Weblogs Inc : Tag starcraft

Latest official StarCraft II Q&A trickles out the info

While all of us wait patiently for Blizzard to light the candle on the StarCraft II beta test (remember when they said it was going to happen last summer? Good times) we check out any info we can get on the upcoming sci-fi RTS game. Recently the game's official forums posted up the latest fan Q&A about the game (the 54th, in fact).

The questions, as usual, get extremely specific (these are die hard StarCraft fans who are asking these questions to Blizzard after all) and deal with issues like Zergling vs. Zealot ratios, being able to dodge an EMP attack in the game and allowing maps and mods for StarCraft II to have their own launcher. Meanwhile we wait for the beta test . . . and wait . . . and wait some more.
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Amazon.com has one day sale on Blizzard "Battle Chest" game collections

Amazon.com has the occasional one day sale that might be of interest to our audience. Today their one day sale deals with the "Battle Chest" game collections from Blizzard Entertainment. For today only three of these collections are on sale for 50 percent off.

If you haven't bought these games already you can get the Diablo Battle Chest (Diablo II and its expansion plus strategy guide) for $19.98, the Warcraft III Battle Chest (the original game, the expansion plus strategy guides) for $19.98 and the StarCraft Battle Chest (the original game, the expansion plus strategy guides) for just $9.98. That's 50 percent off their normal price.

Activision-Blizzard and their financial future

Barron's has a long article up about Blizzard's corporate overlords at Activision-Blizzard, and as is usual with most pieces of Activision news, people will probably see in it what they want to see. Those who think Bobby Kotick is just a money-grubbing exploiter will find more fuel for their firey fanboy rage: apparently he's a follower of Las Vegas casino entrepreneur Steve Wynn, and is modeling some of Activision-Blizzard's business plan off of that guy, Shareholders, however, will probably be thrilled. In terms of a purely financial sense, Activision-Blizzard is apparently one of the shinest futures around, with Kotick bragging that videogames will eclipse film and TV in terms of moneymaking in just a few years.

From our perspective, as longtime fans and players of Blizzard's games, the most interesting thing I see here is that Barron's makes no distinction at all between Activision and Blizzard any more -- the Activision-Blizzard company, according to the article, is equally responsible for both the Starcraft and Transformers franchises. Obviously, as gamers, we see a huge distinction between those two: one is a classic, storied, much-loved videogame series, and the other is a cash-in on a license that's panned everywhere but the box office. But for the financial guys, they're just both properties of Activision-Blizzard. That's not to say that our Blizzard is entirely lost (anyone who was at BlizzCon last week knows that's not true), but it is a sign that the merger is no longer news. From an outsider perspective, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft are just two cash cows from the same company.

BlizzCon 2009: WoW.com interviews Christie Golden

During Day One of BlizzCon this past weekend, I was given the opportunity to sit down and talk with author/novelist Christie Golden, the woman behind the best selling Warcraft novel Arthas and the upcoming Cataclysm novel(s) which we learned about in this very interview. I asked her questions about her personal background in Warcraft, her writing process, and what it's like to work with Blizzard's worlds.

WoW.com: If you don't mind, we'll kick things off with a question I pretty much ask everyone... Horde or Alliance?

Christie Golden: Yes.

WoW.com: Good answer!

Golden: Seriously, I play both, and I love them both. I have characters on both sides, I don't prefer one over the other.

WoW.com: That definitely comes through in what you've written in the universe, starting with Horde material and then moving onto Arthas. When you say you've played both, how far? Are any of them level 80?

Golden: I've been so busy with all of the writing I've been doing lately that I haven't been able to hit 80, I haven't seen as much of Northrend as I've wanted to. Around 70 is where I'm stuck for now.

Grunty vs. Zergling battle video

When Eldacar wrote in to the tip line that Grunty and the Zergling pets fought when brought near each other, I immediately forced The Spousal Unit to help me test it. We made the above video, with The Spawn cheering us on. Grunty is the Murloc Marine pet that came with attending or streaming BlizzCon 2009. The Zergling was part of the original collector's edition of World of Warcraft.

BlizzCon 2009: StarCraft Ghost lives on (in spirit)

During the StarCraft 2 gameplay panel at BlizzCon, Dustin Browder spent much of the time talking abut the upcoming map editor that ships with SC2. If he's to be believed, it's the most powerful piece of software on the planet. Which might be a slight exaggeration. Those developers all have bias running in their veins.

However, we were fairly impressed when they showed us that the editor allows first-person game creation. What?! Yes, that even includes details as far down as UI manipulation and an inventory system. That's a lot more than you'd expect from a simple "map editor." One employee-created game was an FPS featuring a very familiar, bouncing-ponytailed Ghost that was created in just a few days.

Blizzard officially put StarCraft: Ghost on indefinite hold back in 2006, and they've been telling us here that it's still the case. Although some enterprising modder/mapper out there might just want create their own version.

BlizzCon 2009: BSG's Tricia Helfer to voice StarCraft 2's Kerrigan

During a StarCraft 2 lore panel taking place at BlizzCon this weekend, Blizzard vice president of creative development Chris Metzen revealed the voice replacement for Sarah Kerrigan. Battlestar Galactica star Tricia Helfer will replace Glynnis Talken as voice over actress in the upcoming sequel(s).

It seems as though the BSG star is getting her fair share of video game voice over work these days, as she'll also be voicing a character named Dare in Halo 3: ODST. We're thinking if she gets to talking with gaming's every man Nolan North and they work out a monopoly, we'll have a serious issue on our hands.

스타크래프트2 테란 싱글플레이 동영상 공개

2010년 발매를 앞둔 스타크래프트2의 테란 싱글 플레이 동영상이 공개되어 화제입니다. 블리자드코리아에서 지난 12일 게임미디어들을 대상으로 시연한 이 동영상에는 다양한 전투장면은 물론 싱글플레이의 미션수행과 자원 채취를 하는 SCV의 모습과 차량탈취 미션 등이 담겨져 있습니다. 한편 멀티플레이에 등장하지 않는 유닛들은 싱글플레이에서 그 모습을 확인 또는 사용할 수 있다고 합니다. 이 중에는 새로 추가된 유닛은 기존에 존재 하였지만 사라진 유닛또한 포함이 되어 있는데 과연 저그와 프로토스에는 어떤 유닛들이 싱글플레이 전용으로 등장할지 궁금해지는군요. 다음 페이지에서 동영상을 통해 참고해 보세요.

[참고자료]

Interview: Dustin Browder talks StarCraft 2 development and delays

Dustin Browder is the man in the hot seat as Blizzard's lead designer for StarCraft 2. Ultimately, he's the one you can heap the blame (or the praise) upon when the final product finally ships. At the time of this interview, we didn't officially know SC2 would be delayed, but given the sheer amount of things they'd shown us during our visit, it became clear that there was no way StarCraft 2 would make 2009.

Still, Browder talks about the reasons for the delay, and ultimately gamers are going to be happy that they chose to make the game better, rather than rush it out for the holiday shopping frenzy. Read on for the full interview with him where we talk delays, easter eggs, the new matchmaking system, the single player experience, and hidden items in the game, including a fully playable Lost Viking arcade game with a data editor that will let you make your own scrolling shooters.%Gallery-69481%

Interview: Andy Chambers on writing StarCraft 2

Andy Chambers has a lot of industry work under his belt, having worked at Games Workshop for more than 14 years before joining Blizzard in 2006. He's currently the creative director on Starcraft 2, which makes him the perfect guy to quiz about the single-player aspect of the game. It's an enormously ambitious project, which still hasn't been entirely figured out yet -- and that's the main reason for the delay Blizzard announced recently.
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New Starcraft 2 videos: cinematic trailer and some single player gameplay

Consider yourself spoiler-warned: there's a very familiar face at the end of the cutscene above. But, if you played through Starcraft and the Brood War expansion, you had to know this particular person was still around. But the statute of limitations on that expired eons ago, so don't blame us.

Feast your eyes on all of the Protoss kicking Zerg butt in the Starcraft 2 cutscene above (or download the massive 490MB high-def version here), and then head beyond the jump to see more than four minutes from the single-player version of the game. Sadly, it doesn't feature the fully-rendered Jim Raynor that you'll control throughout (read about that in our hands-on), but it does pimp out the unit upgrading and the new video screens. And plus ... it's Starcraft 2. Do we really need to say more?

Hands-on: Starcraft 2 - the single-player experience (finally!)

Don't you just love embargoes? So do we. Expect a ton of StarCraft 2 information today.

Forget everything you know about StarCraft 2. Well, forget everything you know about the single-player campaign in StarCraft 2. Which at this point is pretty much ... nothing. We've told you all about the multiplayer and its upcoming changes, but the single-player experience has been one gigantic black hole. Until now. We recently spent a day at Blizzard's campus learning all about StarCraft 2's Wings of Liberty Terran campaign, the first in a series with the Zerg and Protoss expansions coming at a later date.

One thing is for sure: this isn't anything like the old StarCraft single-player campaign. Read on to find out what you'll be doing with Jim Raynor throughout the 30 or so missions in StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty.%Gallery-69481%

Blizzard franchises get their own Twitter accounts

We recently learned of a quiet little announcement that Blizzard's three hot properties now each have Twitter accounts of their own. If you use Twitter, you can now follow @warcraft, @starcraft, and @diablo.

All three accounts are pretty bare at the moment aside from some catchphrases, but I'm going to bet the accounts will be used as another miniature news outlet, much like the front pages of their respective websites. It's probably also safe to say we'll be seeing a lot of product and tournament plugs, too. If you're a Twitter fiend, you might want to click that follow button for them (and our account, too). If you don't normally use Twitter, it's too early to say if these accounts are anything you should go out of your way to check out. If there's any major WoW news showing up there, it will find its way here too. Your life probably won't end if you don't follow them. Probably.

Razer preys on unsuspecting StarCraft fanboys, teases new mouse, keyboard and headset

We wouldn't go so far as to say that Razer is taking a note from the teasers over at Voodoo, but the gaming accessory outfit is definitely hoping to play on the emotions of anxious StarCraft fanatics. With the long (long!) awaited sequel finally nearing release, Razer has decided to link up with Blizzard in order to develop a new mouse, keyboard and headset designed specifically to cater to future StarCraft II gamers. For now, all we have to go on is the image above and whatever our imagination deems fit for believing, but we suspect all will be revealed when Blizzcon kicks off later this month. You can hardly wait, huh?

[Via HotHardware]

StarCraft II delayed until 2010

Well, who didn't see that coming? Activision announced in its earnings report today that StarCraft II has been delayed into 2010, while also reiterating the news about Singularity's delay. Given that StarCraft II is both a) a game that was supposed to be released in fall 2009 (which is almost a guarantee of a spring 2010 release these days) and b) a Blizzard game (which is a guarantee of multi-year delays), we're hardly shocked.

The move will coincide with the relaunch of Blizzard's Battle.net service, according to the report.

Sons of the Storm to appear at BlizzCon, unveil another member

The Sons of the Storm is a kind of artists' collective connected with Blizzard -- they're responsible for the majority of the concept and game art coming out of Blizzard, from the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series. They count Samwise Didier and Chris Metzen in their ranks, along with many of Blizzard's most popular artists. And apparently their ranks are growing -- on their latest website update, they have posted a new group picture, along with a mysterious "eighth son" that they say they will introduce sometime later, possibly months after BlizzCon. From left on the picture above, you can see Samwise Dider, Chris Metzen, René Koiter, Travis Thammer, Glenn Rane, Peter Lee, Mark Gibbons, and the Eighth Son, who a commenter over at Blizzplanet speculates may be Wei Wang.

Speaking of BlizzCon, the Sons site also says that all of the seven current sons will be signing at the convention, so be sure to bring your TCG cards, Warcraft novels, art books and anything else these guys may have worked on. We're sure there'll be a line, but if you're willing to brave the wait, you might get to meet some of the most creative minds behind Blizzard's beloved universes.

Intel contests let you win before and during BlizzCon

With BlizzCon coming up in less than three weeks (August 21-22 to be exact), the various sponsors of Blizzard's massive fan event are gearing up for their own promotions. Intel is doing what they can with special contests that will be held both before and during BlizzCon. No, Intel isn't offering trips to the event but they are giving folks a chance to win some gaming laptops from Asus if they pick the winners of the three main BlizzCon tournaments (World of Warcraft, StarCraft and WarCraft III) By the way, Blizzard plans to stream the BlizzCon tournaments in both SD and HD for free on the BlizzCon web site.

If you happen to be lucky enough to go to BlizzCon, Intel will also be running contests on the show floor as well including giving away five Intel Core i7 processors each day of the event. You can head over to the Intel blog site for more info.

Starcraft in your browser? Pretty near

While it starts out deceptively easy, Colony is a game for the more ruthless, logistically-minded and - above all - quick-thinking breed of browser general. That reference to Starcraft in the dev blurb is telling.

You share a base with the AI or another player on the left, and must send an army to wipe out the base on the right. Bases are comprised of a hub and eight building templates (four per commander). Assemble barracks, factories and the like on the templates to produce units.

Once recruited or manufactured, units will trot towards the other base one by one unless you toggle the rally flag with "X". Besides attack and retreat orders, you have no control over their actions, and the brainwork thus lies not in micro-managing firefights but absolutely nailing the army make-up.

Tanks are tough and make short work of infantry, but are vulnerable to air assault. Aerial units don't like marines, and marines don't like snipers. You'll figure it out. Certain "super units" require several factory upgrades before they'll deign to join your ranks.

All of which depends, of course, on plentiful supplies of cash and manpower. You can accelerate the rate at which these accumulate (respectively) by constructing banks and setting the barrack's "recruit" command to auto-build with shift key.

A third resource, influence, is a measure of how many units you have in play and how much ground they control. High influence gives you access to certain super abilities, like deploying 10 medics at once.

If you can't get enough 1066, Warfare 1944 or Plants vs Zombies, this should suit.

Play Colony

Analyst believes StarCraft II will sell 4 million units in its first quarter

Even if Blizzard doesn't release StarCraft II by the end of the year (which they officially maintain is still their target) it's clear that the long awaited sci-fi RTS sequel will sell tons of copies, especially in South Korea where the original game is basically their national sport. One well known analyst seems to agree that the game will be a hit but his estimates might actually be on the low site.

Gamasutra reports that Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes the game will sell 4 million copies for Blizzard and its parent publisher Activision Blizzard in whatever quarter it ends up shipping to stores. We think that number could actually be on the low side. We think the game will be a huge hit in the US and Europe but Patcher might be underestimating the South Korean sales. Blizzard has said that the original StarCraft has sold over 11 million copies since its launch in 1998 and roughly about half of those sales have been in South Korea.
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Ghostcrawler on class representation and balance

Ghostcrawler has a nice exchange on the forums (and it's not marked "Not Tracked", so you know he wants us reading this one) about how much of a role class representation actually plays in class balance. Obviously, balance itself plays the biggest role in class balance -- if (using GC's completely hypothetical example) Feral Druids are overpowered as tanks, then Blizzard would have to look into nerfing Feral Druids.

But what if Feral Druids only make up a small percentage of the tanks in Ulduar? Should Blizzard nerf the 5% of tanks that are Druids down until they're only 2% of the population? Just because classes are overpowered doesn't mean that actual class populations are, and all of these things go into the mix when Blizzard makes decisions about how to balance the classes.

Look at Hunters as well -- just last week we talked about how the class population is falling off, and yet they're one of the top three classes played on both factions. So should Blizzard buff or nerf them?