After years of providing PC gamers with some of the best titles available Blizzard has decided they will attempt to return to their roots and produce a console game. In case you’ve been living in a cave and haven’t heard about it yet the game is StarCraft Ghost. If you’ve never played StarCraft or are unfamiliar with the series I suggest that you pick yourself up a copy, or else leave this site because you are clueless.

It’s been years since Pic and I first got into StarCraft. After all these years I still find myself playing on Bnet from time to time. To put it frankly, this game is fantastic. When WarCraft III was coming out I was hesitant to try it out because of my loyalty to StarCraft. About two years ago I remember saying to people “When is StarCraft II going to come out?” When I first heard rumors that Blizzard was about to make an announcement regarding StarCraft, I was sure that my dreams were about to come to fruition. Then came the news of StarCraft Ghost; which is obviously not StarCraft II.

Meet Nova. The future love obsession of gamers everywhere

This news confused me a little bit. On one hand I’ve been waiting forever for the sequel. On the other hand this sounds like a really cool idea. Blizzard has been good to me though, they have yet to let me down before. So I took some time to think it over and decided that I’d give this game a fair shake before I went on a ten-page rant about how bad I want SC2.

Blizzard is working with Nihilistic on this project and the guy heading up Nihilistic’s part of the game actually used to work for Blizzard on the SC project. This is good news for fans of the StarCraft universe. If they’re not going to give us another RTS the least they can do is respect the integrity of the game. I hear the Nihilistic is actually doing to majority of the programming and artwork on Ghost.

In Ghost you play as a character named Nova who is a specially trained Terran super-soldier called a ghost. The ghost is a character that all SC fans are familiar with. Possibly you remember the ghost from the terrifying moments you heard the words “Nuclear Launch Detected.” From the screenshots and trailer it’s pretty clear that Nova is a bad ass (in the trailer she has a really good butt too). Your character is equipped to the basic rifle that the ghost had in SC the RTS. As in any good action game there is a variety of weapons you can pick up and use, including a weapon similar to the ones Firebats use and a really cool looking melee weapon. You have powers similar to the ones in the RTS as well as some additional ones. Another really cool feature that I read about is at one point during the game you’ll be able to actually pilot a wraith or vulture. Vehicles automatically increase the fun factor in any action game.

Blizzard is claiming that they included almost every character and unit you remember from all three races in the RTS. Although the thought of flying around in a wraith or looking a Hydralisk face-to-face excited me, I kind of felt like this game was going to be a recycled version of Metal Gear and similar action games. When I got deeper into the concept of the game I was really impressed. For those of you who invested countless hours of your life into SC, remember the huge battles that used to take place when two rival armies collided. Now picture yourself as one badass ghost in the heart of that battle. Instead of a “you against the world” scenario Ghost requires you to work with your team. I’m sure that parts of the game will remind you of other action games but overall the concept sounds very original. I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to calling down my first nuclear strike when Ghost releases.

“Does your stomach ever get raw from dragging on the ground all the time?”

Blizzard games have always been known for giving units unique personalities and voices. They have promised us nothing less in Ghost. One example I read said that marines are very social, they will hang out together and even talk smack during battles. Expect a Zealot to behave like you’re used to a Zealot behaving and the same with other units that you remember from the RTS.

Ok. Cool vehicles, social marines, nuclear strikes; I see you working here Blizzard. I’m on board now; I’m feeling a little more comfortable with this sudden change of genres. Then I got around to watching the trailer for this game. I did everyone the favor of putting it up on our site so you can download it easily. Check it out here if you haven’t seen it. Now, after viewing the trailer and knowing what I know about the game let me give you my feelings. Holy crap! If the game lives up to half the hype of that trailer it’s going to be one of the best games of 2003.

I was disappointed to find out that Blizzard isn’t really sure if they are going to include any type of online play in Ghost. Multiplayer is one of the things that made Blizzard games in the past so much fun. Hopefully they’ll get this settled before the release date. I think it would really be cool to have massive capture the flag games going, vehicles included. The popularity of games like Halo might help convince them. Also it’s not clear if they plan on including a co-op mode. I am always a big fan of co-op modes.

Ghost is going to be console only, sorry PC gamers. Early indications are that it is going to be available for GameCube, PS2 and the Xbox. My first impression is that the Xbox is going to be your best bet for this game. It seems to be the system best suited to handle this type of games.

Nova whoopin’ up on some zergling.

All in all I can’t wait to get my paws on this game. Seldom do I get this excited about a game after just watching the trailer. I look forward to Blizzard’s triumphant return to the console world and yet another bestseller. Unfortunately I’m still not getting the SC2 that I’ve been waiting so patiently for. Everyone write Blizzard a letter. Support your local RTS player.

I assume it’s a pretty safe bet that most of you are new here since we just launched the site. Basically I just wanted give everyone a quick introduction to me and share my thoughts on the other members of the SnackBar crew. I have been deemed the RTS guy of the group by Pickle. I guess it seems appropriate. Two of my favorite games are Starcraft and Warcraft III. Pickle is basically going to be your RPG guy. I’ve never quite got the whole Final Fantasy thing. I can’t read that much, it gives me a headache. Which brings us to Snowcone. He doesn’t really have a thing, he likes everything. No seriously, he’s the only person I know who has ever even been able to stomach Obi-Wan on the X-Box.

Currently Warcraft III is my game of choice. You can check out my stats here if you want. Actually I think the amount of games I’ve been playing lately is causing me to fail some of my classes, but dammit, I am going to be ranked before the end of the year.

Pretty much the only other game I ever play is Madden. I remember when Madden first came into my life. I believe it was Madden ’93. I must have taken the Packers to the Super Bowl fifty times with the Favre to Sharpe connection. I think I spent my entire seventh grade year playing that game. Then Pickle stole it from me, I assume it was for the best. My unhealthy obsession with the Madden series continues today and when the franchise feature was introduced I thought it was going to destroy me. If it wasn’t for the glitch in Madden 2001 that causes the computer to name the vast majority of rookies “Cheah” then I would probably still be playing that game. Seriously, it got really annoying having Pickle throw in his play by play; “Cletus Cheah this, Cletus Cheah that.” It amazes me that in the ten years I’ve been playing the Madden series the game really hasn’t changed that much. Yet every year I’m back at it with the latest version. Replay ability is a good way to score major points in my book. And don’t even get me started on the NCAA Football series. Pickle and I have actually started fights before because we run up the score so high with the Nebraska option.

I’m trying to think of what else may be relevant for you people to know about me. I lost a job once due to a brief Counter-Strike addiction. Once I spent an hour trying to convince Snowcone to purchase a blow-torch at Lowe’s.

Any feedback you guys might have is greatly appreciated. I hope our modest little site here is entertaining enough for you to come back too and tell your friends about. Email me if you want to know anything else.

[email protected]

Normally an article like this would be in the “Review” section, but due my to my extreme bias for having an unhealthy obsession for Star Wars, I don’t think that it’s possible for me to review this game with a fair perspective. Instead, I’d rather take this time to introduce myself and bitch about things that bother me.

First I would like to start by saying that my computer is running bald ass slow right now because I just finished playing a few rounds of multiplayer online. For some reason whenever you exit the game your computer runs like crap until you restart it. That’s only the tip of the iceberg though folks. Trust me it gets much, much worse,

When I first heard the concept of Quake with a lightsaber, I was very pumped! For some reason I manage to get myself pumped up for every new Star Wars game that comes out even though I am consistently disappointed by LucasArts for putting out crap game after crap game. “Surely this time it’ll be different, this game is going to rule, this is going to be the Star Wars game I’ve waited my entire life for!” Instead I get the same crap that I’ve come to expect from a Star Wars game.

Pickle and I first busted into this game about a month ago and immediately discovered that you have absolutely no control over your lightsaber; it’s actually a miracle that you can hit anything at all. For some reason LucasArts put in a bunch of guns in this game that Pickle and I never used. For the love of God man you’ve got a lightsaber, what the hell do you need a rocket launcher for? After a couple of late nights dueling one on one in multiplayer mode we decided that we were ready to battle on the net.

Let me first state that being a newbie in any game sucks ass. I must have taken a back stab to the gut about 500 times before I actually figured out how to perform this maneuver myself. I think the hordes of Counterstrike and Quake Cro-Magnons must have just migrated themselves over to JK II. It was more of the usual “You suck ass, I f’d your mom you piece of crap.” Well hell yeah I suck you damn moron, I just signed on to a net game for the first time 5 minutes ago, shut the hell up. Also included were the clever names that CS player’s consistently give themselves, such as; “Tig O Bitties,” “SpawnCampersCanEatMyAssWithASpoon.” You know the type. I thought we were Jedi here folks, aren’t we a more sophisticated, refined order of people?

Next I was greatly disturbed by the site of a Tie pilot running around with a lightsaber. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it then engaged in a battle with a dark blue stormtrooper also carrying a lightsaber. I did one of those double takes you often do when you see something that blows your f’n mind. “Dammit people you’re ruining my fantasy of being a bad ass Jedi here, cut that shit out!” I figured maybe I’d just stumbled upon a server gone horribly array, time to find a new one.

The next server I visited upon opened my eyes to the giant pile of crap that is JK II. Apparently the first server I was on was “Lightsabers only.” The current server had all weapons enabled. When I drop in the game I whip out my trusty lightsaberand seek out some ass to whoop. Suddenly I’m blown to bits with a stray rocket. Scratching my head I figure that was surely a one-time occurrence. Get back in the game, “Lightsaber on. oh damn, someone’s gonna get their ass beat! Shit! Who the hell keeps shooting me with the damn rocket launcher?” I just portrayed exactly what will go through every Star Wars loving gamer’s head their first few minutes with JK II. The damn morons just run around shooting guns. Jedi with guns? Your lightsaber becomes useless and obsolete the second you sign on to a net game. Pickle walks in and watches in horror as I am consistently blown to bits by rockets and various other weapons as I refuse to conform and use anything other than a lightsaber. “I am a Jedi, and as such I will not join in your rocket fest!” To those of you who contribute to this load of crap, and you know who you are, go back to freaking Quake if you’re going to use the rocket launcher.

This game quickly found itself ejected from my drive and buried somewhere on the shelf. It barely survived being thrown from my balcony by the mighty Star Wars logo that it bears. So in short, save yourself the trouble of playing this game and just go beat your head against the wall in frustration. They both carry about the same entertainment value.

In conclusion I’d like to reiterate that this isn’t actually intended to be a review of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast because it’s just not going to be possible for me to view it from an unbiased perspective. Thank you, that is all.