[Dasilva]

OMG! its here starcraft II:
http://eu.starcraft2.com/

[Rayvielle]

I'm SO glad I was wrong

[wilco]

Great announcement!!
And with gameplay videos, not just a teaser...
The screenshots look great, it won't probably need crazy specs to run

Just installed Starcraft, i don't think I ever finished Brood Wars. I probably still have until 2009 to finish it

[Dasilva]

I actually think Starcraft II will be out as soon as December 2007.

[samIamsad]

I take it that Dasilva feels... kinda okayish ATM?

About a December 2007 release: Blizzard might not be 3DRealms, but they're still, well Blizzard. On the other hand though: According to recent news, they began development as soon as "The Frozen Throne" was finished and shipped. That means Summer 2003, so who knows. "Starcraft 2" is also something that at least at this point belongs to a dying breed, isn't it? It's an AAA title that's not only being developed for a single platform, but PC only. I expected otherwise, but the webiste claims that currently there are no plans to release it on any other platform other than Windows (and Mac).

Hell, it's about time.

[Rayvielle]

I wouldn't be surprised to see a 360, PS3 conversion eventually, though.

And perhaps the original title on DS/PSP to help promotion

[insane_cobra]

Just watched the gameplay videos at GameTrailers. They look great, but a bit too familiar. Sure, everything animates beautifully and new units seem like a blast to play, but mechanics seem pretty much the same we had in 1998. Even then they were arguably behind of what games like Total Annihilation were doing at the time.

Maybe it's too early to be asking that question, but do you think Starcraft 2 will be able to hold its own against modern RTS games like Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander and Universe at War?

By the way, reinstalling Starcraft as we speak.

[Catbert]

I'm orgasming still, but to be honest the graphics look a little too Star Trek to me, too clean, you know? Still, it's fucking starcraft and I won't miss it for the world

[Dasilva]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

By the way, reinstalling Starcraft as we speak.

Your telling me. I just started to replay it too.

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

J
Maybe it's too early to be asking that question, but do you think Starcraft 2 will be able to hold its own against modern RTS games like Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander and Universe at War?

Last time I checked, "Warcraft 3" and, of course, the predecessor "Starcraft" are pretty much the only strategy games being played for actual money, but also one of the few that are actually being played online in really large numbers. Not just in Korea, but world-wide. And this yeaars after their initial release. After my playing experience, there might be reasons other than popularity.

Before I started getting more into "Warcraft 3", I thought the (on the outlook) pretty basic mechanics were a bit too simple, and overall, except for heroes and creeping and upkeep and all the nuances that pretty much force you to play offensive (XP and items not earned by you are XP and items earned by your enemy!), it's still the same principle like in "Dune 2", only with gathering two ressources instead of one. But once I got into it, I really appreciated the little nuances, the diversity of the units, the races et all. Unlike "Command & Conquer" for example (at least in the earlier incarnations, don't know the new one), you have to actually watch your enemey. Machtes are dynamic that way, cause it's all paper, scissors, rock. It's fast, it's fun, it's easy to play but hard to master and at the same time requires quite some skill ( ) to play on better levels.

Despite those differences that set WC3 clearly appart from the "Starcraft" series, I think "Starcraft" is much the same in that way, except that races are said to be even more diverse. Can't tell, I've only played the marines demo. Well, then there's also Blizzard's support. I think the last patch for "Starcraft", an almost ten years old game was released just a couple of months ago. If you look at something like "Total Annihilation" you had like two billion of units, but it's the simple things that matter in the end, and simplicity and playability are where it's at. That said, team fluctuation at Blizzard in recent years taking into account, I'd still make the guess that SC2 will have more players than all the names you dropped above combined. As each Blizz game it will very likely be played long after the release hype has settled down, and constantly released patches have ironed out the ballance of the beta-tested release version even more. I've heard complaints that SC2 looks too similar to the first one so far, though.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Dasilva

Your telling me. I just started to replay it too.

Isn't it funny, I also just fished my copy out of the drawer.

[insane_cobra]

Oh, I've no doubts that Starcraft 2 will be an enormous hit, just as I don't doubt that Halo 3 will be this year's biggest game (well, either Halo 3 or GTA 4), even if it turns out a huge pile of dung, I'm just a bit disappointed that it seems to be ignoring everything that happened in the genre during the last 10 years. But I guess you don't mess with the winning formula.

[Dasilva]

I think Starcraft 2 will outsell all 3 halo games put together. =p In Korea alone.

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

I'm just a bit disappointed that it seems to be ignoring everything that happened in the genre during the last 10 years. But I guess you don't mess with the winning formula.

As I always tend to say: Stop thinking genre, start thinking game. "Frozen Throne" is a damn fine game exactly as it is to me, regardless of what genre it's supposed to belong to.

Seriously, though, it's nothing new that Blizzard are hardly the most original company in the World. "Diablo" is SOO a fucking "Net Hack meets Wizardry" rip-off , only shinier, as much as "Warcraft" would have never existed without "Dune". Yet, I challenge you to come up with a game released in the past ten years that surpasses especially the multiplayer aspects of these games. Now, this is gaming, it's all a matter of taste. But why do you think it is that all these wonderful things that "happened in the genre during the last 10 years" didn't seem to have made any impact on E-sports at all?

And during the course of the the last couple of games, another cool thing is that Blizzard even broke out of the bog standard "build base, crush enemy" (wash, rinse, repeat ad nauseum) type of mission design for their single player campaigns. "Frozen Throne" hardly didn't even have any anymore. Who knows what "Starcraft 2" will really be like?

[samIamsad]

Krawall.de did a short interview .

Krawall.de: Will there be any big changes made to the three races?

Blizzard: We've analyzed all established units and substituted many with new ones. In doing so we had to take some older units out of the game, because too large a number of units would only make the game more intransparent. All in all it will be a completely different playing experience, but we'll hardly have any more units than in "Starcraft".


Krawall.de: How far are you into development?

Blizzard:Very far. Multi- and singleplayer are already playable.


Krawall.de: How big were budget and team?

Blizzard: The team consisted of 40 people, budget we'll just take as much as we want to make the game perfect.

Every game developer's wet dream come true? And yeah, further talks how they started development in 2003 and about their plans to enhance their magnificent battle.net service for this release on the one side, as well as keeping it the same as it is on the other: Free, that is. Best copy protection ever invented, anyway. Well, right after this, naturally.


Also: Heheh!

[wilco]

Maybe the game is not that far off, judging by the gameplay videos... Anything before fall 2008 would be incredible for Blizzard
There a new huge gameplay video at the official site, but it's so slow (6 hours now until download)

Just finished the Terran campaign, the game still holds up great, except with some problems with the pathfinding, on the other side I'm really rusty, I'm not touching battle.net

Spoiler:

Damn you Arcturus, damn you!

[insane_cobra]

I tried playing one of the last Brood War missions, the one in which you need to take down the Protoss base in 30 minutes. With my current SC skills, it's pretty much impossible.

[Starflux]

I pretty much cheated throughout the whole Brood War campaign seven or eight years ago. I'm going to have to play through it again to get a refresher on the story. What I do know is that

Spoiler:

Arcturus Mengsk is a fantastic character, on par with Kerrigan at least. Unfortunately, the character becomes somewhat of a caricature in Brood War. Some of the novels makes up for it again, though there are other Starcraft books that are gawd-awful: Shadow of the Xel'naga is a terrible, terrible book. This aside.

[samIamsad]

Pussies. Is "Broodwars" harder than the "Frozen Throne" add-on?

Blizzard talks art design over at Gamespot.

Didier explains that within the core philosophies of Blizzard art design, "nothing is subtle--every character is over the top; every environment is either beautiful or battle scarred." According to the art director, Blizzard's characters come to life by means of strong silhouettes, exaggerated proportions, distinctive animations, and "bold, saturated colors" so that they not only look memorable, but are easy to distinguish at a glance as well.

Quite some people seem to be complaining about exactly this. I dunno, it isn't really as comic in style as "Warcraft 3" at all, it's just.. whoa COLOURS! Maybe that's the thing, I always thought Starcraft looked kinda drab compared to the fine visual stimuli of later Blizzard games. Slap me now if you wanna.

[Dasilva]

Its funny how some people doubt Starcraft 2, when Blizzard has the best track record out of any company I know other than Valve for making grade A games.