RSSBlizzard Announces Plans for StarCraft II
By Ed Oswald | Published May 21, 2007, 11:30 AM
Blizzard plans to release a sequel to the popular WarCraft-based space multiplayer game StarCraft, the company confirmed over the weekend.
A preview event in Korea showed off the new game, however the company remained light on specifics. It will be the first major update for the title since StarCraft was released in 1998.
StarCraft roughly is based on similar concepts to WarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment's award-winning title that has been spun-off into a MMORPG as well as two sequels, featuring three races -- the Terrans, Protoss and Zerg -- in an interplanetary battle.
Blizzard has enhanced the game by further distinguishing the races from one another and adding new units and gameplay, as well as enhancing the original abilities of each race.
Realistic physics and a 3D graphics engine have also been added to allow gamers control large, highly-detailed armies onscreen at the same time. Like the original, StarCraft II will include a single player and multiplayer component.
"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," Blizzard Entertainment co-founder and president Mike Morhaime said in the announcement.
StafCraft II versions for Mac OS X and Windows will be released at the same time. However, it is as yet unknown what Blizzard intends to charge for the game or when it would ship, with the company promising more details to be "announced in the months ahead."
Just as a curiosity... wonder if the SC battle at the end of WC3 was demo-ing the SC2 engine at that point, or if they were just playing and decided to put a few of the SC mobs in.
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|> StarCraft roughly is based on similar concepts to WarCraft
For the record, WarCraft was based on Dune II. I wish more people remembered that.
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|"And Blizzard fans worldwide breathed a collective sigh of relief when they found out Starcraft II was NOT an MMO."
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|Hell, it's about time.
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|There's jedi in this one too, right?
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|I thought there will be a 4th race. Isn't at the end of story of SC1, Duran or whatever his name was was creating a superior race?
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|If you're trying to check this, replay the secret level... not exactly a fourth race, per se... Heh. Though who knows if that oddness will have any basis on SC2.
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|STARCRAFT RULES........THANK GOD....they are making another...the frist i still have on my pc and the orginal cds......
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|"WarCraft-based space multiplayer game". Well, sort of like that I guess.
They've got to fill out the lore so they can launch into World of Starcraft one of these years. Starcraft 2 should be pretty cool. ...like the teaser says, "bout time".
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|Ugh! Diablo 3 is what I'm waiting for!!! well...maybe this is a sign too that I shouldn't give up hope since many people believed StarCraft had been abandoned =)
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|It seems to me like WoW is the natural evolution of Diablo. When you look at Diablo 2 it already has many MMORPG elements, so WoW seems like the natural conclusion. Plus there's already so much overlap regarding classes and abilities... do we really need a Diablo 3?
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|Depends... will Diablo 3 be pay to play, or have free online play like all of the Battle.net stuff used to be? If it's pay to play, like WoW, then no... if Blizzard can keep one MMORPG running well and with the most players, great. If it's free online play, then yes... those of us who won't touch WoW with a 39.5' pole might bite and purchase it.
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|I hope not. One of the reason I don't like WoW or MMORPG in general is there are just too much running.
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|"It seems to me like WoW is the natural evolution of Diablo."
No, WoW is the natural evolution of WarCraft.
"do we really need a Diablo 3?"
Yes, we do. Other than some of the RPG elements you speak of, Diablo and WarCraft are nothing alike. I mean, WarCraft is an RTS that evolved into an MMO, and Diablo is a dungeon crawler. Do we need Diablo 3 as an MMO? Hell no. As a dungeon crawler? Hell yes. And I'm hoping if/when it does surface, this is the case.
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|Yes! true...all three games are different,I mean, I remember playing Warcraft and I didn't like it, then I moved on to StarCraft and I couldn't figure it out, then I tried Diablo and BAM!! there it was! the thrill and addiction to play it over and over and over again. The gameplay was just sooo different to me than the other two. I love the damn dungeon crawler =)
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|Yeah...I hope that if it comes out, they don't make it a pay-to-play, like WoW, that was another reason (excuse) for me to avoid the game!
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|Natural evolution? It has nothing to do with Diablo, how is that "natural evolution"?
For the record, the world has already enough of g**d*** MMORPGs. What we need is a Diablo 3, hackNslash, kill billion monsters etc. Not "walk walk, walk and walk, quest. Walk ,walk, fly, walk, walk, die. walk...kill".
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|That's true, being free on battle.net does make a big difference. That's the reason I kept playing Diablo 2 even after WoW was out. I suppose their is a gap there for Diablo 3 to fill if they ever do decide to make it.
If you think about it though, if Diablo 2 monsters respawned you'd have all the elements of an MMORPG, only limited to 8 players at a time. The main reason people hopped to new games was simply to force respawns because they either killed everything or someone else beat them to a kill. Diablo 2 had its fair share of mindless walking as well though the portal system helped a lot.
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|WarCraft-based? Huh?
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|Well, WC came before SC, and both are RTS, so in that sense, I suppose that their assumption is correct...?
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|Starcraft was very much based on Warcraft. If you look at early Starcraft beta screen shots you'll notice it ran using the Warcraft 2 user interface. It could have very easily been called Warcraft 3 had they decided to go that route.
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|So is Half-Life 2 Wolfenstein 3D-based?
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|I have no idea. Did Half-Life 2 ever run on the Wolfenstein 3D engine during development?
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|Can't wait!!
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