Starcraft 2 announced!

Finally, Blizzard announced the sequel to Starcraft after so many years!. This is my biggest gaming news this year. W00t!

Official Site

Here's some news from Gamespy:

Seoul, Korea -- The scene here is an absolute madhouse. I'm parked in the front row of Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea, and around me are thousands of screaming fans and press representatives from over 150 news outlets around the world. The setting is the Blizzard WorldWide invitational, and in addition to kicking off a weekend of competitions, Blizzard has just made the announcement fans around the world have waited nearly ten years to hear: Blizzard is resurrecting the revered StarCraft franchise with StarCraft 2.

While addressing the crowd, Blizzard President Mike Morhaim talked about the amazing support Korea has given StarCraft over the years, where the game is practically a national sport and pro players are treated like rock stars. "It was easy for us to decide where (this announcement) should take place," said Morhaime, before showing a short teaser video for StarCraft 2 and then turning over the stage to lead designer Dustin Browder (Command & Conquer and Battle For Middle Earth franchises) to show off game footage.

Good news. It's kind of interesting they didn't decide to do another MMO. I wonder if Battle.net will still stay free without monthly charges?

Starcraft 2 yey. I thought they actually had "somthing" to reveal.

I hope they don't "improve" the graphics too much. The originals graphics are still considered satisfactory by most.

Well, guess most people expected it. I have to admit that I'm not quite sure what to think of it. Somehow it's cool that they haven't forgotten the Starcraft universe, but who the hell needs another rts game? It would be nice to see something really new from Blizzard, not just stuff we know they are good at. Of course I'm biased being not a big rts fan…

@bjon045 Friend, an artwork trailer, a cinematic trailer, as well as several screenshots were already released so you can have a look yourself what the game will look like. Just google it, it's all over the net.

I agree ISS. Starcraft is a fun(and hard) RTS, but frankly, I'd rather see even a Diablo III. Theres a billion and one RTS games out there. At least it's a PC game, and at least it's not a sports MMO

I think they are pretty much at a standstill as far as creativity goes at Blizzard since Roper, et. al. left to form Flagship. They are still one of the great ones tho, and they certainly know what their fans like.

Ke ke ke zurg rush lol!

It had to be an RTS, boys 'n girls. Ask the team that was working on Ghost all about it.

Just like the recent C&C, this title is old-school bloodline of grand-daddy mac-daddy RTS that is more than just another WWII or generic fantasy. That's why I hope (and pray) that it will rise above the everyday Build 'n Rush(copyright 2007) clone, and be worth the hype. I'm stoked purrsonally, I was starting to wonder if I was ever going to buy another RTS. I bet the party is just getting started in Seoul right now, it's prolly going to be declared a national holiday or something.

*gong rings out*
"We the Republic of Korea offically declare this the Year of the Zerg"

looks like we got some Protoss Previews

I've never played the original, and am not too much into RTS … but i thought this was announced in some way before?

[QUOTE=magerette;29023]I agree ISS. Starcraft is a fun(and hard) RTS, but frankly, I'd rather see even a Diablo III. Theres a billion and one RTS games out there. At least it's a PC game, and at least it's not a sports MMO
QUOTE]

Are you kidding me? There's not a billion and one Diablo clones?

Originally Posted by JDR13
Are you kidding me? There's not a billion and one Diablo clones?

True.

The real question is if they do anything cool to advance the genre in some significant way (a la CoH or Kohan), or if they just put a pretty face on old tried and true.

Blizzard has made a killing on doing only a few modest things new, improving/polishing a lot on other folks' ideas, and delivering a high quality, highly serviced and heavily marketed product. They haven't really been in the innovation business yet. Will be interesting to see…

[QUOTE=JDR13;29042]

Originally Posted by magerette
I agree ISS. Starcraft is a fun(and hard) RTS, but frankly, I'd rather see even a Diablo III. Theres a billion and one RTS games out there. At least it's a PC game, and at least it's not a sports MMO
QUOTE]

Are you kidding me? There's not a billion and one Diablo clones?

Yeah, but not good ones. Of all the "action rpg's" out there I can't name more than one or two that qualify both as bona fide Diablo clones AND games you would actually want to spend much time playing. I'd like to see if Blizzard could do a sequel and not a clone, JDR. No slam intended for those who like the genre--I'm just not much of an rts player.

But I'm sure they're making a lot of their bigtime fans in the Asian area and elsewhere happy with this one.

Originally Posted by chamr


Blizzard has made a killing on doing only a few modest things new, improving/polishing a lot on other folks' ideas, and delivering a high quality, highly serviced and heavily marketed product. They haven't really been in the innovation business yet. Will be interesting to see…

Um….you're joking right? The original Warcraft put RTS games on the map.


*Edit* I'm not trying to imply that Warcraft was the first modern RTS,(that was Dune) but it was the first really great one. It was also the first to use a fantasy setting.

[QUOTE=magerette;29052][QUOTE=JDR13;29042]

I'd like to see if Blizzard could do a sequel and not a clone, JDR. No slam intended for those who like the genre--I'm just not much of an rts player.
QUOTE]

I'm not sure how a sequel to a game they created could be considered a clone. Normally a "clone" is when a different studio makes a similar game in an attempt to cash in on the success of another company's idea.

[QUOTE=JDR13;29057][QUOTE=magerette;29052]

Originally Posted by JDR13

I'd like to see if Blizzard could do a sequel and not a clone, JDR. No slam intended for those who like the genre--I'm just not much of an rts player.
QUOTE]

I'm not sure how a sequel to a game they created could be considered a clone. Normally a "clone" is when a different studio makes a similar game in an attempt to cash in on the success of another company's idea.

A clone is an identical or at least very similar copy of something… so in the true, although metaphorical, sense of the word most sequels nowadays are also clones. And even if you do not consider them clones, it's pretty clear what Margerette means, isn't it?

October release:

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39724

"Traditionally, Blizzard was always announcing titles years before they will come to life. My first touch with World of WarCraft happened on ECTS in 2001, first touch with Diablo II and its add-on came during E3 and ECTS 2000 and so on. But now, StarCraft II is not being announced year or two prior to release. Blizzard has stated that the company will release this game in October of this year."

That is ridiculous. Blizz president Mike Morhaime said (as reported by gamespot) "We don't really have a budget; we'll spend as much time and resources as we need to make this game great." Translated this means they have tons of cash from WoW and decided to make SC2 and release it whenever.

Generally, I am flat out dissappointed. The screenshots show outdated graphics. There is zero new features announced so far apart from 3D (look above), several new units to the old factions and probably the new stroryline. The only thing that interests me so far is the last. SC2 so far looks like an expansion of the original with new graphics. Fans of the original deserve better than this for a 10 year wait just for an announcement, not to mention that it will be years before the game actually comes out - if it comes out this year I would be highly surprised.

Back to the things of interest - the new storyline. It would be good to see the return of Kerighan, but … we hit a snag. Chris Metzen, the de facto person in charge of Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft lores, has shown that he is an idiot. He flat out messed up the entire Warcraft universe lore with the latest game released in the francize (WoW Burnign Crusade), and the horrors he can do StarCraft … scare me.

Besides, most of the people that made the Blizz franchizes worth anyone's while have left. Especially Bill Roper, the person that introduced story to both Diablo and Warcraft. Not really sure about SC, but probably as well. Point is, current Blizz games are just shells of the original. SC2 is a good example of that - nothing new, but StarCraft sells.

nothing new? --game was only announce yestarday. Can't you guys just wait for atleast more info before you start drawing any conlusion?

Originally Posted by Arma
SC2 so far looks like an expansion of the original with new graphics.

Sometimes you hold your breath, hoping a good game doesn't get screwed up by "improvements" (Gothic3 may be an example of that, sad to say). I can't tell you how many times I wanted the next game in a series to be a straightforward continuation with without risky innovation.

That's a valid point Squeek--innovation isn't always good, in the spirit of "If it's not broke don't fix it"--but replication = continuation isn't much fun either.

I sincerely hope Blizzard will come through with a great sequel for Starcraft players. After thinking it over, really I think I'm glad this title isn't Diablo III. It's just too easy to make a crappy action rpg. And a crappy D3 would be much worse than none at all. People are already 'ashamed' enough to admit they played Diablo.

And I think I have a better chance of seeing at least Diablo's "spiritual successor"(uggh-excuse the over-worked cliche term) in Hellgate:London than I would in a current Blizzard attempt.