Being shut in for these past nine months has been awful, but video games have been somewhat of a solace. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - I bought this game because a friend was interesting in playing it, but Patricia took a real liking to it. This has been the go-to game for the two of us. It's been great that we can "play house" while our real house is a mess, and just relax and spend time tog...
I haven't posted in a while. I have been jumping between different games in the past nine months, but throughout that time, I've kept playing StarCraft II. When I found out that Heart of the Swarm was going to come out in March, I decided that I needed to finish the single-player campaign before then. Also, since I live in Southern California, I thought it would be fun to go to the launch event...
I started hearing about it on the Weekend Confirmed podcast when Jeff Cannata tried it out, and it had me intrigued. I love indie games, and the fact that this one had done so well made me want to check it out. None of my friends actually played it. Some friends' kids have played it, but it was usually in the "creative" mode - where there wasn't really any danger, and I really didn't see the po...
Because I've been playing Minecraft, I sort of took a break from trying to be so serious in StarCraft II.I have still been practicing the Silver build from filterstarcraft, but I stopped worrying about the timings and whether or not I hit the benchmarks or not. I don't think hit the benchmarks, but soon after Season 8 started, I made Gold division. I lost my placement match, but then won my nex...
I haven't been playing StarCraft as much. I haven't been home much. However, I knew that I was going to be away a lot, so I had invested in a gaming laptop. However, when I tried to play StarCraft this weekend, it was awful. Not my play, which is normally awful, but the performance of the laptop. By the time I got to the 10-minute mark in the game (the time when I'm supposed to attack using the...
Well, I didn't make it to Gold division by the end of season 7, but I did get a lot better at his build. His builds are based off a one-barracks expand, so you take your natural expansion at 3:45. In his videos, he tells you to concentrate on constantly making SCVs. You should have 50 SCVs by the 10-minute mark. He actually played some games and found that it was possible to make 52 SCVs by the...
I'm still playing Terran this season, but I just can't seem to get out of the Silver division. I have been using the builds that LGRipper had taught me, along with the ThorZaIN build from Day[9]'s video. Last night, after I lost a number of Terran vs. Terran matches, one of my opponents suggested that I look at this Team Liquid forum thread by filter: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage...
Sometimes, life gets in the way of gaming. I just had too much stuff to do, so I didn't get the chance to make a final push at the end of season 6. I ended up placing 11th in Silver division. Even though it doesn't show it in the end-of-season rankings, I do think that I improved from playing one race, and now I think I have a decent shot of breaking into the Gold division. I think I learned ho...
I bought the US 3G/WiFi launch bundle, so I've only had the device for a day so far. I don't feel that's enough time to give a full review, but I think it's enough to give my first impressions. The first thing you notice when you take it out of the box, is that the Vita is huge . The unit looks monstrous. I compared it to the original PSP, and it's not much bigger, but in today's slate smartpho...
I haven't posted in a while. It's the end of Season 5. This past weekend, I went a bad losing streak. I was 3-13. One of the games, my opponent just left. I had one legitimate win, and one where I beat a failed cannon rush. It was pathetic. I lost to a 6-pool, and I also lost to a proxy gateway build. The whole weekend was frustrating. My girlfriend said that it was because work was so hectic (...
I've been struggling on the ladder for StarCraft II for the past season. I'm still playing random, but I'm having a heck of a time trying to make it into the top 8 in the Silver division. I'm not sure if the competition is just getting better, or if I'm falling behind because I'm not putting any effort into practicing. I seem to do better when I limit the number of games I play a night - I seem...
I haven't had much time to play, but I did watch more videos. When I re-watched the Newbie Tuesday videos, a couple of points stuck out. I decided to try and use them in my games: Don't lasso/box your units. Click directly on the units that you want to select. Use the minimap or the hotkeys to move the screen. Don't scroll my putting the mouse on the side of the screen. I'm still trying it out....
After watching some of the Day[9] dailies, I decided to start working on my mechanics. I upped the DPI on my mouse, since I didn't think it was fast enough at work. It worked well with the second monitor at 4000 DPI without any acceleration. However, that was way too sensitive for StarCraft II. For the time being, I've left it set at 3000 DPI (instead of 2000 DPI) and it seems to work well. I'm...
I ended up playing one late-night game last night. I was Terran on Metalopolis. My opponent was Zerg. He starts messaging at the beginning of the game, saying that he is really bad at Zerg. I chat a bit, but I play normally. When I scout him, I notice he fast expanded, so I start building an army. I drop on him, but it's repelled. I don't lose any of my medivacs, though, because he has no anti-...
Well, I tried to play while I was on vacation in Europe. I did notice the lag, and the conditions were less than optimal. I was doing okay, though... Until I dropped eight games straight. On the last two, the screen didn't even load. The game just paused and I lost. After that, it dropped me down to Bronze. I did play more over the vacation, trying to fight my way back to the top of the Bronze...
They ended season 1 today. My final record as random was 421-430. I was 1st place in the Silver division. I guess I should have been happy that I maintained first place, but it was sort of anti-climactic. I was way ahead of the second place (over 300 points) so the last week of games didn't really account for much. The good news, though, is that with the beginning of season 2, the ladder's been...
They locked the ladder, so I can no longer be promoted to Gold division. I'm #1 in Silver, and I'm ahead by over 300 points. I'm 9 games under .500. I haven't been practicing or trying to improve, but I've just been playing. It's been fun, though. Using the SC2Gears utility, I figured out some statistics. My strongest race is Terran, where I win 53% of my games. I do almost as well with Protoss...
I haven't had as much time to blog or play. I did learn some things, though. First of all, I started trying to use the camera controls in the game. I changed the hotkeys from using the Ctrl+Fn keys so that I can use the Ctrl+Fn or Shift+Fn keys. I also moved them over so that I could use F2-F8 as camera controls, instead of further to the right on the keyboard. This is the first time that I'm m...
Well, I haven't been able to blog that much, but I've gotten a few games in. I played a slew of games today, since I had a little time. I played once before work. It was a decent game, but I lost. After work, I did a little better. I had a bad game in a ZvT on Steppes of War. He rushed (I think it was a proxy barracks) and pretty much killed me off quickly, with a "gg noob.' Dude's in bronze, a...
I haven't blogged in the past week. I've been playing often, but I found that I'd rather be playing instead of blogging about playing. :) I've been bouncing around between 3rd and 4th place in Silver division, but not really making any progress. I actually moved up to 3rd place because the person in 1st place was probably promoted out of the division. In the past week, I found out a few problem...
Soon after I posted that I could play against Gold division players, the bottom fell out of my game. I actually split matches with two Platinum division players, and was mostly matched up against Gold division players for a while. Then I went on a losing streak. hooked up my home computer to my flat screen TV to give it a shot. It was fun, but it was too hard to play. I also had problems gettin...
I only played one game tonight. It was a Protoss versus Protoss game on Shakuras Plateau. I scouted him early across the map. He was diagonally opposite me. It didn't look like there was anything fancy going on, so I just kept macroing. I took a second vespene gas geyser, even though I normally don't. I didn't really have a build order in mind. I made a robotics facility early. I figured I'd ne...
I played four games today. I won the first game with solid macro play in a Zerg versus Protoss on Lost Temple. I think when I macro well, I can manage a pretty good game. My opponent put down a lot of cannons, but never really attacked. He slaughtered my first two attacks, but I was wearing him down and eventually took out his expansion. I kept pushing, and eventually his army fell. The second...
I had four hockey games today, so I didn't really have time to play. I tried to play a game before lunch. It was Terran versus Zerg on Shakuras Plateau. I hadn't played on the map in quite some time. I heard there was a bug where a Protoss player could hide a pylon that couldn't be seen when you play. I guess they took the map out of rotation while they tried to fix it. The game went normally....
Sometimes, these reports can take longer than the games themselves. I'm just writing what I have to catch up. My first game, I was Zerg versus Protoss on Xe'l Naga Caverns. I started out normally, then I decided to fast expand. When I tried to scout his base, he had already blocked it with a zealot and his buildings. I was too late to get in. I kept building as normal, getting zergling speed an...
I had tickets to the Lakers game tonight, so I didn't think I'd have any time to play. I was promoted to Silver league yesterday (at #1) but the division wasn't filled up yet. I checked earlier in the day and I was ranked #2. By the time I got back home tonight, I was #5. Since I haven't been getting enough sleep, I thought I might only have time for one game. I ended up being Zerg on Steppes o...
I played while waiting for lunch. It probably wasn't the best environment to concentrate in, but I wanted to get some games in. I was interrupted a few times with things like, "Where did you put the strainer?" and "Did you use the salad spinner?" Overall, I think I did well. My first game was a Terran vs. Terran game. It was on Steppes of War. I lost a rush game to 2-barracks marines. He added...
I haven't played any 1v1 games recently. Jason, my roommate from college, started playing more, so we've been playing more 2v2 games. He watched the Day[9] videos I sent him, as well as tried to do some of it on his own. I think it's working out okay, but it's a lot of work. The new patch came up, but I didn't get the chance to play a 1v1 game. I finally played some 1v1 games last night. The fi...
I figured the best way to get back on track was to keep playing. I wanted to watch the NCAA Football National Championships, so I didn't play StarCraft II right away. After the wrong team won, I started playing StarCraft II. I already had dinner and a beer, and I was feeling rather good. I started a 1v1 match. I was Terran against a Zerg opponent on Blistering Sands. Since he was Zerg, I walled...
I didn't realize it, but I had won all of my games so far this year. I played three games today. The first game I played while my girlfriend was at the spa. I played Zerg against a Protoss opponent on Jungle Basin. It was an interesting game. My opponent was talkative, and even asked what race I was. I told him I was random. He said he wanted me to know what race I was today. I told him I didn'...
Played two more games today. I started feeling sick while I was at work - got a runny nose, started feeling a little run down. As a result, I didn't want to stay up too late tonight to play StarCraft II. The first game, I was Terran. My opponent was Protoss. I think I'm getting the hang of the TvP matchup, but I still have problems with the reverse. We were at adjacent spots on Lost Temple, so...
I played two games after work today. I didn't get home until after 10 PM. The first game I played, the game loaded really slowly. By the time I had made my second probe, the other player disconnected. A free win, I guess. :( The second game, I played Zerg. My opponent was also Zerg. We played on Delta Quadrant. He found me right away, but then didn't really force any pressure. I expanded quickl...
I only played one 1v1 game today. I was Zerg, and went up against a Terran player that turtled. I expanded and started pushing a lot of hydralisks. It does seem like macro wins games. I just kept building more and more hydralisks, and I think he ran out of money. The other player was in Silver division. I'm back in 1st place, but I think the former 1st place player in the division was promoted....
Since I didn't sleep much last night, I didn't play any matches today. Instead, I watched one of Day[9]'s videos. This one was on countering banshee harassment. I don't know that I learned that much, since I already make more than one detector, but I guess it was worth watching anyway.
I played two games today, before I drove back down to Los Angeles. I won both games rather easily. At first, I thought I"d blog about how the games were, but I think that might get kinda boring. The first one, I played Terran and won with a medivac drop. The second game I was Protoss and just a lot of gateway units. I did use Day[9]'s strategy, though, and upgraded armor first. It seems to work...
I figure this is as relevant a place as any to start blogging about my StarCraft 2 progress. I have been playing since the beta, but I haven't made a concerted effort to try and get better. I am playing random, since I really like trying out all of the races. I suspect that I'd be better if I concentrated on one race, but I really like playing all three. Eventually getting the achievement for 1...