Francium34

@shagge: both Alex and Patrick (waypoint radio, I think last friday maybe) liked the story mode. Patrick beat it but didn't get the good ending (3 apparently).

It's about 3,4 hours long. Just be aware there are parts where you have to fail and/or no choice seems good. Treat it as a movie is probably the best approach.

Rental is a good idea (EA access only has the 1st act, 45min-ish)

The gang haven't realized how OP rockets and grenades are in XCOM (and 2 as well, the upcoming expansion even added an option to nerf them). Now they need to find another heavy, RIP.

@estragon: First playthrough is the hardest, since you don't know what to expect, especially for the construction and tech tree. Definitely stay with it though, I would never recommend the sequel (more complex, and the upcoming expansion adds a ton more) to someone who hadn't finished the first.

A lot of the mess could have been avoided if either Vinny or Dan played a bit more on their own instead of just once every 1/3 weeks. It was basically just 1 enemy on the roof and 1 behind the whole squad!

At least the next briefing will be fun, and we might be getting back to Yakuza soon after getting the canonical bad ending...

To be fair to Dan, going last meant he had the harder mission, which is less forgiving of mistakes and the lack of knowledge of skills/equipment.

On the other hand, Dan is the one with the most experience...

Abby's tactics next week will be key. She has to shepherd a pair of fragile rookies to level them up. As much as people are calling for putting soldier Dan in danger, they can't afford to lose more high level soldiers. Otherwise the situation snowballs.

Starcraft 1 is as close to a perfect game as it gets.

Cool singleplayer campaign with good story

Multiplayer obviously, much better balanced (and uniquely designed) than its RTS peers

Modding and map sharing, so you can play tower defense or RPG if RTS is not for you

Graphics and sound design still hold up

Easter eggs, cheat codes were fun as well

Incredible influence on esports and gaming as a whole

While physics should still be the same, aliens may not necessarily be carbon-based like us. This then means the conditions they would live in, pressure, temperature etc could be drastically different from earth. Some scientists have speculated that by looking mainly at planets similar to earth we are biased against other possible forms of life.

I have a list of pioneering games that have important places in history, but hesitate to call all of them masterpieces. I think how a game (or any other piece) holds up with time and influences later works (or if nothing like it ever came out again) are important to rank something as the absolute top tier.

Starcraft (+brood war) is a masterpiece. It checks almost every box, in terms of singleplayer story, multiplayer content, replayability, modability, balance, peak of the genre, importance to gaming, visuals and sound design, etc.

Austin bringing in the Socrates method