I know I sound like a broken record, but Halo Wars continues to provide hours of enjoyment. Last night, during an epic 2v2 battle, I was reminded of why I love playing multiplayer real time strategy so much. First, nothing can top defeating a human opponent. There is a major difference between fighting the AI, who is following a certain algorithm and only adheres to it more carefully as the difficulty increases, and taking on another human player, his or her brain, and all the strengths and flaws that are contained therein. Second, in a multiplayer match, you need to constantly shift your strategies, take risks, and in an evenly matched game there is always that point where you need to risk it all in order to win. Third, I love RTS for the way it encourages multitasking, you always need to be doing two, three, or four things at once, and that multitasking is what makes the games feel so frenetic and out of control (at least that’s how I play). Finally, long RTS battles force you to have “video game stamina”, in battles of attrition, the waning desire to keep playing really threatens your ability to pull out a victory.
Last night’s battle was amazing because over half of it we played 2v1. Normally, playing 2v1 should be a huge advantage, but the player who was left was obviously much better than us and he had us on the brink of elimination multiple times. It was a match that my partner and I never thought we were going to win until we finally did, and afterwards I was so tired I didn’t even really want to play anymore. Major props to our opponent, and I am incredibly sad that Halo Wars does not support replays.
What does support replays, however, is Starcraft 2, and the media has been asked to submit their beta requests by June 19th, so my anticipation is building. I really hope the game supports matchmaking, though I don’t know if Blizzard does that sort of thing. One of Halo Wars few advantages over the original Starcraft is that I don’t have to type 2v2 Lost Temple!!!!!! every time I want to play. Regardless, I am confident Starcraft 2 will live up to its pedigree and I cannot WAIT.
you are in luck – Starcraft 2 will most definitely support matchmaking, as it’s been in since Warcraft III. In fact, I think battle.net’s arranged team matchmaking is what became the standard in gaming after that.
My friends and I played so much Warcraft III back in the day…3v3 and 4v4 arranged team matchmaking. On top of that, your team of 3 or 4 had an actual ladder ranking, and if you were a part of a clan, your clan’s ranking changed based on how often the clan members won. if you like the matchmaking in Halo Wars…wait until you get a taste of battle.net – it blows Halo Wars away. the more wins you get, the better the icon you can use for your profile, etc. oy you just got me really excited again about starcraft 2 haha
check out the amount of stat tracking in warcraft 3:
http://classic.battle.net/war3/ladder/w3xp-ladders.aspx?Gateway=Azeroth
epic battles = AWESOME!!! btw, I think my forces were pretty dwindled at the point when it was 2v1, so I think it was kinda like 1v1 for a while… except he did have to spend time taking down my bases while cmfl3x prepared for the showdown… in any case, definitely kudos to kk chaos for being better than us
as far as the comparison to matchmaking… I know there were different companies involved between Halo Wars and Halo 3, but I feel like matchmaking in Halo Wars took a step back from Halo 3′s system, to the point where Halo 3 is still the benchmark for me if I’m going to compare against any PC RTS matchmaking (of which I have not seen Warcraft 3′s)
even WoW supports matchmaking for Arena pvp. much better than the system in sf4. silly japanese developers.
Ah I forgot about war3. I think it’s cuz I mostly played custom games with you guys, I used to play with supahiro all the time I remember. Supahiro where are you!!?!?
I want better icons.