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Best Game Ever – Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is my favorite game of all time. With the many hours of enjoyment I have gained from this title, I owe it to you all to spread the good word.
Let me tell you why:

First of all, this intriguing subtitle brings to mind many important questions for the common gamer. Among these questions are:

1. What throne?
2. Why is it frozen?

But frozen seats of royalty aside, the storyline in an RTS is superfluous. What makes WCII: TFT great is the well-implemented and innovative hero system, the tight control over units that makes über micro possible, and the well-balanced, well-designed variety of races.

Warcraft is a popular game, with fan-created artwork, a lively multiplayer community, board games, hugely successful MMO adaptation, and mangas.

If my memory serves me, this book tells the tragic tale of the forbidden romance of Draakthazaar, the proud frost dragon from the north and the free-spirited young maiden, Ara, shunned by her people for daring to love the monster they so feared, yet she tamed with her tender touch.

One of the best things about WCIII: TFT, as I mentioned before, is the tight control over units that makes über-micro policies not just effective, but easy. Coupled with nearly flawless pathfinding, collision, and unit AI, you will command your squad of crusading footmen to glorious victory against the horde in ease and comfort.

Let’s compare the levels of unit control you might find in other RTS games with the perfection that is Warcraft III.

Scenario: You find your hero dangerously close to an enemy base.
Command issued: Run away quickly
Result in Warcraft III: Hero hauls ass back to base, with the enemy none the wiser.
Result in JoWood’s Spellforce Order of Dawn: Your hero teleports into the enemy’s base, immediately attacking the nearest building, triggering agro AI in a 5 mile radius and multicolored numbers to erupt from everywhere at once. Also there is fire.

Scenario: Crossing a bridge with a large force, the fog of war suddenly reveals an ambush on the other side
Command issued: Run away quickly
Result in Warcraft III: Faster units in front quickly move behind your slower units, reversing the line and proceeding quickly away from danger, without attacking or taking much damage from the enemy.
Result in Big Huge’s Rise of Legends: You watch as your units continue forward for a few moments, turn in place ever so slowly, and then begin crawling away from the enemy, while being attacked by 1940’s era B-52s.

Situation: In a tactically fierce confrontation between an essential unit and a powerful enemy, you must maneuver perfectly to take advantage of all possible advantages.
Command issued: Run away from slower unit and take advantage of terrain.
Result in Warcraft III: Your unit outpaces the enemy unit, reaching a superior vantage point allowing you to rain down ice crystals or bombs as he struggles to catch up.
Result in Gottlieb’s Q*bert: Your man deliberately jumps into the path of a moving Coily, committing suicide to spite you on the very first level.

Another aspect that makes WCIII: TFT awesome is the great support from publisher and developer Blizzard Entertainment. They have worked consistently since the game’s release in 2003 to balance every unit of every race, add cool new maps and heroes, and fix every obscure bug in the game, including the infamous exploit that allowed players to seize control of an opponent’s limbs by animating various USB cords through the internets using a vulnerability in Window’s Human Interface technology.

A young lad takes refuge inside a robot suit, victim of the early Warcraft vulnerability that took control of an opponent’s USB cables, sending them flying dangerously around, with sharp pincers.

An oft-neglected aspect of the game is its strong RPG elements that make it almost as good as World of Warcraft, the popular MMORPG. If you scroll your mouse wheel you can zoom into nearly first person perspective of your units and take on their personas, replicating the World of Warcraft experience for none of the monthly charge! You could even role-play the manga featured earlier in this article if you were especially awesome and not pathetically alone.

With the zoomed-in perspective of Warcraft III you can reproduce the engaging role-playing land of “World of Warcraft” and continue the sexy saga of Tyrande Whisperwind and Lina Firmchest.

In conclusion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is a great RTS game that offers much to fans of many genres. Pick up the Battle Chest today from your local game provider and see for yourself why Bjorn R. Buer AKA “wolf-sigma” states in his holy text:

“I am the converted. I walked the path of Warcraft 2. I swam the seas of Starcraft. Now I lay in the valley of the Final Trimutive, Warcraft 3, fully sated and content. Only the promise of Starcraft Two has kept me on this plane of existence, hoping for a summer release but knowing it will never happen…”

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Ali AUG
18 years ago

Sweet, picking mine up today 

Niahak
Admin
18 years ago

I actually held off until last week to get this.  I always enjoyed custom maps (although normal versus never held much appeal), and I’m glad to see the campaign mode is just as solid as the original and the custom mapping system is even better.

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