I have no immediate plans to abandon my iPhone or laptop, thus I will still be able to manage the a-gamer site, post and comment. The $60 annual fee for hosting will not be able to be supported solely on my shoulders this year. Donations are welcome to keep a-gamers up and running. I see no reason to abandon the great group we have here, but will need people to chip in to keep it alive.

Going forward my concern is for Ro’s welfare at work, without me being there as his inspiration things could get bad :-) Just kidding, all in all unlike in Call of Duty when Ro is testing his new shotgun in your back at work he is a man of honor, character and professionalism. My short time knowing and working with him has been memorable.

Other than that I will be checking in on the site I imagine things will pick up as the seasons change and anticipated games are released. I am eager to return to Xbox Live and join you all for fun and frag nights!

I recently posted my first impressions about SC2, but it’s time for a deeper look into the game for all the fence sitters who aren’t sure if it’s worth the $60 price tag.

Starcraft 2 is an RTS (real-time strategy) game. Think of it as a chess game for the modern gamer. Three different races (Terran, Protoss, and Zerg) vie for control of the galaxy, and as one of them you must collect resources, build structures, and then build units from those structures to wipe your opponent off the map. For those of you who’ve never played the first Starcraft, the learning curve will be steep, but the rewards for sticking to it are well worth the growing pains.

SC2 is a game of two parts — the single player and the multiplayer modes. The single player modes in SC2: Wings of Liberty focuses mostly on Terran campaigns. Blizzard announced it will release a new SC2 game every 1-2 years that will emphasize one of the three races. The next game will feature Zerg, and the last game in the series will feature Protoss. There are a few Protoss missions in Wings of Liberty, but for the most part, expect to become familiar with Jim Raynor, an intergalactic rebel going heads up with former ally and now-emperor Arcturus Mengsk. Mengsk is also responsible for betraying Raynor’s love interest, Kerrigan, to the Zerg, and in a twist of fate, she’s become queen of the Zerg.

The campaign mode is amazing. Unlike the first SC, each mission is a game of its own. Instead of just following the escalation patterns of the previous game building up units and repeatedly attacking, players will be given different objectives and procedures for victory. One map requires you to kill zombies at night while fending off the opponent during the day. Another mission resembles a shooter; think Raiden. Achievements have been built into the game to keep it fresh, and Blizzard has been clever about the achievements — Different difficulties require different tactics and solutions.

The multiplayer portion of the campaign is where the real action lies. I’ve seen a million players on at Battle.net at one time, and the amount of dedication from these players is tremendous. There are thousands, if not millions, of articles on the Interwebs about strategy, build order, and unit information. I’ve been using Zerg for the past few weeks, and I’m nowhere close to mastering that race. Players who want to go official can play 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 in teams of their own choosing or with random others. After five placement games, players are placed in a league (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond) where they must gain points to advance within that league. It’s a great way to match players with even competition, and for those hoping to advance, it’s a clever system that definitely rewards players who learn the game.

I definitely recommend the game, and for those of you with older computers, it might be a bit pricey because SC2 may require an upgrade. The game can be bought online directly from Blizzard or through retail outlets. Physical versions of the game come with a trial card that can be given to a friend. I already gave mine away, and it seemed to have worked because Mandalore scored his own copy of the game.

In my little gaming world DADDYLARS  from GDL and I have been working on milking achievements out of Crackdown 2. We are making some real progress and could use the help of two more “agents” to help speed things along. I’m not sure if anyone else has this title. If you do, don’t hesitate to hop in a game with us if you see us online.

Other than that updated some of the a-gamer.com mobile features for those of us with smart phones. Enjoy the weekend all, and hope to see you on draft night this coming Tuesday for the A-Gamer football pool.

Join the league here:

 join Sgt Cougar’s custom league in Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football, A-Gamer.

In order to join the league, follow the link above or go to game front page, click the “Sign Up Now” or “Get Another Team” button and follow the links to “Join a Custom League”. When prompted, enter the League ID# and password below.

League ID#: 30157
Password: high5

You will receive confirmation with further details once you have completed the registration process.

I have purchased a 1600 point MS point card to be awarded to the 1^st place winner of the league. Sign up and become familiar with the system, the live draft starts Tue. Aug 24 8:30pm PDT. If anyone would like to donate prizes of equal or lesser value to 2^nd and 3^rd place please let me know.