The time has arrived for the long-awaited StarCraft II. StarCraft II had gained popularity back in March 1998 (3/31/98). StarCraft is a military science fiction strategy game. It was originally released for Microsoft Windows PC. Later in 1999, Blizzard released the MAC version. StarCraft quickly became one of the most widely loved games. As of February 2009, the original StarCraft had sold over 11million copies.

The game's storyline was derived from a series of novels. The game has had an expansion, "StarCraft: Brood War" and now the newly anticipated "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty". The game takes place in the future, in the 26th century. The game centers on the fight for domination over the "Milky Way" galaxy. The three races are the Terrans, a human race from Earth, the Zerg, an insect type race, and finally the Protoss, a humanoid race. The Terrans, or human race, are skilled at adapting to any situation. The Zerg are an insect-race that is searching for genetic perfection by combining other races. The Protoss have advance technologies. They also possess psionic abilities. The Protoss main objective is to preserve their traditions and keep their way of live and civilization far away from the Zerg.

The game runs in real-time coupled with its compelling story line has made StarCraft such a beloved game. The game is a multiplayer game. Critics have praised StarCraft for being one of the best all time games and raised the bar for all other real-time games. In South Korea, the game has been so well received that it has been considered a professional sport. The game has televised events and top players are treated as professional athletes. Players join together for teams and compete in national competitions. Players even earn sponsorships for the televised spots they receive.

The game play is also very unique. Each race has its own race-specific units. They even have different technology trees. Players must use the strengths and weaknesses carefully in order to win in this game. The time and cost to create new units can be quite costly. This forces the gamer to use the units efficiently. The focus is on the quality of the units and placements, not the number of units. The Zerg and Protoss are at opposing ends of each other, serving the terrans as a middle ground between the two races. The game is very well balanced in that no race has a dominant edge over the others. The AI modes in the game play all start out easy and naturally progress to the hardest as the game continues on.

Each race needs two resources in order to maintain their forces and sustain in the economy. Minerals and vespene gas are the two resources. Minerals are required by all races in order to build units and structures. Minerals are gathered by worker units to harvest these resources from mineral deposits. They can be seen dotted throughout the fields. Vespene gas is required by all players in order to construct advanced units and buildings. You will also need gas to build refineries on top of geysers (gas deposits). As with minerals, you will need worker units to extract the gas from the deposits. Also, gamers will need to monitor their supplies for their forces to ensure that they can construct the units needed in game play.

All races need these supplies, but the type differs between the races. For example, Terrans usually have physical supplies, Protoss have psionic power nexus, and the Zerg are limited by the number of controlled overlord units that are currently available. The supply mechanics are the exact same between the races. This allows all of the races to build new units when the necessary resources are available. The Protoss and Zerg have limitations on where they can build their structures. Terrans are less limited, but require a worker to continue working on the unit until it has finished constructing.

The next rendition of the game will maintain most of these characteristics. The first race to be the focal point is the Terrans, with the Protoss and Zerg getting their own expansion each over the next 3 years.

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