A to Z - StarCraft

I'm part of a gaming family. We love board games, but we really love video games. One that's sucked us all in is StarCraft. We got to play missions that follow a storyline and reached a conclusion. There are three races--Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss--and you got to play as all three. We had a LAN, so we could play with/against each other. Then there was Battlenet, where you could get online and play with/against people all over the world. And there was the ability to make your own levels.

It began with the StarCraft game and one of the characters, Sarah Kerrigan, is overrun by the Zerg.

In the expansion set BroodWar you find out that your enemy is now led by Kerrigan--who's been taken over and made to become a Terran/Zerg hybrid.





And we had to wait something like ten or twelve years before StarCraft II came.

Oh, my freakin' heck! Love this new version. Blizzard doesn't do anything halfway, and their graphics are awesome as is the storyline. The guy in the picture above is Raynor, who was a main character from the earlier editions. And, who we discover, was in love with Kerrigan, who he's determined to defeat.

Now they've upped the ante. Brilliant because it involves you even more in the characters. It's not just a game about strategy and battles, it's now got heart. I must confess to crushing a little on Raynor's haunted character in this version.

This time Blizzard is releasing three different campaigns. This first one is the Terran campaign. I'm not sure who they'll release next, but with the little romance going on, my guess is it'll be Protoss. They'll want to save the Zerg for last . . . especially now that there're hints a human taken over by the Zerg can be restored.

Are you a gamer? Board games? Video games--even if it's Farmville on Facebook? What appeals to you about the games you play?