You can checkout the preview on Blizzard’s StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm site.

The Terran, Zerg and Protoss are back in battle again.  After 12 years of waiting Blizzard has released StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

StarCraft 2 has the classic real-time strategy style of play that any old-school RTS gamers will be very familiar with and the interface is clean enough that any new-school RTS gamers will find it easy to pick-up.

Especially when it comes to the campaign.  The single-player campaign consists mostly of the Terran storyline based around Jim Raynor, a former soldier in the Terran Dominion, who is rebelling again Arcturus Mengsk, the misguided morally corrupt leader of the Terran Dominion.  You’ll find an assortment of support characters and helper in the 29 missions it’ll take to finish the game.  All with their unique functions and witty brand of cheesy lines.  Surprisingly there are some Protoss missions that break up the heavy Terran storyline.

Blizzard made the decision to split the storyline into three parts.  The Zerg and Protoss single-player campaigns will be released as expansions at a later date.  There are rumors about the coming expansions but everything is speculation until Blizzard provides an official news release .  The news release will most likely include pictures and videos.

There are some muti-player games to choose from as well.  First, there is the Co-op vs AI games where you can choose between two players vs two AI players (2vAI) or three players vs three AI  players (3vAI).  Second, there is player vs player games. You can choose between 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4.  There is a ranking and ladder system behind the player vs player games.  The better you and possibly your partner do the better your division and ranking will be.  Check out http://www.sc2ranks.com/ for the current StarCraft 2 rankings. http://starcraft.wikia.com/ has more information about the divisions and the ranking system.

Challenges are a new addition to the game. Each of the three races have their set of challenges with a grand total of nine to complete.  There are three different ratings you can get for challenges too.  They’re Gold, Silver and Bronze.  The better you do at the challenge the better your rating.

Achievements are also a new to Star Craft 2.  You’ll receive a fair number of achievements by finishing the game on normal mode, completing all the challenges with at least a bronze rating and but getting ranked in PVP.  You’ll also get portrait reward and achievement points for all achievements you complete.

Finally one of the most important features is the friends lists.  You can add friends via their email address, Facebook and their character name and character code.  Then you can chat with them in game.  What is really interesting is if your friends have a World of WarCraft account you can chat with them while you’re playing StarCraft.  It’s quite amazing actually.

Blizzard has made StarCraft 2 a really enjoyable game by adding in these new social features.  Innovations like these are starting to change how gaming companies are creating and release games as well as the communities that emerge around them.

The film schedule starts this week on Thursday, September 9th.  The opening night has quite an array of movies that span a few different genres.  Inside Job, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen and Fubar II are my top three picks for the opening night and there are plenty more to choose from.  The full schedule of films can be found here.

Personally I wish I had reserved some tickets to check out this years festival but I was late to the film festival game.  There are quite a few films that are definitely worth checkout.  A full list of the films is available here.

Celebrity spotting and parties are as much a part of TIFF as the movies. Here’s a run down of some of the hot spots.

The first weekend of the event, Sept. 11 and 12, marks the opening galas for the Bell Lightbox located at King and John St.  The donor’s gala is on Saturday and the public opening is on Sunday.

You can expect Yorkville-Ave. and Davenport corridor to flush with celebrity and industry dinners at Sotto Sotto, L’unita and the new Malena on Avenue Rd.  Other dinner spots to catch celebrities would be Opus and Bistro 990.

Fox Searchlight party and The Artists for Peace and Justice party will be hosted at Toro.ca Lounge at Pears on Avenue Rd.

The InStyle party will be hosts at the Windsor Arms Hotel.  Most of the media attention and talk is about the InStyle party because it’s said to be on of the best.  Apparently, it’s the best because of its laid-back nature, where celebrities walk around freely amongst those who have been invite.

You can find more information about the TIFF 2010 at their official site, http://tiff.net

Here’s a run down of what’s been going on this year.

365 Photo Project

On my birthday this year I started a photo project to take and post at least one picture a day for a year. You can check out all of the pictures that I’ve taken here: http://365project.org/properlofi/365

Trip to Mexico

The last week of April my girlfriend and I took a trip to Mexico. It was such an amazing trip. Lots of sun, beach, food and drinks. It was our first real trip together out of the country which made the experience that much better. Plus, our friends were getting married so we had to celebrate!

Fixing the house

Over the winter months I had a list of things that I wanted to repair around the house. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to just that. The cut-off values that control the water to the external faucets were in bad shape. I removed the old rusted cartridges that are inside the values and replaced them with new ones with washers and they work like a charm now.

My garden hose was leaking by the fittings so I removed the old hose fittings and replaced them with new fittings. Now it works just like it was a new hose.

I updated the light switches in my rec room. They’re dimmer switches now. I’m really happy about that.

That’s everything that’s been going on. I hoping to have more house parties over the summer. Cocktail parties galore!

I hope you’re all enjoying 2010. Personally I’m just glad to be alive to experience another year. I had a big scare over the holiday season. Some unexpected health problems. Everything is okay now. I have recovered quite well. Just a few more appointments and everything should be sorted to prevent this kind of thing in the future.

This year I’ve decided to get things done. You get so much satisfaction by finishing what you start. It’s definitely a change worth make. Speaking of change. I also have a couple of routine changes that I’m going to make. I’m wondering if it’ll improve my quality of life.

Here are a few projects I’ll be working on this year.

Project List

1. 365 Photo Project : Take at least one picture everyday of the year and upload it.

2. Get more sleep : Personally I would normally get about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. I’m going to try and increase that to at least 7 hours if not 8 hours of sleep a night.

3. Wake up and leave for work early : If you know me at all then you’ll know this change is a hard one for me. Normally I work from 10am to 6pm. Not because those are regular work hours for my company but because I like to sleep-in. Time to make an effort to wake up at 6:00am and get to work by 8am.

4. Go the gym : Starting on Friday I will be going to the gym at least twice a week. I could use a lot more exercise in my life. Hopefully paying for and going to the gym will help to encourage that. It’s a good thing I have a support system. My friend is joining with me.

5. Find and work more contracts : I do web design and web development side project as well as working my regular job. One day I might end up working for myself if I can find enough constant work to sustain myself for two years.

6. Finish outstanding web projects : There are a few personal web design and development projects that have been left half finish. It’s no ones fault but my own to finish them. Time to flex those organization skills and work through the grind.

7. Finish outstanding home projects : My offline work is just as important as my online work. Again my time management and organization skills will be put to the test.

That’s it. So far I’ve been able to make the change I need to be success with my new routine and I wish I can stick with them for the rest of the year.

I’m not quite sure why. Maybe because it’s a reminder that there are people that I can truly call friends and I know I’ll be in their thoughts over the holidays. Maybe it’s because in my mind sending out these cards is a way of send out wishes of happiness and joy to family and friends.

Regardless of all that, sending out Christmas and Holiday cards has become a tradition that I have start to look forward to and enjoy.

• Canon PowerShot G11
  $599.99 (CAD) at Canon eStore
• Canon PowerShot SD780 IS – Red
  $279.99 (CAD) at Canon eStore
• Acer Aspire® One D250 10.1″ Netbook
  $349.99 (CAD) at Canadacomputers.com
• Asus O!Play HDP-R1
  $114.99 (CAD) at Canadacomputers.com
• Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote
  $31.99 (CAD) at Best Buy Canada

There’s more to come. Enjoy and good luck with your holiday shopping.

The Forever War by Joe Halderman
http://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Joe-Haldeman/dp/0380708213

The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria
http://www.amazon.ca/Post-American-World-Fareed-Zakaria/dp/0393334805

How many books have you read this year?

http://www.news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2009/09/ban-on-hand-held-devices-starts-in-october.html

“Under Ontario’s new law, fines of up to $500 can be levied against distracted drivers who text, type, email, dial, or chat using a prohibited hand-held device.”

Time to invest in a hands-free solution for your hand-held device.