Starcraft 2: it's official

[Kaodi]

I started replaying through the old campaigns a little while ago (for like the third or fourth time), before they actually announced the sequel. Currently at the start of the last Protoss mission of the original three campaigns, and then I'll install Brood War (I didn't uninstall so much as fail to install when I bought my computer almost two years ago).

I wonder what order the campaigns will be in. StarCraft was Terran, Zerg, Protoss, and Brood War was Protoss, Terran, Zerg. I wonder if StarCraft 2 will be Z, P, T, though I imagine it may be T, Z, P again, or T, P, Z, since it seems the tradition to always start people with the most humanlike faction in any game.

Will Kerrigan be cut down, redeemed and cut down, win again, or flee to fight another day?

And we better get to see some cool Xel'Naga stuff, hehehe...

In any case, I looked at half of IGNs screenshots, and from them I surmise that SC2 may have the same unit cap as the original, 200 per race (also known as 600 if you are a Dark Archon fan, hehehe). Of course, I think perhaps I only ever saw the unit cap reached once in a pro game, MAYBE.

I wonder if we will see the triumphant return of the StarCraft Greats, or if they will be quickly owned by the younger, faster generation.

 

[Enforcer]

Between the last time I regularly played and now, I switched from Windows to Mac, so kinda had no choice.

 

[Kaodi]

Hmmm... EN World StarCraft League, hehehe...

 

[Enforcer]

Don't you mean "kekeke"?

 

[punkorange]

Hmmm... EN World StarCraft League, hehehe...

Sounds fun. I wonder how competitive it SC2 will become? I mean as big as blizzard has become online with WoW, they could easily do some really fun tournaments.

 

[Kaodi]

Wikipedia mentions that this time around they are designing it from the ground up to be an ultra-competitive multiplayer game, better than the original. I imagine that it will not take very long at all for a professional Korean league to form. There was even mention on Wikipedia that Blizzard will be broadcasting games in North America.

 

[WizarDru]

Now that's some good news! And no 3D, woohoo!

I take it you haven't watched any of the gameplay movies, yet? Go to gametrailers and see for yourself. You might be fooled into thinking that it's 2D because the graphics are of the same basic design (albeit significantly enhanced).

But if you watch some of the movies, like the Immortals vs. Seige Tanks movie or the 'Final Battle' movie, you'll see that it is very much in 3D, especially when the camera rotates. This is one reason this game could not be done on the Wii...it's simply requires too much horsepower. Especially since a game like this wouldn't play that well at 480p: you need more screen real estate than 16:9 480p can provide.

What's amazing is that Blizzard could get the project this far down the line with no leaks of art, gameplay or interfaces until now. And that Protoss Mothership? HOLY *&$^#(@*!!! That Black Hole gun is just NASTY. I luvs me some Protoss.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Of course, given the development schedule for WoW, I'd say this suggests that a Starcraft MMO is their next one.

Prior to SC2, Blizzard's last four announcements were:

Diablo II expansion, Warcraft III, WoW, Warcraft III expansion

I wouldn't be in the least surprised if they were taking the lessons they learned in developing War3 and WoW and doing an even better integration of the two games this time around.

And the Warcraft novels are all definitely part of the background for War3 and WoW. I'd count on the same thing being true for SC2.

 

[TwistedBishop]

Of course, given the development schedule for WoW, I'd say this suggests that a Starcraft MMO is their next one.

I think their next MMO will be World of Warcraft 2 (not before 2012 most likely, but still).

What would they really get out of a Starcraft MMO? WoW is just getting bigger and bigger. They'd be fracturing their install base on a risky genre (sci-fi has never caught on in the MMO space) for very little possible gain.

Blizzard's output for the next several years should be very predictable. Starcraft 2 (announced, naturally) and Diablo 3 (which they've been working on for a while) amidst several new WoW expansions (one a year is their quote, even if it sounds too ambitious). And then WoW2.

 

[Kaodi]

Somewhere it was stated that Blizzard is not looking to make another MMO using the same formula as WoW. So, I doubt they are making WoW 2, and I kind of doubt that they are making WoD.

I think if they are going to make World of StarCraft, it is more likely to be a MMORTS. What would really be a surprise is if StarCraft II actually has that capability built in, though that is probably rather unlikely, .