, and the, and they continued that. Um, oh, I do remember in StarCraft II, another difference, and I actually love this difference, is the terrain height differences.
22:16 --> 22:19 That's right. Yes. And it matters too.
22:19 --> 22:45 Yeah. Yeah, it does. It does. Like, I love the fact that like you put siege tanks up on the higher ground and they can like bombard and stuff like that. Right. So yeah, I, I absolutely love that. Um, the, the, the issue that I kind of run into with StarCraft II is they did kind of make it part of that, that concept of like clicks per second or clicks per minute or whatever.
22:45 --> 22:47 Oh, APM, actions per minute. Yeah.
22:48 --> 22:54 Actions per minute. And it's like, you get behind if you're not the guy that rules actions per minute.
22:54 --> 22:54 Right.
22:54 --> 22:59 And so, yeah. And I'm old. I don't, I can't click that fast.
22:59 --> 23:25 Well, it's, it's, I'm glad you mentioned that because that's my thing too. I was never fast at these games. Uh, it was definitely a game where if you learned the, the hotkeys for each unit type and the building type, that was, that was key. And I never learned the shortcuts. And I think that's why I was, I was never that great at these, like to see my friend who could send over like an early, uh, an early attack within like 5, like not even 5 minutes, 2 minutes, he's sending units at me.
23:25 --> 23:25 Yeah.
23:26 --> 23:54 When I'm barely still mining, right? I'm still building workers and he's sending over Marines to take my ass out. I would never grasp that concept of it. Uh, but now I try and play it today. And the issue I have now is the other side. My other hand now, the mouse hand is my hands. I have hand inflammation all the time. So like trying to use the mouse for these games hurts. And I installed StarCraft 2 for this episode just the other day to test that again. And within 5 minutes my finger was cramping and I'm like, yep, not going to happen. I wish there was controller support.
23:54 --> 23:54 Yeah.
23:54 --> 24:10 Because there are other games these days that have controller support for this kind of game. So it's a game that I think if I could run it on the Steam Deck, because that has excellent trackpads for the thumbs, I might play it more. But for me to use this with a mouse today is not happening.
24:10 --> 24:33 Yeah. Yeah. So the whole actions per minute thing like that. So there's a reason I think that I still play StarCraft 1. Uh, more than I play StarCraft II. The other reason is, and we haven't talked about this yet, in, um, 2015 or something like that, they did, they did a remaster and it's—
24:33 --> 24:33 2017.
24:33 --> 25:03 A, it's one of those, okay. It's one of those awesome remasters where you can, you can switch your graphics like live. You can see the old and the new, just like they did with Diablo II remaster. Right. And Um, and they did all the voice recording. They re-recorded the voice, which is cool. They, you know, um, and so it, they didn't break the game. They just made it look better and, and, you know, play on modern hardware. So yeah. Yep.
25:04 --> 25:04 Okay.
25:05 --> 25:15 Now, now you brought up in our, in our chat on Discord, in our, in our production chat, and I, I've seen this and I kind of, I look at it every once in a while. I'm like, should I buy this?
25:16 --> 25:16 No.
25:16 --> 25:24 And it's StarCraft 2. cartooned. Like they literally like make, but it, I don't know. It's kind of cool sounding too. Yeah.
25:24 --> 26:00 I guess it came out in 2019 and it's like, uh, so it takes the graphics of StarCraft and rethemes everything, skins it as a, as it reminds me of Among Us characters, to be honest with you. Although this was before Among Us and, uh, it's neat, but I wonder if this is more of like a pilot, a test to see if people would buy these kinds of things. And if this was a way to maybe have a monetization of StarCraft afterwards and have Wraith skin packs, but they never did more than one. As far as I can tell, they only did this one. Uh, it's funny. I give it that. It's definitely interesting, but I wouldn't want to play a game looking like this. That would, that would drive me nuts.
26:00 --> 26:02 Hmm.
26:02 --> 26:14 So, so like, I don't want to, I don't want to hog the whole time here. Um, what, what, like, do you guys have strategies you remember? Do you have play styles that you remember? Do you have, you know, whatever?
26:15 --> 26:16 I see—
26:17 --> 26:46 oh, go ahead, Shard. Well, when my buddy and I played together, he was the attack front and I was the defense front. I was the turtle, he was the attacker. So I'd build all the walls, I'd build all the fucking turrets inside, I would fortify everything, I would upgrade all the buildings. When we played Terran campaign, and I always would like— I'd build an extra home base and I would fly it off. Because one of the cool features was that you could trans— you could move your buildings. You just uproot your shit and fly away.
26:46 --> 26:48 If you're Terran. Yes.
26:48 --> 27:10 Only if you're Terran. Yeah. That was one of the only Terran perks that was, that was pretty cool. So I'd, we'd, we'd get like a basis down and I'd get him an armory and a barracks and I'd just be like, all right, start producing your shit. And then I'd start doing all the stuff inside the town and, and people would start sending, you'd see battlecruisers like coming over the horizon, just getting absolutely annihilated by all of my turrets that I've set out for them.
27:10 --> 27:11 Yeah.
27:11 --> 27:35 Whilst we're building a secondary base up top, and I'm like, okay, Northwest, go up to the Northwest, you can start producing your shit up there. And I would just— I, like a virus, I would just spread throughout the map and imprint where I could, and he would just build all the attacking stuff, and we would just destroy everyone. We had a lot of fun. It was a little different doing the Protoss and the Terrans because obviously the Protoss have the Um, the crystals, the, the pylons.
27:35 --> 27:36 Yeah.
27:36 --> 27:52 And you can only build within the perimeter of the pylon, which was very difficult to make sure I didn't— ah, fuck, I put that in the wrong spot. Okay, we'll build around it. You know, in the creep, you had to— when you were Zerg, you had to wait for the creep to expand before you could move your stuff anywhere else.
27:52 --> 27:55 So you'd have to have your creep generators.
27:55 --> 28:23 Yeah. So it's such a— there was such a crazy— obviously Terran was way easier because you could just kind of do everything right out the gate. So we played a lot of Terran campaign, but I really liked playing the Zerg. But it was just a level of difficulty that I was not at the time, nor probably now have the patience because, you know me, guys, I'm not really a super patient person to expand at a smart pace. I'm just slapping shit down with the Terrans. It's like, I don't even need hotkeys. I know where everything needs to be.
28:23 --> 28:23 This—
28:23 --> 28:24 let's do this. So.
28:24 --> 28:49 You, you, you bring up something really interesting because there was a there was a mode where you could do team melee. It was one of the dropdowns. And what was cool is you would pick a teammate. And if you, if say you picked Terran and your teammate picked Protoss, you would get double the units and you could actually build on both, on both tech trees.
28:49 --> 28:51 Oh, that's pretty rad. Okay.
28:51 --> 29:01 Yeah. So we would do that. We would do that. We'd have one person like directing units and going and attacking and the other person's back in the base, building shit for them, you know? So yeah.
29:01 --> 29:13 For the Protoss, it was, they didn't build, they warped their units into the map or something, right? And they were slow to warp them in, I think, and less units on the map, but they're more powerful. That's what the idea was, right?
29:13 --> 29:14 Yeah.
29:14 --> 29:19 So there's a couple, there's a couple benefits because I'm a Protoss, is my race to play.
29:19 --> 29:19 Okay.
29:19 --> 29:41 Um, so the benefit is it warps in, which means your, your probe can actually go hit the warp and then go and start mining or doing something else. Like where with like the other ones, they have to, they have to build the thing. They have to sit there and work around it until it's— so you could, you could have like one probe go, go warp in 3 things all at once.
29:41 --> 29:42 Right.
29:42 --> 29:51 But it is slower to warp them in. Um, and yeah, the, the units are, are, the units are more powerful, but they're slower.
29:51 --> 29:51 Right.
29:51 --> 29:54 But I also love the fact that the Protoss have shields.
29:55 --> 29:55 Yeah. Right.
29:56 --> 30:10 So the Terrans, you can repair, you, you can actually repair your units or repair the buildings. The Zerg have a heal, like they can heal over time. The Protoss can't repair or heal over time, but they have shields that regenerate.
30:10 --> 30:10 Yeah.
30:12 --> 30:14 Yeah. So yeah, I think I remember.
30:14 --> 30:18 Once again, this is that balancing thing. Yeah. They did a really good job.
30:18 --> 30:36 And it's, it's Yeah. Like, it's interesting that like they change it over time a little bit. Like they actually did a patch for StarCraft II for the first time in a while, I think a year, just like a few weeks ago. And they're already radically changing things like reducing the energy costs or sorry, they, uh, what was it? The Ghost unit, which was the stealth unit, right?
30:36 --> 30:36 Oh yeah.
30:36 --> 30:44 So they made its supply increase from 2 to 3 and reduced the health, but they increased the damage, uh, and the range has increased.
30:44 --> 30:44 Wow.
30:45 --> 31:10 And then what'd they do? Oh, but they made, so they made it beefier and more expensive, but they kind of leaned into the idea of like the Ghost is a solitary unit for sniping and hiding. So they made it easier to have it camouflage. So like, it's, they're updating the game even now, which is pretty awesome to see them go back to. Um, like, I love that. But again, like doing something like the Terrans had their supplies reduced from 15 to 13. That's what it says in the patch notes, which like changes the game in terms of how many units you have on the map. Right. So.
31:10 --> 31:10 Yeah.
31:11 --> 31:31 I don't know. I really, I really struggled with the, the Zerg because there's too many units on the screen at once and they're also weaker. Like they died easier. Um, but for the Terrans, I always liked the Terrans and the Protoss. The Protoss were always really cool looking, but I think the Terrans, I'm with you, Chard. I loved how you could just lift your fucking base up and peace out. Like, I'm done.
31:31 --> 31:31 Yeah.
31:31 --> 31:32 I'm out of minerals.
31:32 --> 31:36 There's nothing more stressful than being like, a nuke has been launched and you're like, wait, what?
31:37 --> 31:39 What? Like, you're looking for the bomb.
31:40 --> 31:42 Like you're looking for the nuke thing. Yeah.
31:42 --> 31:43 The little red dot.
31:44 --> 31:50 Yeah. Uh-huh. Shit's insane, man. You could see them coming and you're like, oh God, they're going to destroy everything.
31:50 --> 32:06 Yep. But like the ability to like fly off is really great. I liked the having small fire teams of Marines. It was easier to digest and manage when I played it. Right. Cause this is a game where you want to have the different hotkey groups, right. To move around the map. And I struggled with that with the Zerg. There's too much going on, but, uh, right.
32:06 --> 32:24 Well, and then, and then Brood War. They introduced the medic and holy crap, the medic makes Marines like almost indestructible. Right. Like if I'm going after Marines with anything smaller than like a blimp, a carrier, I'm taking the medics out first.
32:25 --> 32:25 Yeah.
32:25 --> 32:27 Because otherwise they're just there healing the Marines.
32:27 --> 32:28 Yeah.
32:28 --> 32:28 Yeah.
32:28 --> 32:44 I like the siege tanks because you can use that as a turret to start, like before you could actually get the air-to-air turrets or whatever. You just pop those siege tanks in and when you start seeing air units, you switch it back to tank mode and it can take on the other stuff. It was a really cool, there was some just really cool processes you could do with this.
32:44 --> 32:57 Yeah. And the tech trees, the tech trees are awesome. Like there is a very clear progression. Like I played, I played a, an RTS called Kohan. I don't know if you guys ever played that one.
32:57 --> 32:59 It sounds familiar.
32:59 --> 33:27 It, it, it took the concept instead of a single unit, cause I was getting a little tired of the, of the minutia of the micromanagement of like every single unit. And it came up with this concept of squads, right? So you would move a squad and it would be like, you know, instead of like Marines, this is, this is, uh, you know, fantasy. So it's like pikemen, but it's like 8, 8 pikemen in a squad. And it just, they just pop out that way and they're ready.
33:27 --> 33:28 Right.
33:28 --> 33:45 But one of the things that I struggled with is the tech tree was not The progression felt weird. It didn't feel, it didn't feel, you know, sane where the progression, the tech tree progression in StarCraft is like, oh, okay, I need an engineering bay to be able to build this next thing. And, you know, et cetera.
33:46 --> 33:46 Right.
33:46 --> 34:45 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rise of Nations does that too. They do, they do the squad thing, which I really liked about that. Cause you could just send like 20 folks out at once instead of, like you said, having to send most I can send is 8 at this time. You know, whatever fits in that little square box on the bottom of the screen. Once you had all those portraits in there, that's all you could— that's all you could send out. So you're sending waves and the waves are small. And you're like, when you play Resonations, you're sending units, like a massive army out at once, as opposed to one thing at a time. It felt like it was— it just seemed like it was a— it was a lot to to control so little people. And then you lose stuff. Things would be running away when they, like, you got one Zerg you're looking for. You're like, where is this stupid bastard? It's hiding somewhere. I've destroyed everything but this one fucking thing. And they heal. So you're looking all over the place. And it was just a lot of the unit control was very challenging for sure.
34:45 --> 34:58 Yeah. I, I, as I said, I play Protoss and so I'll, I'll pull out a probe because it's a detector. Yeah. Right. It can see cloaked units. And then I just launch them to like the corners to try to see stuff. And then I forget that I've launched them.
34:58 --> 34:58 Right.
34:58 --> 35:04 And then all of a sudden I'll be playing, I'll be playing and I'll hear like, your unit is being attacked. I'm like, what unit?
35:04 --> 35:06 No one's even near me. Oh shit.
35:06 --> 35:07 My probe.
35:08 --> 35:13 Yeah. Yep. I think we've all done that. Forgotten where our unit was. Sorry.
35:14 --> 35:18 Observer, not probe. Probe's the little, the little base unit. Yeah. Observer.
35:18 --> 36:01 I think when it comes to like these games, I always preferred the slower RTS games where I had more time to think and plan what I was going to do. Whereas with StarCraft, I struggled with, you have to really build things very quickly in the right order. And like, you can't, there's no time to think, especially the early game. I mean, I guess it gets a little bit easier later on, but that early rush was always a thing where you either, either rushing or you got to be prepared to be rushed. And that, that first few minutes were very hectic. Um, that's why, like, I would love to see another StarCraft. I'm surprised Blizzard hasn't done StarCraft 3 at this point. Right. But I, I wonder if they would do a slower, more smaller squad-based RTS game, or if they would just double down on StarCraft 2 style with big armies. And I'm kind of curious what they would do.
36:01 --> 36:11 Uh, I mean, are we, I, I worry, I worry that now that it's Microsoft Activision Blizzard, right. Right. Yeah.
36:11 --> 36:12 I worry that Activision.
36:13 --> 36:14 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
36:14 --> 36:22 I, I worry that basically we're, we're gonna see, uh, the Diablo and World of Warcraft show and that's basically it.
36:22 --> 36:22 Right? Right.
36:22 --> 36:23 Right.
36:23 --> 36:26 Like, well, what's, what's his name? I'm gonna check my mind palace real quick.
36:26 --> 36:47 And I, I love me Diablo and I love me World of Warcraft, at least the, the classic. I like the World of Warcraft classic, but, um, uh, yeah, I, I, I haven't seen a really good RTS in a while. It feels like basically kind of the world was like, yeah, we did that.
36:47 --> 37:05 Yeah. Well, they're, they keep going back. They've been revitalizing the old ones. Microsoft, speaking of the parent company owns everything, uh, Age of Empires is being brought back. Age of, Age of Empires 3 is getting a DLC that's coming out. I think next year they did Age of, uh, Myth, Age of Mythical or whatever the mythical version of that.
37:05 --> 37:06 Age of Wonders. Age of Wonders.
37:06 --> 37:10 Is it Age of Wonders? I know it was, it was Age of Mythology. Age of Mythology, I think is what it was.
37:10 --> 37:11 Oh, right.
37:11 --> 37:11 Okay.
37:11 --> 37:59 So that, that had a remake a couple of years ago. So they've been bringing those ones back. So I guess, and that's like one of the reasons why I think Blizzard brought, you know, StarCraft Resurrected Edition or whatever they want to call it, or StarCraft Remaster. Uh, there's a, they're, they're in vogue right now. You're right. There hasn't been a new, new one. So that's why I'm kind of curious. Um, the guy who did StarCraft, uh, he definitely did like the, the world and the story, or he's a big part of it, was Chris, Chris Metzen. He also did a big chunk of, uh, I think it was World of Warcraft. Uh, he is actually back with Blizzard now helping them guide the story of World of Warcraft. So it's not unfeasible when he's done with Warcraft, if they still want to keep him around to have him do stuff for StarCraft. I could see it. It's just, just odd. It's been so long since this game came out. You said 2010 for Wings of Liberty. That's a long-ass time ago. Yeah.
37:59 --> 38:02 I wonder, I wonder if we'll ever get StarCraft Ghost.
38:03 --> 38:12 Right. Yeah. We wanted that so bad. I was waiting for a third-person shooter style StarCraft game. That would have been great. Honest to God, that would have been really cool.
38:12 --> 38:13 Well, think of like how much—
38:13 --> 38:15 Gears of War, but StarCraft, right?
38:15 --> 38:22 Well, think of how much you love Space Marine 2, Sinistar, when you played that. Like, oh, that's what Ghost could have been, right? Like that, like that kind of thing.
38:22 --> 38:28 That's true. I kind of have gotten, you know, instead of Ghost, I've gotten StarCraft Marine.
38:28 --> 38:28 Right.
38:29 --> 38:29 Yeah.
38:29 --> 38:30 Terran quest.
38:30 --> 38:58 Because like one of the best parts of this franchise is definitely the lore, right? Like the, the 3 races, we all know them by name. Even if you're not familiar with the gameplay or the story that much, you've all heard of the Zerg. Everybody knows of the Protoss and the Terrans. That iconic blue marine with the guy chomping on a cigar, that, that stays burned in my memory. I know all these characters. Kerrigan is always ranked on one of the baddest characters of gaming and every top list you see, like everybody's familiar with the lore so much. They just didn't do any more with it.
38:58 --> 39:08 There is even, there is even a card in Cards Against Humanity that is, you must construct additional pylons in all caps. Right?
39:08 --> 39:31 Like how many people know that without playing the game? Right. Like it's just, it's just so iconic. So I know StarCraft Ghost had a ridiculous development hell, but I am surprised they haven't tried bringing it back or how we don't know how many times they've tried to resurrect it internally. And I guess it didn't pan out, but it just on paper seems like, how could you not use these characters more or these concepts? That's crazy.
39:31 --> 39:51 For those that aren't aware, uh, StarCraft Ghost was an announced game where it was basically a first or third person shooter based in the StarCraft universe where you play the, the, the unit of a, of a Ghost, which is a, uh, it's a stealth character that can launch nukes or summon nukes.
39:51 --> 39:56 Yeah. Well, they have, they have rifles and And it's their long-range weapon. Yeah.
39:56 --> 39:59 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.
40:00 --> 40:30 So, no, I love, I love StarCraft. Um, I was going to say another strategy that I— Chard, when you were talking about your buddy out there, like, you know, fighting and rushing and everything, I remember a strategy I dreamed up and woke up one day and tried, and that was I set my rally point For, I was playing Zerg and I set my rally point for like my, my main building into their base and then just said, spawn all the Zerglings.
40:30 --> 40:30 Yeah.
40:30 --> 40:41 And just, I would, you would just see this constant stream of Zerglings just leaving my base. And like, that's not— and all I kept hearing was, your units are under attack. Your units are under attack.
40:41 --> 40:43 'Cause you're sending 20 at a time.
40:44 --> 40:44 Uh-huh.
40:44 --> 40:44 Yep.
40:45 --> 40:45 Yeah.
40:45 --> 40:49 That's They got, there's some really cool setup for that game to make it a lot of fun.
40:49 --> 40:49 Yeah.
40:49 --> 41:11 Like you, it, I just love that no game, no, no one game is ever the same. It felt like, you know, and if you were feeling froggy and wanted a challenge, you play as a Protoss. And if you were just like, I just want to pillage everything, play the Zerg. And then I want, I want to take it easy, but I want to kill some shit. That's, you play Terran, you know?
41:11 --> 41:11 Yeah.
41:11 --> 41:15 It's almost like hard, medium, difficult, right? Like the levels of each game.
41:16 --> 41:24 Well, and I love that everybody kind of has their favorite race. Like you're a, you're a Terran guy. I'm a Protoss guy. Right.
41:24 --> 42:01 Like, you know, and like, even if you have your, like your opening moves planned, right? Like in chess, you know what you're going to do for your opening first few moves, but then once you've encountered the enemy and you see what their opening move was and the opening play was, you have to adapt so quickly and it just opens up and you're right. It's never the same way twice, especially, you know, just Yeah. I love that. Just with 3 factions being so freaking ridiculously different is, is crazy. And I'm actually trying to think now of, is there another, another strategy game that actually has factions that are this unique? I don't think so. I'm thinking like Dune has unique units, but not like this. Yeah. Not like the Zerg and Protoss and Terran. They're so different.
42:01 --> 42:02 Right.
42:03 --> 42:30 Yep. Yeah. One of the, you mentioned, you know, like you start with your moves, your basic, like, hey, I, you know, I'm doing my, I'm moving my pawn 2 spaces, right. Or whatever. Right. But like the other thing that you run into is like if you've built up your defenses enough that you survive, say, a first attack, you may have been fighting off that attack so much that now you're behind the rest of the game, right? Because you have to go rebuild everything that got lost.
42:30 --> 43:09 You've been prepping so much that you haven't been prepping for advancement. You've been prepping for getting rushed and then you wiped everything out and now they got the upper hand because they've been building as they've been rushing you. There's a lot of balance. Like you said, there's a lot of teeter-tottering on this. 'Cause then you feel like there'll be times where you're like, I've got the upper hand. I've just, I've just wiped their base clean. You're good to go. Now I just need to find like the last thing and you go all the way up and in the corner and there's a Metropolis up there and you're like, damn it. Like he's, he got one out. How did they do this? Like it's, it's insane. And then all of a sudden you see battlecruisers coming your way and you're like, oh, okay.
43:09 --> 43:09 Yep.
43:09 --> 43:14 Or the Protoss battlecruisers and they're shooting the little, the little ships are coming out and destroying everything.
43:14 --> 43:15 The carriers.
43:15 --> 43:16 Yeah. The carriers.
43:16 --> 43:20 Carriers are my, are my primary technique, man. They're my primary technique.
43:20 --> 43:21 Yeah. Battlecruisers.
43:21 --> 43:27 You can say there's ultimate moves or special moves, like, like, like, uh, no, no. Like there's nukes.
43:27 --> 43:33 Not that I, there's, there's, there's one, there's one like ultimate weapon, which is the nuke.
43:33 --> 43:33 Okay. Right.
43:33 --> 43:44 All right. So yeah. No, the other races, like the Protoss have, instead of like, say, nukes, they have the lockdown.
43:44 --> 43:45 Right.
43:45 --> 44:07 Right? Like, they have the unit that comes in and can lock down other units, which, this is the most insidious thing, is you'll have a selection of units that you've got on a control key, and they lock down half of them, and they disappear. You no longer have access to them. Right. And like, you're just like, well, there goes half my strategy. Right.
44:08 --> 44:13 Right. So, and I like, like the Zerg could bury. I love that you could hide the Zerg in the dirt.
44:13 --> 44:13 Oh, that's right. Yeah.
44:14 --> 44:18 And, and people would walk by and you can jump out and surprise, like all kinds of stuff.
44:18 --> 44:24 It was really cool. They have the ultimate buried unit too, which is the Lurker, right? In Brood War.
44:24 --> 44:24 Right, right.
44:24 --> 44:26 That's the one that shoots the spikes out.
44:26 --> 44:27 Right.
44:27 --> 44:36 Like it's, that's such some cool shit. It was, it's hard. You are hard pressed to find an RTS that has that much cool stuff in it, like to play as.
44:36 --> 44:50 Well, and the, and the Protoss, so not, sorry, not the Protoss, the Zerg start with a detector unit, which is their, like their, their, uh, we call them cows, but they're, they're overlords or whatever they are.
44:50 --> 44:50 Yeah.
44:50 --> 44:50 Yeah.
44:50 --> 44:52 The flying farms. Yeah.
44:52 --> 45:00 Yeah. But they're, they're the ones that, that basically determine how many units you can have. but they're detectors from the beginning. Yep. And they're carriers.
45:00 --> 45:00 Right, right.
45:00 --> 45:08 So it's like you don't have to build carriers. Like, so there's the Zerg. Zerg is all about like getting your shit in and like they're annihilating.
45:08 --> 45:08 Yeah.
45:09 --> 45:11 Drop 'em off. Spawning and destroying.
45:12 --> 45:12 Yeah.
45:12 --> 45:15 Pillaging, pillaging, pillaging, pillaging. It's good times.
45:15 --> 45:16 Yeah.
45:16 --> 45:23 So, so yeah, you have to play, you have to play different strategies, but there's kind of like, it's, it's rock paper scissors.
45:23 --> 45:23 Yeah, for sure.
45:23 --> 45:30 There is like literally a, uh, oh, they have this. I, you know, I'm gonna scissors instead Instead of, you know, whatever, right?
45:30 --> 45:34 Send something out to counter their other thing. It's pretty cool.
45:34 --> 45:57 Yeah. So, and the campaigns, I mean, I, I didn't play the second one campaign, as I said, I, I should, we, you said this when we were talking before the show, Jake, I should, but the campaign for the first game is epic. It is an epically cool story. The cinematics are great. The voice acting is, is legit. Yeah. Especially for '98. Right. Right.
45:57 --> 46:03 I mean, well, we were joking in an earlier episode that the voice acting in that period sucked usually for console gaming. Yeah. But some of 'em PC games—
46:03 --> 46:04 In Sony.
46:05 --> 46:06 Yeah. Yeah.
46:06 --> 46:10 PC had it down. Sony, Sony was still working on their voice acting talent.
46:10 --> 46:49 Yeah. But, uh, so the, the story in 2 is, without spoiling it, like you, it's Jim Raynor and Kerrigan, right? You get the, you get the conclusion to that story and it's definitely worth seeing it through. Um, like I've spoiled myself to see and watch the cinematics. That's what I like, but I'd like to sit down and play through it again. There's the, the presentation of the campaign, how when you're switching between the different factions, you get a different like area to talk to NPCs and explore. The upgrades are all different. And the story, like the, the person who gives you advice between missions is different based on each of the races. Like they didn't have to go that crazy with how diverse it is for each of the different races.
46:49 --> 46:50 Yeah.
46:50 --> 47:02 And again, it's just something you just don't see other games do. So like now I'm wondering if we ever would get a StarCraft 3 considering how, how much uniqueness there would be between the different factions. How would they pull it off? That's, it's wild.
47:02 --> 47:13 I worry that, you know, cause Warcraft 3, I don't think Warcraft 3 was a failure, but I don't think it was the success that they were, that they were looking for. I don't think it was the success that they were looking for.
47:13 --> 47:13 Yeah.
47:14 --> 47:35 I mean, it basically became you know, as you said, Dota, right? I mean, yeah. So, yeah. Uh, I mean, they basically took the— and, and I played a fair amount of Warcraft 3 and, and the thing that Dota loves, I kind of hate, which are the, uh, the whatever, the commander units. I kind of hate those characters in Warcraft 3.
47:35 --> 47:36 Yeah.
47:36 --> 47:36 Okay.
47:36 --> 47:42 The Warcraft 3 heroes. I'm like, give me just the standard units. I just want to go create a big rush and just, you know.
47:42 --> 47:42 Right, right, right.
47:43 --> 48:43 I don't mind the hero units, but the thing with those is then you end up, you end up focusing a lot of time and attention on one big unit. And there's already a lot going on as it is with all the other units and armies. And it takes your, your mind away. And StarCraft, if they ever did a third one, I always expected they would bring a version of hero units to StarCraft 3 if they ever did it. Uh, but that's why I'm thinking if they did it in this age of gaming, they would probably do the smaller squads because otherwise it just Players' attention span, I don't think could handle it, to be honest with you. Yeah. And, uh, I don't know. It's, it's, uh, I just want other, I just wanted the third-person action game so bad. I wanted this world, but to be able to play it in different genres. Right. Like I'm not an RTS guy. I'm more of like an action game guy, more of a first-person shooter or third-person shooter. I would love to see them use this lore more. Like I even read, I think I read a couple of the books. Like there's a series of books based on this lore as well. And that's great. I'm like, I eat this stuff up. Like, there's, you know, give me a movie or a TV show, but they haven't done any of that.
48:43 --> 48:46 We need, you know, we need World of StarCraft.
48:47 --> 48:47 There we go.
48:47 --> 48:56 You know, I would like that, but, uh, you know, instead of travel between the worlds or whatever, instead we got a failed Overwatch, which is just a shooter.
48:57 --> 49:12 So, you know, no, it's, it's a cool, it's a cool series. Um, I'm with you. I'm not poo-pooing that they should make a third one. I would love to see a third one. I just, I have my doubts. I have my strong doubts.
49:12 --> 49:16 Yeah. I mean, shit, it took them 12 years to do 2. So.
49:16 --> 49:17 Yeah.
49:17 --> 49:18 I would love to be surprised.
49:18 --> 49:18 Yeah.
49:19 --> 49:19 So.
49:20 --> 49:21 Pleasantly.
49:21 --> 49:30 Well, awesome. Well, do, I mean, any other thoughts or anecdotes or anything like that?
49:31 --> 49:38 Minerals depleted. My wife's favorite phrase that she'd heard. Okay, I get it. You have no more minerals.
49:39 --> 49:39 Shut up.
49:40 --> 49:48 I'm sorry. I'm running low here. I gotta, I gotta fight these guys off. I'm out of stuff. Minerals depleted.
49:49 --> 50:13 Still. Oh, and we used to, we used to take all the, all the phrases and we'd like, my favorite is, cause as I said, I'm a Protoss guy. There's, there's There's like the, the, the Protoss, uh, deity is Adun, A-D-U-N. And there's like a character, there's a class that comes out and says, for Adun. And we always say, for a dude. Yeah.
50:13 --> 50:46 Yeah. I think for me, this is one of those games where we talk about Sisyphean games and games we always want to feel like we should have beaten before. This is probably one of them for me. I just got to figure out a better controller situation, a way to play this game. Maybe I do just play it on a Steam Deck. I would like to go back and beat 2. The first game is probably a bit too old for me, but the second game I did enjoy. It's just that one, that's just that 30 minutes of defense was really a drag. Maybe I can lower the difficulty or something or give it another go. It's been quite a long time. Yeah. I'd love to go back to this franchise.
50:46 --> 51:24 Speaking of the, like the, you know, the survive missions and stuff like that, one thing about those missions is In the campaign, they give you a progression to introduce units really well. Like it's, it's almost that, like that Mario Brothers, that Super Mario Brothers, like, oh, if I hit this thing, I get a coin or a, you know, a mushroom. Oh, I can jump on an enemy or whatever. Like it gives you that, hey, this progression is, is built into how you play the game. That is part of those campaign missions as well as you, you're going to learn those units because you got to survive with them for 30 minutes.
51:24 --> 51:34 Yes. Yeah, it starts limited and you get more options as you go, but with more options, it becomes more complicated strategy. You're right. They do onboard the player really, really well in that game. Yeah, for sure.
51:34 --> 51:36 Heck yeah.
51:36 --> 51:57 Sweet. Well, yeah. So if, uh, if you have any Urge people, um, and you, and you have either you, you love the RTS world and you've never played this, or you, or you want to dip your toe into RTS and you've never played an RTS, these are These are both good reasons to play the StarCraft franchise. So.
51:57 --> 52:03 It's quite possible that you won't wanna play any other RTS after you've played this one because they're so good.
52:03 --> 52:04 Yeah.
52:04 --> 52:05 Yeah.
52:05 --> 52:12 Yeah. I mean, Warcraft is great too, but Warcraft for me is all about like the funny anecdotal voices.
52:12 --> 52:12 Yeah.
52:12 --> 52:15 'Cause like, you know, quit poking me.
52:15 --> 52:18 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:18 --> 52:33 Yeah. So awesome. Well, I'm, uh, I'm happy to call that an episode. We've, we've been doing super long ones. It's probably good to not have a 2 and a half hour episode. Our wives will be happy.
52:33 --> 52:36 Yes, for sure. So till I run off to go stream something later.
52:36 --> 52:40 We got some housekeeping though. Shout out our fine folks on Patreon, right?
52:40 --> 53:17 Yeah, absolutely. So, um, we do have a Patreon. We, um, I mean, we do this because we love it, but if you want to support us, uh, it does help us because we do have some costs involved. Uh, so we do have a Patreon. Uh, it'll get you things like a different color on your name in Discord or, you know, et cetera. And if you pay at a certain tier, Circus Charles or above, you get your name called out. And we have 2 Circus Charles and above, uh, members. That's Cathus— Cathusius Jeff and Von Beardly. We appreciate them very much.
53:17 --> 53:17 Hell yeah.
53:17 --> 53:49 Um, but if you don't want to pay Patreon, we, we just love you spreading word of mouth. Uh, subscribe, like, all that stuff. Um, we have a Discord if you want to know how to get there. We have a website, www.pressb2cancel.com or pressb.org. Um, and come over to the Discord and tell us what you love. Tell us what you hate about these games. Tell us your strategies. Tell me why I'm wrong about loving the protests as much, Protoss as much as I do.
53:49 --> 54:12 You know what I'd love to hear is what other people are playing RTS-wise these days. What, what is the game you're playing now? Because like there has not been that many released recently except for remasters of old ones. So I'm kind of curious, like have people moved on to Total War? Total War? Is that what people are playing? I'm kind of curious. What's the RTS game you're playing now if you're into the genre? Because it seems a bit slim pickings. So I'm kind of curious. Yeah.
54:12 --> 54:14 That Dune RTS looks good.
54:14 --> 54:28 I will say, I forgot to say I started with Dune 2, which was an RTS, and moved over to Command and Conquer and Command and Conquer Red Alert. And then I found Warcraft and StarCraft and it was all over.
54:28 --> 54:31 Yeah. Spice Wars looks pretty good.
54:31 --> 54:33 That's the new one, right? Is that out this year?
54:33 --> 54:34 Yeah. Yeah.
54:34 --> 54:34 Yeah.
54:34 --> 54:37 It's been out. I don't know if it's been out since, I thought it came out last year, but—
54:37 --> 54:39 Is it an RTS or is it like a strategy game?
54:40 --> 54:46 There's, there's the strategy game one that came out this year and then Spice Wars came out like last year and that's more of an RTS.
54:46 --> 54:47 Oh, I have to check that out.
54:47 --> 54:48 All right.
54:48 --> 54:49 Definitely one that I plan on.
54:49 --> 54:53 I'll check it out. 'Cause I, I started with Dune 2, right? Right.
54:53 --> 54:53 Yeah.
54:53 --> 54:57 Which is funny because Dune 1 was not an RTS and Dune 2 was an RTS.
54:57 --> 54:58 Full circle, baby.
54:58 --> 54:59 So, yeah.
54:59 --> 55:00 Interesting. Okay.
55:00 --> 55:00 Awesome.
55:01 --> 55:15 Well, folks, we, uh, we appreciate you all. Um, We're here on YouTube on Fridays. We're on your favorite podcast apps the following Monday. And if we're not, yell at Jake.
55:15 --> 55:15 Sure.
55:15 --> 55:18 And yeah.
55:18 --> 55:19 I'm used to it.
55:19 --> 55:20 I mean, you know, we all yell at Jake.
55:20 --> 55:23 Here's Jake's address. Go kick his door down.
55:23 --> 55:25 Yeah. We all yell at Jake.
55:25 --> 55:31 In exchange, you get to listen to me talk about bags of milk on a weekly basis, even if it's not funny anymore. I'm just going to keep doing it because I put up with the abuse.
55:31 --> 55:32 6%.
55:33 --> 55:36 It's 6%. It's still 6% funny.
55:36 --> 55:38 6% Canadian.
55:38 --> 55:43 You guys want to shout out anything, anything you guys are doing? How about Jake? Jake?
55:43 --> 56:19 I am still doing ranking of Mario. There'll be one on Sunday. I just haven't figured out what game it's going to be, but there will be one on Sunday. I'm going to record it probably Saturday night and put it up on Sunday. I've been having a lot of fun playing through all the old Mario games, especially the bad ones, because yes, there are bad Mario games. Um, otherwise I have, if you're watching this over the weekend, uh, Marvel Toukan Fighting Spirit. It's a very anime take on Marvel Heroes, uh, Marvel vs. Capcom done by Arc System Works. I love their games. Uh, open beta this weekend. It's nice to get in there and check it out. Uh, I don't think I'm going to buy it.
56:19 --> 56:20 Berserker Barrage!
56:20 --> 56:32 They took that line out since the start. You have, you have Steve Blum voicing Wolverine and they don't have him say Berserker Barrage like the old games. It seems like it's a criminal act. I'm expecting them to mod it.
56:32 --> 56:32 Maybe it's unlockable.
56:32 --> 56:53 Maybe it's unlockable, but damn well better be. Anyway, the game is fun, but it is not Marvel vs. Capcom that I was expecting. So I was thinking maybe I can record something, but I have to think about it. I don't know how much I'm going to play it. I'm certainly not going to buy it. Um, but it's, it's neat and it's a cool style, uh, take on Marvel Heroes. Like it's anime Iron Man and Penny Parker in a spider mech suit.
56:53 --> 56:53 Nice.
56:53 --> 56:57 Like it's, it's really interesting character designs. So I don't know.
56:57 --> 56:57 Nice.
56:57 --> 56:57 Check that out.
56:58 --> 56:58 Carnage.
56:59 --> 56:59 All right.
57:00 --> 57:01 Carnage. Yeah. Yeah.
57:01 --> 57:05 Yeah. And, uh, Chard, what about you? You got anything going on?
57:05 --> 58:06 Uh, I'm, I might do some solo funnel runners tonight cuz, uh, one of my biggest fears in life is tornadoes and, uh, this is pretty much exactly, exactly something to scare the piss outta me. So I might be running some of that this evening and then, uh, we, we might be trying to button up Amnesia: The Bunker. I've also been working on a RetroPie. And in doing so, I have dove in deep into the waters of the Dreamcast and the Saturn, which are not systems that I know— I know Wolf absolutely adores both of those, but I have not myself tampered with much of those things. And I am finding some things that will probably appear on my channel at some point here in the near future. And, uh, kind of deciding on doing like a retro horror Friday for stuff like that. And then doing some of the newer stuff as, uh, the weekends progress that are longer. And I'm just waiting until September, guys. Once September gets here, I get to get some Silent Hill.
58:06 --> 58:06 Yeah.
58:06 --> 58:25 And then when October gets here, we finally get to play, uh, that, uh, God, uh, Tenebris Somnia, which I'm super freaking jazzed for. Um, I had completely forgotten that that was coming out on the 16th of October. And Halloween season's fast approaching. So there's going to be a lot of really good spooky games that are going to be coming out here.
58:25 --> 58:28 Yeah, I'm going to get my Hellraiser.
58:28 --> 58:29 Yeah, that's another one.
58:29 --> 58:32 Control count, because Control 2 is coming out in September.
58:32 --> 58:34 Control 2 Resonance comes out as well.
58:34 --> 58:36 I mean, Control is definitely horror.
58:36 --> 58:37 There's some horror aspects to it.
58:38 --> 58:38 Absolutely.
58:39 --> 58:39 Yeah.
58:40 --> 58:50 So, so yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. You know me, I'm spooking myself and chat wherever I can. So come and check us out and then. Next week will be my weekend off, so I'll probably be working on stuff around the house.
58:50 --> 58:53 All right. twitch.tv/chardmonk.
58:55 --> 58:56 So awesome.
58:57 --> 59:02 Well, gentlemen, I appreciate your time. And, uh, I think we call that an episode.
59:02 --> 59:05 I think you must construct additional pylons.