A Zerg army tries to break through a well-fortified Terran base. (Image Courtesy: Starcraft2.com)

There is one game I’m looking forward to, more than any other.  That game is StarCraft 2.  The sequel to the best selling real-time strategy ever, and a game that has changed at least one world culture. (It’s also my favorite game of all time.)

I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about it, and tucked away in BlizzCast 8 is some Q&A with the game’s Lead Designer, Dustin Browder.

Browder was asked to give some insight into game mechanics, especially the current setup for air units and their role in the game.

“Well obviously each of the races behaves differently with how they use their air units,” said Browder.  “The Zerg, obviously the mutalisk is still a powerful part of the Zerg air force and still used for a lot of fast raiding, a lot of sudden attacks from different directions to keep the enemy off balance and of course in mass in the end game you can obviously use mutalisks for mass air assaults.”

It’s good to see that the designers are keeping some of the traditional strategies alive, but it’ll be interesting to see how the new units counter.  For instance, Browder talked about how a new Terran air unit differs from the Wraith in the original series. (more…)

Armand Assante, Director of Photography Erik Curtis (white hat), WOODTV8 Photojournalist Evan Linnert on the set of "The Steam Experiment" at Bull's Head Tavern in Grand Rapids, MI 9/10/08

 One Year Later: Michigan Film Incentives

 A year ago next Tuesday, April 7th marks one year since Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm signed the film incentive package that provides up to 40% percent refundable or transferable tax credit for projects in Michigan, with an additional 2% available for projects in core communities.

According to a Michigan State University economic impact study, the incentives brought 32 projects (including “The Steam Experiment”), creating 2,763 jobs and creating $65.4 million in revenue to the state in 9 months of 2008 (since the incentives were signed in April).   Of that, $25.1 million was spent on direct wages and salary and $40.3 million was spent on Michigan goods and services.

Researchers estimate total production expenditures will grow 187% over the next four years (2008 to 2012) based on the experiences of Louisiana and New Mexico, who passed similar, but lower incentives in 2002.   Both states continue to experience year over-year growth in total in-state production expenditures.

The study also says Michigan film will likely “generate tourism… and other indirect benefits from film production”.

There is still at least one state lawmaker speaking out against

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Never count out those Spartans.  Not with Tom Izzo on the bench.  If you don’t think he’s not one of the very best coaches in the country, then you need to watch more closely. 

He matched wits with two of the best coaches in the business in Indianapolis and beat them both.  Izzo is quick to point out, “the players play” but his teams were more prepared.  His game plan was superior, and his team is moving on to the Final Four.  Bill Self and Rick Pitino have each won national championships.  So has Jim Calhoun, who’s next on Izzo’s hit list.

Izzo will use every advantage in his power to motivate his team.  MSU has been listed as a 4 to 1 underdog.  MSU will have the home crowd in its favor.  A win over UCONN could set up a rematch with North Carolina…. and you know they’d love that.

After beating Louisville and earning a spot in the Final Four, Izzo said he hoped the Spartans were, “a silver lining in what’s been kind of a cloudy year for us.  I’m hoping that we’re the sunshine, I’m hoping we’re something to embrace.”

They always seem to be in March.  Five trips to the Final Four in eleven seasons is proof enough.  No other school in the country can make that claim, because no other country has Tom Izzo as a head coach.

This is the Lake Michigan satellite picture from midday Monday. You can easily see the snow on the ground in northeast Illinois, eastern Wisconsin and north of Muskegon-Big Rapids.  Pick out Silver Lake in Oceana Co. and Hamlin Lake near Ludington.  There’s still a lot of ice in Green Bay and on Lake Winnebago.   Cadillac and northern Osceola Co. had about 6″ of snow…3″ fell at Montague. Snowcover does keep the air colder. The high temperature Monday at Ludington was only 34.  Milwaukee with a snow cover had a high of 36, Madison-without snow-reached 46.  Up to 8″ of new snow fell in Racine Co., WI with 5″ in Milwaukee.

This is a snowdrift in Kansas after the Friday Blizzard. This is typical of what can happen when there is a very strong wind and fluffy snow. You can see all the snow has blown into one massive drift about 8 feet high.  Drifts were reported to be up to 14 feet near Dalhart, Texas.  You can see that this situation would make it very difficult to get very far in a car, or even maybe to get out of your house!  Plows would have a hard time tackling a drift like this.  You’d have to call in a front end loader.  Friday at one end of Texas there was a blizzard with temps. in the low 20s and at the other end, temperatures hit 100+ in McAllen and Harlingen.  This AM, Hutchinson had 7″ of snow on the ground.  This PM they hit 56 deg. and there is a severe t-storm watch for the county just east of them.

Dan Fraley of the U.S. Coast Guard with dog rescued from the Red River flood near Fargo, ND. Second pic. is Michigan Coast Guard Helicopter over the Red River. The Coast Guard has made a number of rescues over the past two weeks. North Dakota is getting a heavy snowstorm this evening. Fargo has had 5 inches so far. Temperatures are in the upper 20s to near 30, so it’s not melting. The crest is past Fargo and is actually about 20 miles from Grand Forks. The additional snow probably won’t add to the crest, but will delay getting the river back down below flood stage.

Blizzard shows off some new screenshots in its latest Blizzcast. (Image courtesy: Blizzard.com)

Blizzard showing off some new screenshots today of the Diablo 3 UI.  The screenshots were released as part of the BlizzCast Episode 8. In the UI shots you can see the menu for character information and for weapons and armor layouts.

In the BlizzCast Bornakk asks Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson about the return of shrines to the series.  “Well there are some aspects of shrines that we liked,” said  Wilson.  “Experience shrines I think are probably the prime example everyone uses. They’re fun because they drive the player forward. Monster shrines are sometimes fun because they bring out a rare that you didn’t know or weren’t expecting that could come from any direction and that’s cool.”

Wilson goes on to say that shrines will not be coming back in the same form, but the developers “are trying to bring back kind of the best things of them in a different form.” (more…)

Its the biggest opening weekend so far this year…. the animated sci-fi/action movie “Monsters vs. Aliens” hauls in $58 million in a weekend with very little family film competition.   The horror movie “The Haunting in Connecticut” was a distant 2nd and the action thriller “12 Rounds” was an even more distant 7th.

Last week’s number one “Knowing”, number two “I Love You, Man”, and number three “Duplicity” dropped two spots, holding their order from last week, but “I Love You, Man” lost the least from last week, just 29% of its audience while “Knowing” lost 40% of its audience and “Duplicity” lost 46% from last week.

“Sunshine Cleaning”, which opens in Grand Rapids market this Friday, nearly cracked the Top 10 in its 3rd week of limited release, despite playing in just 167 theaters nationwide. 

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Monsters vs. Aliens” – $58.20 million (1st week)

2. “The Haunting in Connecticut” – $23.01 million (1st week)

3. “Knowing” – $14.71 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 40% of audience from last week)

4. “I Love You, Man” – $12.60 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 29% from last week)

5. “Duplicity” – $7.56 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 46% from last week)

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Monday AM: Nice Sunset Sunday Night at the lakeshore!  We should see some sunshine and lighter winds for Monday AM.   Snowfall:  6″ at Cadillac  and at Dighton in Osceola Co, 2-4″ in Oceana and Mason Counties and in Montague.  7″ up at Lake Ann near TVC.   Only 0.1″ at GRR, so the season snowfall is at 104.9″.  Lansing added 0.9″ to boost the season total to 65.7″.   Muskegon had 0.4″ snow for 148.2″ for the season.  Kalamazoo (WMU) added 0.1″ and they are up to 99.9″ for the season.     Check out the snow on the ground (in daylight) at webcams north of Grand Rapids like Big Star Lake, Ludington, Hart, Ha mlin Lake, Gaylord, Suttons Bay, Holland (where they had a gust to 47 mph at 2:15 PM).  Across the lake, 8.3″ near Racine, WI, 7″ near Kenosha and 5″ in Milwaukee.  Many areas have had 1/2 to over an inch of mostly rain.    We go below freezing this Sunday Night, so any puddles will freeze up.  Check out Great Lakes Radar, GRR radar, Lightning Loop, the GRR Forecast Discussion, and them Michigan surface map.    This has been an AMAZING BLIZZARD:  28″ of new snow at Pratt, KS – 24″ at Sawyer and Coldwater…over a foot at Great Bend, Hutchinson and Salina.  Drifts are over 6 feet, roads are blocked, numerous trees and power lines are down.  Fort Supply, OK reports 25″ of new snow!  At 1 AM Saturday, Amarillo Texas had a visibility less than 1/4 mile in heavy snow and blowing snow, the wind was NW at 24, they were 25 degrees and the wind chill was +9.     We would get lighter amounts (trace to an inch south of a Hart to Big Rapids line), with 3-8″ to the north.   Here’s the GFS model total snowfall thru 120 hours and the  NAM model snowfall through 84 hours.  Freaky temperature falls:  Amarillo, Texas was 69 when the blizzard warning started.  They dropped 23 degrees in two hours and the humidity went from 12% to 76%.  In one hour Dalhart, Texas went from 46 degrees and a visibility of 9 miles to 28 degrees and a visibility of 1/4 mile in snow and blowing snow with a temperature of 28 and a north wind of 39 mph with gusts to 53 mph.  The wind chill dropped from 58 to 11 in 3 hours.  This storm also produced 56 tornadoes in four days across the South, wind gusts over 90 mph and hail to 3″ in diameter!

unrelated notes:  Here’s the NCAA men’s basketball brackets...I see that George Kell passed away at age 86.  He was an all-star 3rd baseman for the Detroit Tigers and their play-by-play guy in the announce booth for many years.  There was a little minor wind damage from t-storms (actually more like showers) as close to us as the Chicago area Monday evening.

Zeeland East’s incredibly run came up a few jump shots short of the storybook finish they were hoping for.  The Chix shot 35% from the floor in the championship game, and lose to Flint Powers 62-54.