Starcraft2
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WoW Insider on G4 last night
Here's video, direct from G4, of my appearance on Attack of the Show last night. A little bumpy-- I mixed up Warcraft 3 and WoW (who knows how that happened), and I said the Blood Elves when I meant Draenei, but otherwise I think I got my points across fairly well. I do think Blizzard is going to pull some good elements from WC3 and WoW into SC2, and of course I think this will be a uniquely Blizzard game, no matter who they hire to work on it. For the record, I was right: the poll had 60% of voters saying Starcraft 2 was not a letdown.I did get a little cut off at the end (that's probably why the mic levels jump a bit), because I was trying to wholly disagree with Garnett: Blizzard is not going to bring this game to consoles. I do agree that they're aiming for Holiday 2008, though, if only because that'll be the 10th anniversary of Starcraft. Thanks to G4 for putting this all together, and thanks to everyone who tuned in and watched it live last night.
WoW Insider on G4's Attack of the Show tonight
Just a note to let you all know that I've been invited to be on G4's Attack of the Show this evening, at 7 and 11 pm Eastern time (so you can watch me on the show, then watch the Heroes or 24 season finales-- I'm recording both, because woot-- and then watch me again!).They've asked me to talk about Starcraft 2 and Blizzard, so I'll have some juicy tidbits about Blizzard's latest game, I'm sure, and hopefully they'll allow me some commentary about Blizzard at large and how SC2's release might affect World of Warcraft. An entry on their blog (fittingly named Attack of the Blog) says that some other dudes from some other websites may be on there as well (I've always wanted to have a friendly face-off against Crecente on live national television), but we'll see.So if you get a chance, please check it out. And we should have embedded video up soon. That way you lucky people can revisit my visage on G4 again and again and again. Let us know if you do. Should be fun, see you tonight.
Starcraft II on WoW's homepage
The image above is what you saw if you visited the official WoW homepage this weekend, and a few players wondered why Blizzard was talking about a real-time strategy game on a site meant to discuss a MMORPG. Yeah, how dare they do that!But it's a good question-- Starcraft II will be (assuming it does get released) the first game Blizzard has published since WoW, and so there's a lot of questions about how this will all be handled. How much do the audiences actually intersect? (personally I love MMORPGs, but not so much RTS, if only because I'm so bad at them) And how is Blizzard going to connect the two games, if at all-- are we going to see ads for Starcraft on the loading screen for WoW, or even in-game? Blizzard fans will probably buy and enjoy both games, but there is likely a larger percentage of the WoW population who just don't care about an RTS, even if it is another Blizzard game.Of course, Blizzard has faith in both games serving their audiences well-- not only is the Starcraft team well-equipped to build their game, but WoW, they say, won't suffer one bit. I tend to believe them on that one, as Blizzard undoubtedly hired a lot of people to make sure WoW is running as smoothly as possible, and while Metzen is apparently working on Starcraft as well as directing WoW's lore, I'd doubt the two teams have that many people in common. Of course, rumors persist that Blizzard will be announcing yet another game at Blizzcon. Along with the new expansion, multiple sources are still reporting that we'll hear about Diablo 3 in August. Can it be possible that Blizzard might be split three ways at the same time? And can that possibly be a good thing for WoW's development?
Blizzwatch: It's about time
It's short, sweet, and to the point. And honestly, I would have to agree. The wait is finally over. Now we have a new waiting game. Any bets on when we'll see this released?
Moviewatch Extra: Starcraft 2 gameplay
Hot on the heels of screenshots and the trailer from Starcraft 2 comes this gameplay video! Man, it's an exciting time to be a fan. Thanks for the YouTube link, Fisker! You can also download the video from RapidShare. Follow the cut for one more video on YouTube.[thanks again, Rich]
Blizzard announces Starcraft II, Korea implodes with joy
It all lead up to this: StarCraft II. After months of speculation Blizzard announced today at their World Wide Invitational in Korea that their next big project is StarCraft II for PC.Blizzard president Mike Morhaime says, "With StarCraft II, we'll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more ... We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy." Meanwhile, IGN's man in Korea, Charles Onyett says, "SC2 looks, at least visually, strikingly similar to SC1 - both in unit and map designs." This has been Blizzard's longest gap between releases. Blizzard had a consistent two-year release schedule (not including expansion packs) since 1994 with the original WarCraft. That streak was broken in 2006 when StarCraft: Ghost was killed indefinitely postponed. Although no release date has been given for StarCraft II, hopefully gamers won't have to worry about another installment of the series being "postponed."%Gallery-3311%[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
SC2 gameplay pics
Yes, folks, this site is going to be Starcraft 2 Insider for the next little while. Somehow I don't think you guys'll mind too much -- we're all Blizzard fans here, right? Anyway, I turned up a few gameplay pictures from the Starcraft 2 announcement, and here they are! IGN also has many excellent official screenshots over at their site [thanks, Rich]. Although that seems to be getting hammered right now, they're definitely worth checking out. The game looks a lot more like Starcraft 1 than I would have expected, which is a good thing, in my opinion.%Gallery-3309%
Moviewatch Extra: Starcraft 2 trailer
This is the Starcraft 2 trailer from the WWI announcement less than an hour ago. Do I really need to say more? Starcraft 2! Despite the fact that this is all CGI, with no actual gameplay showcased, it's still got me even more excited for what is sure to be an amazing game.
IGN liveblogging Starcraft 2 announcement
Charles Onyett of IGN is in Korea right now liveblogging the Starcraft 2 announcement. Here's what I've pulled out of his hurried updates so far. Game is playable (pray for a demo at Blizzcon), but nothing is final. Protoss Zealots have their psi blades and shield, along with a new charge ability. There's a new Protoss unit called an Immortal, with a shield that activates when damaged-- looks like they're already implementing Paladins then. A new Protoss unit called a Stalker can blink around-- Blizzard wants Protoss to quickly put an army anywhere on the map. Three more new Protoss units: Colossus has long legs and can move quickly, Warprey is a flying unit that does more damage the more it focuses a ray on a target, and a Pheonix can overcharge weapons, but have a cooldown afterwards. Zerglings can now become suicide bombs in a kind of rolling form. There's a physics system in the game-- destroyed units can roll down ramps. System can handle at least 100 units at a time, and looks "similar to SC1 - both in unit and map designs." It must be 3D, though. Right? Still more to come, including hopefully video of the event. An opening cinematic was shown as well-- shouldn't be too long before we see that online.
It's Starcraft 2
Yup. Apparently Blizzard makes RTS games now, because they just announced Starcraft 2 in Korea.Prepare to be zerged, protossed, and maybe even terraned, plus who knows what else they'll come up with. More to come. Lots more.Get all your Starcraft 2 info right here.
Authentication system down for an hour tonight: important?
Ok, now maybe we're getting a little paranoid about this, but look: Blizzard is performing a one hour maintenance on the authentication system this evening, according to the login screen. It starts at 11:00 PDT, and thus will go to midnight PDT...... which is exactly when their announcement is supposed to happen! Coincidence?!?!?All right, so maybe it is. But when have they ever done maintenance on a Friday night, huh? Maybe, they're adding a new game (like, oh I don't know, a new MMORPG) to the authentication system, and that's why they have to bring it down. Did you ever think of that?Yes, the speculation is running a little wild, but the announcement in Korea is just hours away. We just can't wait!
Upcoming Blizzard announcement to be a new Starcraft?
With the countdown continuing on Blizzard's homepage, there's plenty of speculation on what Blizzard is cooking up. Warcraft 4? Starcraft 2? Diablo 3? I'm staying out of the speculation game, myself -- as much as we might guess and hope for a specific product, Blizzard is good at throwing us surprises. However, the Starcraft 2 rumors are growing in volume, fueled by the recent discovery of a Starcraft2.com page owned by Blizzard Entertainment which redirects viewers to Blizzard's main site. Gamespot went live with the story on Tuesday, and since then I've heard it just about everywhere. Reports of it are crowding my inbox. Barrens chat can't stop talking about it. And Blizzard rumors even seem to dominate OOC chat in Lord of the Rings Online. But is this really a sign that we're going to be hearing all about Starcraft 2 this weekend?My magic 8-ball has informed me signs point to no. Or even if Starcraft 2 is what we're going to hear -- this isn't really a sign of it. The domain record from Network Solutions tells us that Blizzard has owned Starcraft2.com since 1999 and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows the page redirecting to Blizzard's main home page since at least 2002. Starcraft2.com is neither new nor has it recently changed. No, Blizzard doesn't own Diablo3.com (it's a Diablo 3 news site), Warcraft4.com (an advertisement site), WorldofStarcraft.com (a German WoW site), or WorldofDiablo.com (a German Diablo site). But does the fact that they've owned Starcraft2.com for eight years now mean anything relevant to the coming announcement? I think not.[Thanks to numerous tipsters]
Blizzard's site updated to Diablo
Well when Blizzard first changed their Blizzard.com splash page, I, like many players, wondered if the game they're planning to announce on May 19th had something to do with the first two Warcraft games. But here's practically proof that that isn't the case-- they've updated their page now to Diablo (released in 1996), with a nice quote from Deckard Cain.So it looks like we're going to get a countdown of Blizzard over the years. The announcement is coming this Saturday, and I count four days in between now and then (and four games left in the countdown), so it seems that by the time we hit WoW, Saturday will be upon us and we'll know what Blizzard is planning to do next. I'm just wondering what cool quote they'll use for WoW-- there's no way they'd do it, but "Mgurrurggugrle" would make me laugh a lot.At any rate, speculation can shift away again from another Warcraft RTS, and back to Starcraft II or Worlds of Starcraft!
Something's coming [UPDATE]
Recently the Blizzard website main page switched over to this new splashpage. It's intriguing. Since we know that something is indeed coming, this only confirms that there will actually be an announcement of some significance on May 19th. Looking at the graphic I noticed a few things. First, The Burning Crusade is not listed separately. This leads me to believe that the announcement isn't simply an expansion, but an entirely new game. Oh, the curiosity burns within me. What will it be? Also, I see that the games Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness are highlighted, but not Warcraft III or World of Warcraft. Perhaps this is a game that is centered around the first two games in the Warcraft canon. Is it World of Starcraft as the leaks have said, or is it Diablo III? Is it something else? Why can't it be the 19th already! [Updated 5/13/2007 7 pm EST] In searching through forum posts about this topic, I came across a fabulous summary by Colrum of Shadowsong who references some interesting tidits on Blizzplanet. They are citing recent events, such as the hiring of RTS guru Dustin Browder in 2004 and the May 2007 release of a new Starcraft novel, as evidence that we may be seeing a new Starcraft RTS rather than an MMO. Take this how you will, but it sounds very plausible to me. Also of note, several people have said that this graphic is a countdown page. This is substantiated by the HTML source code which labels the image as "day1.jpg." Looks like we will have a countdown similar to the Worldwide Invitational website. It only remains to be seen what that question mark reveals on the 19th. [via Adrian]
Rumor: Blizzard announces Starcraft 2 in May
Multiple sources, including our buddies at Joystiq, are reporting that Blizzard is bringing a big surprise to their World Wide Invitational event, held in South Korea on May 19. And the rumors say that the surprise is none other than Starcraft 2. As in a new race, lots of changes to existing units, and a glorious return to Blizzard's RTS brilliance.It may not be, of course. Blizzard hasn't confirmed anything yet (of course they haven't), except to say that they will be making a big announcement then. They have talked about Starcraft 2 before, and if they're going to release a new Starcraft anywhere, it might as well be in South Korea. But of course the next WoW expansion has to be announced sometime, and Diablo 3 has been going through the rumor mills for a long time, too.No matter what Blizzard announces, you can bet it'll be seen in some form (hopefully playable... drool) at Blizzcon in August. And then whatever it is, considering Blizzard is making it, we'll probably see it on store shelves in early 2015.
Does Blizzard need a little help with StarCraft 2?
A Joystiq tipster has pointed us to a Blizzard job posting for a "Level Designer" with "experience building levels using any popular 3D Real-Time Strategy game toolset."Hmmmm, any popular RTS you say? Based on pure speculation and phenomenal hope, could this ad be for someone to join a team that is developing the as-yet-unannounced StarCraft 2? We would have to assume so, since it has been soooo long since the original StarCraft first blessed us with its appearance. Blizzard would be a fool not to be currently working on its successor. The thing is a guaranteed monster hit in waiting! [Thanks, Skarabrae]
