Games: StarCraft Gets a Hi-Res Upgrade

An audience of 12,000 turned out to watch the StarCraft finals at last year's World Cyber Games. When Lee Jae-Dong, aka the God of Destruction, finally vanquished his opponent, a female admirer rushed the stage with a victory garland before security could escort her off. If a lo-res PC game released in 1998 can garner this sort of frenzy, fans are sure to go mad when StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is released later this year. Or not. The sequel doesn't reinvent the wheel—it's still an übercomplex, real-time strategy game casting players as sci-fi generals in charge of troops and resources. But hi-res graphics alone aren't enough to win over some pro gamers. For one thing, they hate that StarCraft II eliminates local-area network play. (Translation: Even if competitors are mere feet from each other, they still need to log in to a central server.) Pace is also a concern. Real-time strategy geeks measure their micromanagement skills in APMs—actions per minute. Pro StarCrafters can handle 400 APMs, and some suspected that StarCraft II would slow down the action so players could enjoy the lush scenery. Those fears have subsided since the game became available in beta, but the jury is still out. The World Cyber Games organization has yet to announce when it will adopt the sequel for tournament play. Just as pro tennis players needed time to make the adjustment from grass courts to hard ones, professional StarCraft players will need time to come to grips with this upgrade to their workspace.