Life in the Middle 30/04/2012

So this week I decided to take a break from Terran and play a little Zerg on my old account; it had been a while, so I felt a bit rusty, but I soon got back into it. Zerg is the most different race to play and it comes down to more than just how they make units. I think to play Zerg well you have to spend a lot of time on macro and much less on micro than the other races, to me engagements seem a lot easier to handle as a Zerg, but then again I am only just getting back into it. As a Terran I always felt that I had to pick away at the other races, whereas as Zerg you want to get the perfect composition and to attack as a whole. I'm not saying that Zergling run-bys and Mutalisk harass aren't important, they just have different purposes. As a Zerg I want to make my opponent too afraid to move out and take the whole map for myself, smothering them with my economy.

I used to do this a lot; thought I was so smart.

With Terran and Protoss you know to constantly build workers and get as many units as you can on top of that, adding on production when your resources start to build up; with Zerg it is nowhere near as obvious. When playing Zerg I constantly have the fear that I have over droned, as I always try to play macro games, and  have not got enough actual units to defend myself with. I think that when you get used to knowing when to build units and when to drone Zerg becomes a lot easier to play, as long as you remember to larva inject, spread creep out and scout a lot with Zerglings and Overlords. Knowledge is power in SC2 and it's easy for Zerg to have eyes on most of the map.

Trying to scoot and shoot with Roaches doesn't work out too well.

Strangely I had most success with ZvZ, I know it is considered to be like rock, paper, scissors in that the counters are extreme, but because it is so easy to have vision of the entire map I find it easy to anticipate and react to an opponent's moves. I think my proudest moment whilst playing against a Zerg was when I stopped an expansion from building with a small Muta force whilst taking out two more bases, one with burrowed Infestors and the other with a mass of Roaches. As the other races I would always worry about how much production I have, but as a Zerg it's a joy to be able to just build one structure and then mass produce that unit straight away; I hope all Zergs realise how lucky they are to be able to do that.

I'm still scared of Banelings, but less so when I have Roaches too.

As far as builds go I have been going 15 hatch in ZvT and ZvP and 14 gas 14 pool in ZvZ. I go for the safer build in ZvZ as you can still get a good economy with a slightly later expo and hold off any early pressure that is levelled at you. Also, if you see that you opponent goes hatch first you can get out early Lings to pressure it with. I only lost my expansion once to bunker pressure whilst going against the other races. I'm not very good with timings so I have to rely on good scouting to know when and what is coming and decide what I need to build to deal with it. Unfortunately you can't always know what is coming and can be taken off guard by it; I lost to mass Voidrays, mass Banshees and mass Thors, strategies that I thought the middle leagues were above.

So... what works against mass Thor? They've already ripped through the rest of my army by this point.

I'll probably go quiet for the next couple of weeks as I have my final university exams, but after that I should be back to weekly posts. I'm not sure if I'll be playing Terran or Zerg as I am really enjoying Zerg at the moment, but I started this blog with Terran in mind so I might continue with them. Thank you very much for reading, you can follow this blog from the pane to the right and find me on Twitter here.

Review: The Walking Dead Episode 1

The Walking Dead is a game all about story, characters and choice; the gameplay mechanics function well, but make no mistake that is not what will draw you into the game. The developers have made very clear that your decisions will impact, not only the current episode you are playing, but the series as a whole. From what I have seen of the game so far this doesn't seem like an idle promise either, and I am very excited to see how the whole series knits together. The first episode allows for three saves, so you can play through multiple times and see the results of different decisions. As an interesting addition, at the end of each episode, you can see the statistics of  how other players handled the major decisions.

The general presentation of The Walking Dead is very impressive, even if there are quite a few technical flaws, the visuals, audio and general execution are done brilliantly. The graphics convey the games graphic novel roots, many shots look like they could have come from a comic book page. The frame rate is a very noticeable issue throughout the game, especially at the start when you meet your first herd of zombies. The music score that accompanies the game is stunning; it manages to wrack up the tension when when danger is present, but also helps make some of the person to person moments heart wrenching. Some very hard truths have to be told. Throughout the game the camera is a problem as it is frequently awkward and can obstruct your view, though this wasn't a problem during the action sequences.

Throughout the game you meet a sizeable cast of characters who will all make an impression on you and who are all voiced by some incredible talent. The story revolves around two characters and their involvement in a larger group. You play as a middle aged man trying to survive as the world goes to hell who forms a partnership a little girl. The relationship between your character, Lee, and the girl, Clementine, is great as she looks up to him and he protects over her; he possibly sees her as a source of  atonement for mistakes he made in the past. There are some moments of dark humour amid the craziness that show that, even if the world is over, people are still human. My only issue with the character models was that sometimes they tried to make the faces too expressive and eyebrows would just go everywhere.

There are some truly touching moments in The Walking Dead, which hopefully will be continued in the future episodes. To reiterate this is very much a story and character driven game, you have a group of ordinary people in extreme circumstances and you are witnessing the results. Much like the rest of the franchise the walkers are not the only antagonists, you are dealing with some of the worst aspects of human nature as well; in many ways the walkers aren't even the main adversaries, they are just a nuisance in the background of a very human drama. There are four more episodes yet to come, in monthly instalments, and I for one cannot wait to see how the story unfolds.

8.5/10