|
| By Brad Cook The camera pans across a snowy mountain pass. A man in armor strides purposefully into a castle as a crowd cheers his arrival. Orcs swarm across a windswept plain, their war drums reverberating in the distance. |
|
 Highly-detailed characters |
Scenes from the next Lord of the Rings movie? No, it’s a teaser for the new real-time strategy (RTS) title Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and the cinematic feel — right down to the widescreen aspect ratio of the images — befits an epic game that is full of larger-than-life heroes and history-changing battles set against a rich backstory. In fact, it marks an important step in the evolution of RTS games, according to Bill Roper, a vice-president at Blizzard North.
Blizzard used a dazzling array of colors
for this gem of a game.
for this gem of a game.
“Basically, we have taken the compelling aspects of a role-playing game, simplified them, and used them to breathe new life into a real-time strategy game,” he explains. “We’ve incorporated many role-playing elements to form a sense of importance and even emotional connection between the player and his units. And players are encouraged to explore and interact with the map in ways we have never done before in any of our previous strategy games.”
Best of all, you’ll get the chance to lead one of the four races in Warcraft III to victory in Mac OS X, which Roper says offers “superior virtual memory and multitasking, which means that skipping sound and memory usage situations are greatly improved over Mac OS 9.”
You Tell the Tale
Like the previous games in the Warcraft series, Reign of Chaos continues the story of the kingdom of Azeroth, where orcs and humans wage war for supremacy of the land. This time, however, they are joined by the night elves and the undead, who are also bent on controlling the land, and Roper promises that the four single-player campaigns — one for each race, with eight chapters per campaign — will uncover much information about them. (Want a quick primer? Take a look at “The Races of Azeroth,” on page two.)
He elaborates: “We are looking forward to the single-player campaign being not only a great tool for learning the basic strategies of the game and the functionality of every unit, but also as a way to really grow the Warcraft universe and immerse the player in an epic land of chaos and conflict.”
A new, exciting storyline keeps the game afoot.
And if you’re the type of gamer who enjoys telling your own stories about other worlds, Roper thinks you’ll love Warcraft III’s World Editor, which he says “is, quite simply, amazing.
“We wanted to provide an easy-to-use 3D editor that anyone can utilize to make maps,” he says. “You can adjust any of the artwork in the game, and any of the play balance statistics. You can script any behavior or game event you want, using our extensive scripting language. You can easily place new sound effects or speech files into any map you make.
“You can even create movies within the game engine to tell your own stories in the Warcraft universe.”
Simpler, More Dramatic Gameplay
Like a typical RTS game, Warcraft III requires you to manage resources, although this aspect of the game is less intensive than it was in the earlier Warcraft titles. Gold and lumber are the two major resources, and once you have enough of both you can erect new buildings, train your combat units, and evolve your technology so that you can build a more powerful army and take on your enemies. Don’t expect to engage in large-scale battles, however.
Explains Roper: “We shifted the focus of the game from intensive town building and sending wave after wave of warriors at your opponent to a somewhat simplified resource model to allow players to better direct their attention to leading smaller, more powerful forces against each other while also making the exploration of the map a more important and rewarding part of the game.
This all serves to move the strategy of the game from having a foundation built on resource management to one that is based on specific battle tactics and strategies.”
 |
|
 |
Warcraft III Media |  |
||||||||||||||
 |
|
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
 |
|||||
In fact, success in Warcraft III really depends more on the judicious use of your race’s heroes than on how many units you have. You begin the game with one hero and can train up to two more, as long as you have a barracks building and the available resources. Your heroes become more powerful as the game progresses, and they grant bonuses to the combat units that they lead into battle, but they’re still mortal, so take good care of them.
The environments sport a 3D look and feel.
“When one of the heroes dies in battle,” explains Roper, “a message is sent throughout the game announcing the defeat and his death animation is far more grand and dramatic than those of his less epic compatriots.”
Online Fun
Another major part of the Warcraft experience is the online service Battle.net, where you can join multiplayer games comprised of players from around the world, and Roper explains that Blizzard has “added a wide range of features to make it easier for people new to our service to get around, meet and find friends, and get into games. We also allow players to easily create ‘guilds’ so they can have a strong online presence in the Warcraft III community.”
He adds: “Players who simply want to get into a game with someone else of a similar level of play experience can click a single button to be anonymously joined with someone else who is looking for the same gaming experience.”
Magical effects make for some dazzling battles.
And if you enjoy staying connected to other applications as you do battle, Roper recommends playing Warcraft III in Mac OS X, where he says the game “can run smoothly either full screen or in a window, easily multitasking with other applications. If you’re the sort who likes to play while also keeping an eye on the news, mail, or instant messenger in the background, this is a real plus.
“With Warcraft III,” he adds, “we are doing our first simultaneous shipment for Mac OS X, Mac OS 9, and Windows on the same CD. This would not have been feasible without the significant improvements made between version 10.0 and version 10.1.3.”
The Future is in Your Hands
Roper promises “more exciting Mac OS X news from the Blizzard Mac team in the months to come,” but in the meantime, be sure to visit the online Apple Store, your local Apple retail store, or an Apple authorized reseller near you. They’ll help you purchase a copy of Warcraft III so that you can get busy deciding the fate of Azeroth.
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||||
If you don’t already own a 
 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|||
 |
|||||
Races, heroes and units, and more on page two. 
  
|
