Starcraft 2

There’s been quite a bit of speculation about Starcraft 2 release date – as with all Blizzard games. Blizzard’s motto – it’s out when it’s ready – means that exact dates are now known before about a month before.

So it’s good news that Mike Morhaime said at E3 that Starcraft will be out in 2009. Of course, he put it in a conditional sentence!

Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime has said that Starcraft II will be released this year as long as it “meets our standards and the expectations of our players”.

The latest gameplay video I saw, there have been some new Protoss units, so I guess Blizzard never tire of adding/subtracting units.

Another batch of videos demonstrating Zerg gampleay…

Part I: Zerg vs Protoss

Part II: Zerg vs Protoss

This is from the 2006 quarterfinals – to be honest, I’ve never tried countering a 4 drone rush with drones but since it doesn’t look it works, I’m not terribly disappointed.

This is the panel discussion regarding Stracraft 2 gameplay at the WWI in Paris (where Diablo 3 was announced). The video is a bit long but worth it!

There’s still nothing on Starcraft’s release date though – I hope it’s early 2009!

Here’s a Zerg gameplay video… There should be zerglings as well as the new Banelings!

Starcraft2.com has come out with a Terran gameplay video. The whole thing is about 600MB but it’s worth it because it’s HD (1280×720). You can download it here.

Here’s a low-res version to keep you occupied while you wait:

Here’s the same game play video (as below) – this time narrated by Chris Sigaty. Note that the current label for Starcraft 2 is “internal alpha”. He does mention it will be playable at Blizzcon though and also says there will be a beta (though it might not be a public one).

An amazing game play video with more info on the upcoming Protoss units. This is a bit better quality than the ones at Youtube but I hope Blizzard will upload an HD version to Starcraft2.com

Words fall short but here’s the gist of it:

1) Soul Hunter – his attacks get stronger the more units he destroys.

2) Phase Canon – you can now move them around the base.

3) Mass Tempests (previously known as Carriers) – now feature a shield that protects them from ground attacks. They’ll also cost less.

4) Twilight Archon – powerful infantry unit, doesn’t seem much different from its previous incarnation

Blizzard will be at E3 2007 through July 10-13. Expect to see more gameplay videos from E3.

According to Karune:

Blizzard will be at E3 this year. Members of the Dev Team for Starcraft II and I will be there showing off bits of the game to the press. Look forward to seeing you there if you’re going.

See you there!

There’s a huge interview about the making of the cinematic trailer (i.e. the starcraft 2 trailer). I got the link from my Blizzard insider newsletter, so go and subscribe to it if you haven’t already.

Back to the interview though, there’s a ton of info on the scenes, the creative process, and what not. Here’s a point that I liked:

StarCraft II will have cut-scenes just like the original StarCraft games, but one thing I’m really excited about is that this time, the controls for these scenes will be much more intricate than before. Since our graphics engine for the game itself can display a wide range of effects, such as normal mapping, we can actually create in-game cut-scenes of near-cinematic quality. And since we have more control over camera movement, unit animation, and lighting, our only limitations here are the engine’s limitations. A good part of the plot will unfold through in-game cut-scenes, but the most pivotal scenes are still being told through cinematics.

The camera movements and the 3D engine mean that apart from excellent single player, we’ll potentially have an abundance of mods (like Diablo 2 mods) which could have their own cinematics:

Our plan is to make all the tools we use to create the in-game cut-scenes available to the players with StarCraft II. It’s always been our tradition to ship level-editing tools with our games, and I think that adds a lot to the success and longevity of games like Warcraft III and the original StarCraft.

I’m convinced! Now launch the goddam beta already!