“Hell it's about time”

I started off Monday afternoon by having a nap when I got home from work. I had spent the night before talking to jenny until 2am, getting more and more excited about the trip to the US. Seriously, the excitement is so thick that you need a giant boring machine to punch holes in it for us to breathe. After a little while, Mel came in to offer some Cous Cous which I nibbled on for a little bit before going back to sleep until about 7:30 when Jen woke up.

We began messaging and didn't stop until about 2am again when I got home after being at the Starcraft Midnight Launch Party at King George Square. It was kinda cool. I believe they mentioned about 2,000 people turned up by the midnight release. That's a bit better of a turnout I was expecting.

Scotty and I had gathered to the event as we ordered our Limited Edition Box sets. Scotty has a collection of Collectors Edition Video games, and I just like Starcraft. And the collectors box is pretty cool. An Art book; a Behind the Scenes DVD; a digital remastering of the Starcraft Cinematics (these were originally done in 1997/98 by the way); a Starcraft II Soundtrack; and a USB device with Starcraft and Brood War expansion installed, and diecast to match Jim Raynors Dog tags.

The diecast metal somewhat threw me off. I don't hear much of diecast except for that old Optimus Prime that I had as a kid. I'd lost his fists which you hide in the cab while he's a truck, but you put them where the headlights are so he's a robot holding his gun.

There were some cool things happening, such as EB Staff going around offering free copies of Game Informer magazine and potato chips for free, and the cosplayers were pretty cool. The best ones were Kerrigan, a pair of Firebats, an Ultralisk and, the coolest one of the night, a Pylon.

Now the hosts weren't too bad. There have been better hosts around, but for guys who don't do this sort of thing very often, they did pretty well. At least I assume they don't do it often. There were prizes for best cosplay (of course, the Pylon won); there was a sound-off competition, where a group of people imitated units from the original Starcraft (the most used one was the Battle Cruiser dude, but the best two were the guy who did the Zergling and the guy who did the Ghost); a buzzer competition which one guy was on each question like syrup on pancakes; and a Q&A for our special guest.

So call me rude, but I didn't really know him or care about him. I didn't catch his name, but I was told he was a lead designer for Starcraft II and he was there to answer a few questions that just needed to be asked by the Brisbanian Starcraft fans.

I can't remember what they were. Honestly I wasn't really paying attention. I was sitting on the steps (new steps since KGS has been redesigned, a little to my displeasure as there's less foliage than there was before) and ahead of me was a full moon shining out from underneath a girls unfortunately small undies. Then she bent over and I saw my life flash before my eyes before Scotty pulled me out of a terrified trance.

Okay, I exaggerate, but it wasn't pretty.

Around 11:30, everyone was lining up outside the EB Games stalls and wait to grab their copies of Starcraft II. A bunch of guys a few bodies behind us started up a joke about getting it early and began a countdown from 10. Sure sure, that's funny. Get in early and we'll get the game, Ha and a ha. Then they did it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And then the actual countdown came and that was fine, though their voices were leaving a ringing in my ear now. Then the line up began shuffling and they did it two more times before they finally figured the joke was over.

Yeah, it was over the third time you did it ya wankers.

Scotty and I taxied it home and I got home and immediately started installing it. It was kinda sad installing it, because my desktop hasn't been used in... well a few months since I got my Netbook, and the DVD drive hasn't been used in just as long. So for the next couple of hours, I could hear my poor DVD drive revving away like it was competing in the Drag Races. Thankfully I don't need the drive to play it again, it just plays by itself.

But eventually, at 2am, I got to sleep while it was installing louder than a mariachi band, and turned it off in the morning. Last night I got about 2 missions done, and they were interesting. They weren't super freakin awesome, but they were definitely much like the Original Starcraft. Only Prettier. MUUUCH prettier.