Starcraft 2 Officially Announced

[!King_Amazon!]

Yep. No article on me though, it was JUST announced.

[Sovereign]

http://pc.ign.com/articles/790/790128p1.html

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html

SEX

[MightyJoe]

I have to admit the screenshots are amazing.

[Lenny]

Trust me to find this after posting my own thread. :rolleyes:.

Ah well, here's what I posted, complete with lots of links.

---

Blizzard Entertainment today unveiled StarCraft II, the sequel to its award-winning real-time strategy game StarCraft, at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Seoul, South Korea. The announcement took place inside the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, in front of thousands of attendees, who received a presentation that included a StarCraft II cinematic trailer and a gameplay demonstration by the development team.

Designed to be the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game, StarCraft II will feature the return of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races, overhauled and re-imagined with Blizzard's signature approach to game balance. Each race will be further distinguished from the others, with several new units and new gameplay mechanics, as well as new abilities for some of the classic StarCraft units that will be making a reappearance in the game. StarCraft II will also feature a custom 3D-graphics engine with realistic physics and the ability to render several large, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously.

"With StarCraft II, we'll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more," stated Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "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."

StarCraft II will include a unique single-player campaign, as well as fast-paced online play through an upgraded version of Blizzard's renowned online gaming service, Battle.net®. In addition, the game will come with a powerful, full-featured map editor that will put the same tools used by Blizzard's designers into the hands of players.

Blizzard is developing StarCraft II for simultaneous release on the Windows® and Macintosh® PC platforms. Further information about the game, including details on the single-player, multiplayer, and map-editor features, as well as system requirements, pricing, and availability, will be announced in the months ahead. To learn more about StarCraft II, please visit the official website at StarCraft II (http://www.starcraft2.com/).

IGN: StarCraft II Unveiled (http://uk.games.ign.com/articles/790/790137p1.html)
IGN: Starcraft II Website Launched (http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/790/790145p1.html)
IGN: StarCraft II -- Not For Consoles (http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/790/790148p1.html)
IGN: StarCraft 2 Announced (http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/790/790128p1.html)

StarCraft 2: What Blizzard is Officially Saying news from 1UP.com (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159661)
StarCraft 2: First Screenshots news from 1UP.com (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159663)
StarCraft 2 Officially Announced news from 1UP.com (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159659)

GameTrailers.com - Starcraft 2 (PC) - Media, News, Reviews, Previews (http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=4868)

Additional Starcraft II details unveiled at press conference - PC News at GameSpot (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6171172.html)
Starcraft II warps into Seoul - PC News at GameSpot (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6171170.html)

Linkage for the win! :p

Enjoy!!

[Sovereign]

WHoa, was that a brief clip of kerrigan I saw.....

The game look's like it's pretty far off in the devlopement to me.... Could we possibly be seeing a release within the year?

[Vollstrecker]

I heard it was slated for 2009, but it's hearsay as I saw it in guildchat, I think.

[iceman887]

omg WOOT, i've been normal starcraft lately and i am hooked now so this is really exciting

[quikspy67]

Oh my god I never thought this day would come.

[Vollstrecker]

Eh, release is rumored to be 2008 on Wikipedia, but none of the references show where Blizzard has stated that.

Considering it's still pre-Alpha, I'd bet more on 2009.

[quikspy67]

2009 sounds about right.

[Willkillforfood]

Damn ...that'll make it what, 11 years between starcrafts?

[Lenny]

How are Blizzard with anniversary games and what not? Because if 2009 is 11 years since the previous Starcraft, they might decide to release it in 2008, for the game's 10th Anniversary.

[Vollstrecker]

I don't recall anniversary games except for like the WC2 Battlechest, I think. Blizz is notorious for delaying games forever, is all.

[Willkillforfood]

Starcraft 2, coming soon to a store near you in 2020.

[Xenn]

You know I was kind of hoping for Diablo 3... I have such great memories of playing Diablo 2. I don't know if I have the devotion it takes to be a competetive player in SC2.

I'm still looking forward to it though.

[Willkillforfood]

Diablo 3 would be better IMO. World of Starcraft would be cool. First person MMO =P.

[Sovereign]

My guess is 2 years from when WOW xpac released.

[Yawgmoth]

AAAAAARGH!! STARCRAFT 2! The Blizzard are cruel gods indeed, they deliver us one wonderful curse after another (not exactly.)
This... Hell, it's about time.

(It think it is about time to make "Hell, it's about time" a (forced) meme, if it isn't one already)

[Sovereign]

Ive some of the gameplay downloads converting to put on my ZUNE and stare at work through the whole day. Mothership black hole...

[Willkillforfood]

I need to read the story behind it. As to why there are so few dragoons left, etc.

[Willkillforfood]

I saw in an interview that they've been working on SC2 since WC3: The Frozen Throne was released. They said they wanted to announce a game that was playable for once. So maybe 2009 is too far away?

[Sovereign]

wow... so tha'ts what, 3 years? NOVEMBER of 07 PLEASE (wishful I know)!

[Sovereign]

They will always be dragoons to me. Immortals... pfft. This isn't underworld, blzzard!

[Vollstrecker]

They will always be dragoons to me. Immortals... pfft. This isn't underworld, blzzard!

The SC2 site explained that the buildings that produced Dragoons were destroyed by the zerg, along with the plans for them, hence the creation of the Immortals.

The game looks like it'll be fun, but I have trouble playing RTS competitively. I just simply can't track that many things at once. :(

[Sovereign]

STory I read said that the Immortals are just upgraded Dragoons.

[Vollstrecker]

STory I read said that the Immortals are just upgraded Dragoons.

I'll warn of a spoiler if someone wanted to actually find this out via the game when it comes out, but this comes directly off the Starcraft 2 website.














Before the loss of Aiur, veteran protoss warriors who had been crippled in battle could volunteer to continue their service by being transplanted into dragoon exoskeletons. Now, the dragoons of the past are all but gone. The sacred shrine that was dedicated to the creation of the dragoons was infested by the zerg and lost along with the protoss homeworld itself.

The remaining dragoons have become the Immortals, refitted with twin phase disruptors and hardened energy shields that can shrug off the most powerful weapon strikes - though at the cost of leaving them more vulnerable to the pinprick attacks of lesser foes. The heavily armed and shielded immortals give critical fire support to the ferocious legions of zealots by eliminating enemy artillery and ranged attackers, allowing the zealots to close in and complete their work of destruction.


http://starcraft2.com/features/protoss/index.xml?tab=immortal

At any rate, looks like it's kinda both what Sov and I said.

[Dar_Win]

I forget the original story already....

[Willkillforfood]

All the races originate from Tatooine.

[Vollstrecker]

Night Elves have infested Starcraft 2 already, and are dancing naked on top of buildings.

http://totallosers.us/sc2/nightelf.jpg

[Willkillforfood]

Immortal vs. NE female round 1.

[Vollstrecker]

Immortal vs. NE female round 1.

...legendary Photoshop inc when I get home from work, assuming I'm not too lazy or forget about it.

[Sovereign]

I want one barrel in the pink, and one in the stink.

Then I want it sent to blizzard fanart. Ty.

[Vollstrecker]

Might be a different Immortal than you're thinking.

[Sovereign]

The animation I'm watching shows 2 barrels on each side. One is longer then the other.

[Vollstrecker]

The animation I'm watching shows 2 barrels on each side. One is longer then the other.
Interesting, didn't they say "twin" cannons?

[WetWired]

A "twin" turbo often consists of a small and large turbine, so I guess the same can be true of guns.

[Vollstrecker]

A "twin" turbo often consists of a small and large turbine, so I guess the same can be true of guns.

That's interesting.

[Willkillforfood]

I just watched the 22 minute developer's video. Awesomee shit man. I can't wait to see all the new terran/zerg units.

[MightyJoe]

The game does look like a lot of fun imo.

[Thanatos]

This will be the 1st computer game I've bought in years.

[Dar_Win]

This will be the 1st computer game I've bought in years.

Same here. The last game I bought was Counter-Strike:Source

[Thanatos]

Mine was WC3

[!King_Amazon!]

I don't think I've ever really bought a computer game unless you needed a CD-key for it or somesuch, and even then sometimes I just got a CD-key from someone else. Blizzard's bad about making me buy games, though.

[Willkillforfood]

I'm curious as to the system requirements though.

[!King_Amazon!]

I think I remember when I was reading it said it would be easy enough to meet. Wouldn't require a super computer.

[Lenny]

I'd guess that it will at least require a DVD drive, a gig of RAM, probably 256mb of Graphics with maybe DirectX10 support, and a large amount of HDD space.

[!King_Amazon!]

Will StarCraft II take advantage of DirectX 10? What other graphical goodies are included?

The game will be compatible with DirectX 10, and we're still considering whether there will be exclusive DirectX 10 graphic effects, but the graphics engine will also be very scalable to ensure that a wide range of different systems will be capable of running StarCraft II. The new engine is also capable of rendering very large units, as well as large numbers of units on screen together. Havok physics have been integrated into the engine for added realism as well.

[Lenny]

Thought I might log back in to post this:

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6171790.html

Confirmed: No Starcraft II in 2007

Blizzard VP confirms to MSNBC that the recently unveiled real-time strategy sequel won't arrive until at least 10 years after the original.

[Sovereign]

Yup. Towards the end of 2008 was what gamestop.com said.

[Lenny]

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6172936.html (http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6172936.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;7)

Starcraft II Playable at BlizzCon.

[Vollstrecker]

Explains why tickets are sold out already. :)

[WetWired]

If you actually read it, tickets were sold out before the announcement.

[Vollstrecker]

If you actually read it, tickets were sold out before the announcement.

I know, it was announced on the WoW boards days ago, I'm just messing around.

Man, I'm going to have to make it more obvious when I'm playing...