After several weeks from the first hints of a new Blizzard game release on their website, many were wondering if it will be StarCraft II or Diablo III. Finally on 19 May 2007 at Seoul, South Korea, Blizzard Entertainment announced the sequel to their award-winning real-time strategy game StarCraft, at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.
The announcement took place inside the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, in front of thousands of attendees, who received a presentation that included a StarCraft II cinematic trailer and a gameplay demonstration by the development team.
[url=http://www.starcraft2.com/]StarCraft II[/url] promises the return of the three races; Protoss, Terran and Zerg. Each race will be further distinguished from the others, with several brand new units and new gameplay mechanics, as well as new abilities for some of the classic StarCraft units that will be making a reappearance in the game.
One such changes will be the Protoss Zealot in which he will be a given a new skill called “Charge” in which the Zealot would be able to close up the distance between itself and the enemy unit with ease. StarCraft II will also feature a new 3D-graphics engine with realistic physics and the ability to render several huge, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously.
StarCraft II has currently released only the cinematics trailer in which you will see a video of a Terran Marine getting suit up and being ready to send to war. In between you’ll see short scenes of both Protoss and Zerg units and a slight glimps of what seems to be Kerrigan.
Offical gameplay videos will be made available on their website on 20/05/06, but there are several YouTube footages of gameplay footage taken from the event in Korea available right now.
This [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sog2k6s7xVQ]video link[/url], shows both Terran and Protoss fighting it out, in here you’ll see several new units, like Terran’s Reaper and Protoss’s Colossus. After a few minutes of fight, you’ll notice three red nuclear markers on the map, you’ll see the new nuclear explosion by the terran. The footage ends with three Terran Ghost appearing in the map before they got killed off by the Zerglings which has been burrowed. You’ll notice that the Zerglings, some of them evolving into a new unit, formed the word “GG”; which stands for Good Game.
In [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylDyZEUiwBg]this second footage[/url], you’ll see a gameplay of the Protoss units of Zealots and Immortal, which has replaced the dragoon. You’ll also see the new Reaper in action.
Currently, no release dates has been announced, although it has been rumored that the development of the game began just after the release of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne back in year 2003. The lead designer is Dustin Browder who has worked in the video game industry since 1995. He has experience in developing real-time strategy games, most notably on the popular Command & Conquer series.
Starcraft II will once again include their unique story line single player as well as their multiplayer via Battle.net. Similar to the first Starcraft, The game will be focusing on collecting resources, building up different buildings in which would train out units and upgrades. Below are the several known units that would be added into the game.
[b]Terran [/b]
Reaper: Uses dual pistols, can jet pack across terrain.
[b]Protoss [/b]
Colossus: A large quad-legged vehicle that fires strong dual lasers. Shown in the video destroying a large wave of Zerglings. This unit can also traverse differences in terrain height.
Immortal: Replaces the dragoon. Strong defense against powerful attacks, but vulnerable to weaker attacks.
Mothership: A powerful flying unit which consumes an extreme amount of resources to produce, but is a unique unit (1 at a time). Has the Timebomb ability, which slows all enemy missile attacks, and the Earth Cracker, a large laser that obliterates anything in its path, in the style of Independence Day. Also has an ability to create a black hole.
Phase Prism: A dual-purpose unit, able to transport units or act as a mobile pylon.
Phoenix: Can overcharge guns for multiple projectile blast, but after blast the ship is rendered inert for a short period.
Stalker: A dragoon-like unit of the dark templars, able to teleport and deliver ranged attacks.
Warp Ray: Flying unit that deals damage with a blue laser that does more damage as it focuses on the same target. Good versus buildings, weak against small arms fire.
[b]Zerg [/b]
Worm: Can be used to transport small units such as zerglings underground.
Succubus: Special ground unit. “Infect” ability allows takeover of hostile organics for a limited amount of time, ending in the target unit exploding and damaging everyone around it.
[list][*][url=http://blizzard.com/press/070519.shtml]StarCraft II Unveiled[/url] (blizzard.com)
[*][url=http://www.starcraft2.com/]StarCraft II Official Website[/url] (starcraft2.com)[/list]
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