Don't tell me you're surprised; we could all see this coming from miles away, right? Plus, if Blizzard announced something like another World of WarCraft expansion in friggin' Korea (being the StarCraft capitol of the world and all), I imagine they'd have a small-scale riot on their hands. IGN's Charles Onyett is liveblogging the event in Seoul as we speak, providing the world with lots of sexy, sexy information about the much-anticipated sequel, but no images or videos just yet. Undoubtedly, we'll be seeing some high-resolution official media at Blizzard's official Web site in a short while -- 'til then, keep your eyes glued to Destructoid for more information. Update: Dig the CGI trailer! Update 2: Electric Boogaloo: IGN's got some crazy awesome screenshots, which you can check out here. Also, for more information, check out Blizzard's official press release after the jump.
SEOUL, South Korea – May 19, 2007 – 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 www.starcraft2.com.
About the StarCraft Series Since its debut in 1998, the original StarCraft has won unprecedented critical acclaim and has remained a staple of tournament gaming worldwide. The game's expansion set, StarCraft: Brood War, also released in 1998, is still considered by many to be one of the best add-on products ever created. To date, the series has sold more than 9.5 million copies worldwide.* StarCraft's gritty sci-fi universe has also spawned numerous complementary products, including several novels and action figures, as well as a pen-and-paper role-playing game.
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. ( www.blizzard.com), a division of Vivendi Games, is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard's track record includes ten #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online-gaming service, Battle.net, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users. In South Korea, Blizzard is regarded as having played a major role in bringing about the birth of professional gamers and game broadcasting. Furthermore, its games are acknowledged as one of the key drivers behind the popularization of South Korea's PC game room business.
|
|
Sweetness, I just hope they have heroes and stuff like WC3...
Beating off to this news as we speak. STARCRAFT 2 FTW!!!!
Why, how's it going Captain Obvious? Did anyone..anywhere, not see this coming? Exactly....
Its twue! It's twue it's twue!!!
Hum, the gameplay desmonstration is over and I can say i'm a tiny bit disapointed. It seems like they've only thrown in more weird units. Can't wait to see the Hybrids though, and I hope they keep the hero formula of Warcraft 3...
I'm not a big fan of overly huge battlefields like in Supreme Commander and Age of Empire. They've got to keep it to about the same ammount of units allowed in Starcraft 1 (200 food, which is about 60 to 100 units unless you only make zerglings, lol)
Captain obvious it was not. Everyone speculated a bunch of different games.
I'd've preferred Diablo III, myself. But yeah, Korea is Starcraft land, so SC2 wasn't too awfully surprising.
@gitrooman
If they had announced anything else than SC2, especially in Seoul: the capital of Starcraft, the entire Blizzard team would have been skinned... alive... by koreans... lots of them...
This is how we roll, Boba.
Now I've gotta go to bed. zzzzzzz
Zeag, I'll have to respectfully disagree. Hero units have driven me away from RTS games for the past 5 years or more. I want to just create a shitload of guys and throw them at my opponent's shitload of guys and repeat until I win. That's obviously oversimplification, but I enjoy watching 75 (or 100 or 200) zealots storm into an enemy's base a hell of a lot more than I would enjoy seeing 10 zealots and a hero unit storm into an enemy's base. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Hipple, you know what's better than that? 18 carriers. I call it the "Rape Fleet".
I wet my pants.
Hell yes. Linde and I are on the same page. God I love carriers.
URL to the trailer? Can't get it to work for me when I click the flash
For all you englishophiles...at the end the Marine says in Korean
"You wanna piece of me?" holy fuck this is gonna be epic
...I made a happy little girl noise.
StarCRACK... won't see anyone at work or class when this game comes out
WHAT DOES THE TEXT PEOPLE WERE CHEERING AT SAY GAH
@logue
The Text in korean says "Status - Active Service"
and i was wrong about what the Marine says...he actually says
"Its about time" fuckinge epic hahaha
I guess it's safe to say that Blizz still makes the finest CGI in the industry. Square's stuff looks nice, but it doesn't quite evoke that feeling of utter kick-ass, now does it?
I guess it's safe to say that Blizz still makes the finest CGI in the industry. Square's stuff looks nice, but it doesn't quite evoke that feeling of utter kick-ass, now does it?
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html
HOLY SHIT !!! SCREENSHOTS!!!
Is it wrong that I'm sad because of no Diablo 3 even though I knew it wouldn't happen? I'd still rather have it...
I agree with Nex. Square's tops when it comes to androgenous boys, but nobody beats Blizzard's CGI team when it comes to kickin' that ass.
I wonder how SCII will stand up to today's RTS scene with it's outdated vespene gas gathering and such... Time will tell I s'pose. More than anything I want to see a continuation of the story. Give us a release date!
Sean Fischer - Diablo III? Don't you mean Hellgate: London? :) Dreams do come true!
I'm sure it's going to be fun and all but I'm little disappointed by the IGN screenshots. Maybe I was just expecting too much.
Teknomage, are you retarded? Those screens look fucking mindblowing.
This'll come as bad news for people just looking for another time-sink mmo to make them feel special :)
So. I'm excited. You're excited. We seem to have a lot in common. What do you say we...explore our differences...
God, I need to go to bed, I don't even know what the hell I'm typing anymore. I stayed up to see this and then forgot about it until now.
Aaron, Like I wrote..maybe I was just expecting too much :P Just something about the graphics. Oh well, it's not like I won't get it when it's out anyway, heh
I wouldn't really call it captain obvious... i mean really, Blizzard has held back on making a starcaft 2 for years now; fans often asked for it but blizzard never delivered. It was rather iffy if they really would ever make the game. Poeple specualted but no one really knew anything... it's more like this a moment everyone was "Hoping for" as opposed to "expecting"
Y'know, and i can't help but think... it's probably bad idea to smoke inside one those helmets =P
X_X YAY!!!! X_X
[img=http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/3610/bzdwwi1xu1fx5.jpg]
Blizzard wins at life
Let's try that again...
@teknomage
I hear what your saying... the graphics seem to have a bit of a weak feel after watching that teaser. The teaser is done in a very realistic, dark, and highly detailed manner. Though nice, the graphics in the game do not seem as real (too be expected though, since that's ingame not fmv), are brighter and not as detailed (again, expected).
http://tvpot.daum.net/theme/ThemeView.do?themeid=122&lu=m_mono_1
Gameplay.
I just creamed my pants
@TheRob91
THX!!!
@sicPOS
Perfectly acceptable under the circumstances
Here is a direct link to the gameplay if someone wants to youtube it:
http://dis.4chan.org/read/games/1179560179/1
Smell that fishy stench? It's the smell of millions of geeks that just jerked off watching that marine in the trailer O_o
@Hipple: Ok maybe a bit more units than in warcraft3; but keep in mind it's gonna take unbelievably strong machines to run this game without lag when 200 units are on the screen at once. nd
The hero system needed some refining, but I don't want them to throw it out altogether for SC2...
Zerg rush to the videogame community ** rolls eyes**
I dont know about you, but I froze it on the shot of Kerrigan (NOT the marine, fags!) and have already orgasmed at least 20 times. I dont care if I am an uber nerd right now. Today we are ALL nerds.
YouTube'd gameplay video
Wow, just wow at the gameplay footage!!!
Another gameplay vid, with the zealot rush ability, terran reapers, the Protoss units that dont get hurt by siege tanks, and a guy explaining the vid as it is played
http://flvs.daum.net/flvPlayerOut.swf?vid=6JfhDzScj8k$
The website works now http://www.starcraft2.com/
so this is going to come out in how many years 4 or 5 fucking blizzard. thats about how long they made me wait for diablo 2. man that look to fucking kick ass too man i cant wait for starcraft
I need more Vespene Gas.
Eh. Cool. I've never been too into Starcraft, or RTS games for that matter... but cool nonetheless. I am kind of disappointed, however, at the graphical style. The first Starcraft had a gritty style to it and this one seems a bit.... Warcrafted.
not obvious at all... world of starcraft? wow expansion? new IP? it sould have been anything and starcraft 2 seemed more like a dream.
http://uk.media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/img_4560190.html
lmao: REAL MEN DRILL DEEP. ;)
Excellent news, looks very polished. Its all down to race balancing now though.
anyone else have the video cut out with 1:50 left?
also the zergling look like Warcraft Felhounds.
Blizzard is laughing at the faces of others who need in-game advertising to pay their games; they don't need that kind of money.
They have gone beyond that with the credit cards thing...
Blizzard is selling a $250 statuette of the marine from the trailer, it looks awesome but damn.
who teh f??? this doesnt have advanced graphics!?
Show me a Real Time Strag game with better graphics than this! You cant top this, I havent seen anything this good yet, now.... when we unleash 30 PRotoss Carriers vs Swarms of Hydrolisks... I dont want to think wuts going to happen to my poor pc X_X;
Needs more:
Grime, esp on terrans
Needs less:
Shields and bayonets on marines, wtf?
Still epic tho.
whys is the video cutting out early....totally gay?
I guess I guess I should start putting money away for a new computer that will be able to handle the game when it comes out...
I think the graphical style is top-notch and appropriate. It takes the look from WarcraftIII and Starcraft, blends them, adds some sheen, gives the units some frickin' weight, and finishes up with some awesome sauce.
Not following the brown, gritty, and realistic love-train was a good choice for Blizz too, esp. since Korea already loves the shit outta the original Starcraft. Wow I can call it the original now... we're in the future!
Riots in Korea
You mean we have to learn how to play ANOTHER GAME?
YAWN.
This game is already rocking my world. I am going to have it's babies multiple times.
If I were in prison, I would happily be it's bitch. Hell, I'll be it's bitch outside of prison.
SODOMY FTW!
Eeep. I hope it will run on my MacBook. ;)
Nukes FTW.
its boner time
And Blizzard will probably be dumb enough to put unnecessary "features" in it. Remember how you could only select 12 units at a time in the first time, unlike almost EVERY OTHER RTS? Maybe this time it'll be 8.
Seriously, whoever it is in that company who thinks that's a good idea needs to be fired...