I’m Back, StarCraft’s Back
Whew, that was quite a blogging break!
I’ve been back here in Manila for several days already, though I had to sort out some things first. Hence, upon arrival I had resolved to hide from my blogs for a short time, but one big gaming news forced to me to break the silence (on Gadzooki) — StarCraft II has been announced. It’s a development that is much-awaited, yet still took me by surprise.
For the meat of my thoughts, read my post on Gadzooki. Disclosure: I’m a StarCraft fanboy. I *heart* Blizzard, SC’s makers. And I won’t give a damn if the WarCraft and Diablo franchises magically vanish from the Earth right now. That said, here are some more points:
- Is this all a face lift? Probably yes. I’m hoping that Blizzard adds something new to the gameplay, but if it’s just Warcraft III in space (oops, Artanis* will get angry with me), I’ll still take it. SC’s gameplay was excellent in the first place, and half of my feverish anticipation is for the story and the cutscenes, two things Blizzard excels at.
- Who can forget the frenzied multiplayer SC battles over LAN and Battle.net? I see no multiplayer letdown with StarCraft II. And who knows, we might even see DotA in space!
- I can’t emphasize this enough — come on Blizzard, give us more than three races. It’s not that we’re sick and tired of the Terrans, Zerg, and Protoss, it’s just that, hey, WarCraft III had more races than WC II! (All right, Blizzard wants us to stay tuned until SC III, I guess.)
Here are a couple of vidcaps I took from the StarCraft II cinematic trailer, which you can download from this page:
A Terran Marine getting suited up for battle.
Marines and…yowzah! A mushroom cloud! Naughty Terran Ghost.
This doesn’t look like a Terran Wraith…a Protoss Scout?
One of my all-time favorite units — the Zerg Hydralisk.
You can see the new look of Kerrigan, the Queen Bitch of the StarCraft universe, in my Gadzooki post.
*What do I look like, an Orc? This is not ‘WarCraft in Space’! It’s much more sophisticated! — Got to hand it to the young Protoss warrior. He delivered one of the best easter-egg quotes!
Related Posts:
- Things You’ll Never Overhear at Video Game Companies
- I Heart StarCraft
- StarCraft: Coolest Kerrigan Fan Art, Ever
- Diablo III: And the Gamers Shall Tremble
- Dreamhost Sucks
May 24th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Have you seen “Starcraft III” yet?
(Clue: do a search on YouTube or someplace similar…)
May 24th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Regarding three races… I’m actually happy they kept it that way. Not only because I like the classic trio, but because it makes for a perpetually-shifting balance of power. Four is stagnant, five too difficult to balance. I think a large part of the problem of the technical and game design teams is coming up with units that will never be “imba” in the most literal sense of the word. People keep saying “nerf the mothership” but I doubt it will be all that overpowered in real gameplay. The real test of SC is after all in competitive games, and it hasn’t run dry yet.
That being said, I wouldn’t mind seeing glimpses of a Zerg-Protoss hybrid…
May 25th, 2007 at 12:53 am
I can’t wait for it!!
May 25th, 2007 at 4:16 am
Ia, is that so? *scoots off to YouTube*
Mia, yeah, I see your point. SC was a very, very balanced game. Unlike WC, which historically has races that are nearly mirrors of each other, SC’s units were way different from each other, which made the game’s balance even the more astounding.
Still, I was hoping Blizzard would be game (and skilled) enough to try expanding SC. Maybe I’m being biased — in games, I care a lot (sometimes to the point of looking kindly upon poor gameplay) for the story. With three races, Blizzard can and will create another masterpiece, and I’m sure having more than three will add more intricacy and depth to the plot
Not to mention it will advance that ’secret subplot’ regarding Samir Duran and the hybrids. I would very much hate to learn that that mission was just for fun and not official SC canon.
Speaking of competitive games…SC DotA! SC DotA! Hehehe.
May 25th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Hydraflood wheee! haha.
I wonder if there’ll be hero units here too. also, the unidentified protoss ship from SC1 with the ID4 laser (independence day) is in the screenshots!
the ugly, as in really, really ugly: I don’t think it’ll be released this year, or early next year for that matter. from a business point of view, my call is summer ‘08. they’re planning to add screenshots and unit profiles and whatnot on a regular basis (probably monthly) ’til then.
I sure hope I’m wrong though.
May 26th, 2007 at 2:48 am
Garro, Summer ‘08 still sounds great. At least that would be just one year! Hehe.
The Mothership (see Mia’s post on Gadzooki) is looking to be one heckuva unit. Me and my SC-addicted friends spent hours debating over which Protoss unit that ID4 laser ship in the SC intro cutscene was, and now we have our answer.
May 29th, 2007 at 5:57 am
[...] Update: Check out this StarCraft II post from Crimson Crux, it has some screenshots of the amazing SCII trailer Technorati Tags: wow, world of warcraft, starcraft, mmorpg, online gaming [...]
July 19th, 2007 at 3:16 am
[...] I’ll be adding one: Blizzard - “Let’s prioritize the StarCraft universe, who needs WoW’s billions, anyway?” [...]
July 20th, 2007 at 5:50 am
[...] What can I say? This work just captures the “Queen Bitch of the Universe” so vividly. Add to that the fact that my eyes are getting tired of seeing WarCraft-themed art dominate the gallery; I can’t wait for StarCraft II to balance the field. [...]
September 19th, 2007 at 10:03 am
[...] Diablo 3 is the rumored, much-awaited third installation in the venerable Diablo franchise by Blizzard. Even though the company chose to cater first to the WarCraft (i.e. WoW) and StarCraft (i.e. SCII) markets, we’re fervently hoping that Diablo is next. [...]
July 5th, 2008 at 5:07 am
[...] year, it was StarCraft II. Now, this industry-shaking news. What more can a Blizzard fan like me could ask [...]