- News Roundup
- Posted by DragonQ on June 27th, 2009 @ 10:06 a.m.
- There have been various pieces of news in the last week, so here's a summary for you. Please note that none of these are official announcements!
- An interview at sc2p.com with Chris Sigaty and Dustin Browder produced an interesting slice of info. Chris revealed that there will be about 40,000 beta testers in each region (North America, Europe, Korea, China, etc.), meaning a total of around 200,000. This is believable since it is close to the number of beta testers selected for Warcraft 3. Also, not every beta licence will necessarily be distributed at the start of the beta program, so if you don't get one straight away, don't despair!
- Starcraft Zone has a translation of an interesting interview with David Kim, mainly talking about Blizzard itself. Not much about StarCraft II but an interesting read nonetheless.
- Battle.net account holders in South Korea and North America should now have a StarCraft II logo on their account settings page if they signed up for the StarCraft II beta. So far it doesn't seem as if this means anything (so don't get too excited) but for some reason it does not appear on the European portal. Hmmm.
- Battle Report 3!
- Posted by DragonQ on June 20th, 2009 @ 3:29 p.m.
- Although it has not yet appeared on StarCraft II's official website yet, the third battle report has been leaked! This time we get treated to a 17 minute match between Yeon-Ho Lee (Zerg) and David Kim (Protoss) on a new map called "scrapyard", with our usual commentators Dustin Browder and Robert Simpson. You can watch it in high definition on our YouTube channel here:
StarCraft II - Battle Report 3 (HD)
Be sure to click the HD button and view in full screen to ensure you're watching in 720p HD. I haven't finished watching it yet but it looks great so far! As always, comments are very much welcome!
UPDATE (23/06/09): The battle report 3 video can now be downloaded and viewed at StarCraft II's official website also.
- StarCraft II Beta approaching...
- Posted by DragonQ on June 16th, 2009 @ 1:20 p.m.
- Several big media websites (such as CNET) were sent an email last weekend imploring them to set up Battle.net accounts in preparation for the upcoming StarCraft II Beta. They were given a deadline of the 19th of June...
As no official starting date was quoted, everything else is just rumour. However, I would encourage you to opt-in to the beta program very soon if you want to be part of it! I just hope my new PC parts arrive in time.
- Q&A: Map Maker Series
- Posted by DragonQ on June 15th, 2009 @ 7:19 p.m.
- The latest Q&A series at Blizzard's forums have a theme that should be interesting to some of you: map making. Some very interesting stuff here, including a completely overhauled scripting language that is based on C:
1. Does it still use the JASS language, or perhaps an upgraded version of JASS?
StarCraft II uses an entirely new scripting language, which we’ve called Galaxy. This language is very similar to C, and anyone familiar with programming in C will have no trouble picking it up.
2. Is the language event-driven or object-oriented?
The language itself is not object-oriented, although most of the native functionality is based around operating on game objects.
This looks very promising for those budding programmers amongst you and there's a lot of other cool bits of information such as the confirmation of an editable UI and completely customisable triggers. Check out the whole Q&A batch and discuss what you think in Alex's topic!
- Battle.net 2.0 free for StarCraft II buyers
- Posted by DragonQ on June 07th, 2009 @ 2:28 p.m.
- A Blizzard employee has confirmed over at the official StarCraft II forums that the new Battle.net (apparently dubbed Battle.net 2.0) will be free for StarCraft II purchasers:
When a player buys the StarCraft II box at retail, they will have the ability to play on the new Battle.net for free.
However, it is not clear whether the service will remain free for the entire life of StarCraft II. In particular, the words "at retail" could imply that the game comes with some sort of code that allows the buyer a certain number of free months on the service that would otherwise require a subscription - something that used buyers would not get.
So, this begs the question: how much would you be willing to pay to play StarCraft II online? Do you think it should be free just like the current Battle.net service? Do you think that making it subscription only would actually be a good thing, in order to help the bot problem and perhaps improve the general atmosphere? Post a comment and let us know!
- New Battle.net Service, "Expected" 2009 Release
- Posted by DragonQ on June 01st, 2009 @ 4:35 p.m.
- Activision Blizzard held its de facto press conference via webcast yesterday (31/05/09). Microsoft might not be too happy since they typically kick off the E3 week's proceedings with its Monday morning press conference but Starcraft II fans might be more grateful for what was discussed. In particular, the confirmation that the new Battle.net service will launch with Starcraft II and, perhaps most importantly, that they expect to release the game in 2009:
[6:53] And now a bit about Starcraft II...
[6:54] The new Battle.net service will launch alongside Starcraft II, which represents a return to the company's roots.
[6:54] Morhaime talks about the series' well documented popularity in South Korea, where he says it is akin to a national sport.
[6:55] There will be a Starcraft II beta test later this summer, and Morhaime offers to get anyone in attendance into the program. Morhaime expects to launch Starcraft II by the end of the year, though also notes that it will only ship once the game is done.
[6:56] Morhaime said more about the games will be revealed at BlizzCon, and encourages everyone to attend the August show, which sold out yesterday.
Assuming they hit no big bumps during their highly anticipated beta program this summer, this is great news for those fans that are struggling to wait for this game!
More information regarding this conference call can be read over at IGN and Gamespot.
- Unit Death Animations Update
- Posted by DragonQ on May 27th, 2009 @ 7:46 p.m.
- Apparently Blizzard's art team has used some of their spare time to create some cool new death animations for various StarCraft II units:
Between adding new unit models and sliming up the zerg buildings, the StarCraft II art team has also spent some time on some little details that make the game come alive, such as new unit death animations. Featured below, we have a protoss carrier being blown out of the sky by a squad of terran marines, as well as several zerg units falling to their fates.
Some of these new animations can be seen in this video at the official StarCraft II website. I don't know about you, but I love a good death animation, hehe.
- Of the Infestor's Parasite
- Posted by c r e e z y on May 19th, 2009 @ 6:33 p.m.
- Dustin answered a quick question about the infestor's parasite ability on the Battle.net forums today.
If you control a critter it switches to your side. So it would be targetable.
You can build buildings with parasited units. The SCV case is a bit of a challenge (though you could just parastie him again mid-build) but the Protoss and Zerg work easily enough.
Being able to build with infected units sounds like an interesting strategy, but it will take some micro against a Terran player for sure. Check out the whole thread to see what others are saying.
- Dustin on the Colossus
- Posted by c r e e z y on May 16th, 2009 @ 2:44 p.m.
- Dustin dropped by the Battle.net forums recently to speak about the colossus unit. Here's what he had to say:
Colossus is Tier 3. He has a very powerful attack that strikes in a line relative to his position. He is a vital weapon against Terran infantry and Hydralisks which have become more of a threat when being protected by Roaches. Against Terrans you can go High Templar to deal with infantry, but Ghosts can really ruin that. Colossus is a safer choice.
The original attack is not coming back. The old beam was just "more damage." Simple, but not fun. The current Colossus weapon encourages micro since it really matters who you shoot and the angle you shoot them from. Fortunately since the Colossus can step up and down cliffs and over friendly units he can move to the optimal position if you are fast enough. The biggest problem he has right now is with Neural Parasite on the Infestor. It's really giving the Colossus a hard time. We are working on that today.
Sounds like the good old Blizzard balance going into effect there. I'm sure colossi will become pretty standard on the battlefield, and I can't wait to toy around with them!
- Fresh Look at New Zerg Units
- Posted by Kester on May 16th, 2009 @ 12:50 p.m.
- In March 2008 Blizzard released screenshots of its new Zerg units, but apparently those were just placeholders, and they've been constantly working on them since. June's issue of PC Gamer has a three-page interview with Blizzard Entertainment's Art Director, Samwise Didier, in which he talks about the creative process and the improvements made to the Zerg units over the past year. And, of course, it includes lots of new screenshots of the units, with comparison shots between the older ones and the new ones. So if you haven't done it already, take a look at the June PC Gamer to read the interview and see the new units!
