Starcraft 2: it's official

Yeah, I've been F5-ing the hell out of that page for 15 minutes now.

Nice.

There are some "shot from a screen" pics here, although you can't see too much; looks like they're mostly from the cinematic they were describing.

Nothing at all revolutionary looking, but damn it I'm amped!

Cinematic trailer was amazing...

"Hell, it's abawt, time..."

Loved it to death. The music, the animation, beyond incredible.

Oh man, this is great news to wake up to! Bring it on!

It sure as hell does look impressive, of course, plenty of things do in this phase. Then again, Blizzard's track record, on the PC at least, is unimpeachable.

Nothing new to add, but it's up on the front, now.

http://chud.com/mastercontrol/10321

I like it that the space marine is apparently smoking his stogie inside the helmet.

A Starcraft staple. I remember in one of the better movies, one marine opened his visor, and there was nothing but a cloud of smoke.

Ok. I've never played Starcraft, so I found that pretty funny.

Loved the cinematic. The Marine's single line sums it up perfectly.

Now they just need to tell us what units will be in the game.

Some gameplay movies here.

Preview here.

Preview says they've been working on this since 2003.

When I heard the news that Blizzard was going to announce a new game this year, I immediately predicted Starcraft 2 because all other series (Diablo, Warcraft) have had sequels. Still, it's a pleasant news and I hope Blizzard won't phone it in by giving us Starcraft I with updated graphics; we deserve some new gameplays that differentiate from the first.

Hope it will be out before 2009...

I wish I could have been inside the place were the announcement was made. There must have been more exploding heads there than in a Scanners festival. Anyway, in honor of the news I reinstalled Starcraft and gave myself a refresher course. Except for the graphics it stands up remarkably well. Even if it's just the same game with a different engine it will be awesome.

I was playing it a little bit yesterday myself, actually. I keep trying to zoom out with the mouse wheel though.

I know Starcraft has a huge fanbase and all, but man, I'm already sick of hearing about the sequel.

Some of the new units are strikingly similar to those in the new Command and Conquer. The Skrinn mothership has at least one identical spell to the Protoss mothership, the collossus is very similar to the Skrinn walker, and the terran reapers are almost identical to the GDI zone troopers. This number of similarities would be strange for two fully realized games, but considering we only know a fraction of SC2's units, it's downright bizarre.

Maybe Westwood has a spy?

Westwood is long gone. EA is the one owning the C&C franchise. Most Westwood veterans are at Petroglyph now (Star Wars: Empires at War). If Starcraft 2 is being worked on since 2 years ago, I'm willing to bet that EA could steal some ideas. C&C 3 came in production after that if I remember correctly.

And Petroglyph has a new RTS in prep that looks pretty nice.

There was comment about this on the last PC Gamer podcast from some Blizzard guy. They're pretty bummed about these things but they say it's understandable since everyone draws from the same pop culture pool.

Big bump!

Beta's coming- try and get in while you can- http://chud.com/articles/articles/19...ETA/Page1.html

Best news update ever.

Great news after a long lull. I'll be trying for this, too.

Fuck you Michael Dell! I ordered a new computer that showed up today and 2 minutes after I turned it on, it blue-screened.

I really want to sign up for this.

Fuck.
(obviously, the beers haven't eased the pain yet)

I take it WoW counts.

If you've got the full game. Not the trial, apparently.

oh hell, now i need to go and find all my old Blizzard games and their CD keys..

I'm former subscriber....any effect one way or the other?

I have no idea- I've successfully avoided WoW so far. I used my Starcraft key. Just go to the site and give it a shot- you'll need to enter some kind of key, though. If you actually own WoW you should be fine.

Thanks, was just trying to avoid digging up my old copy of Diablo II.

So, how many koreans will die with this beta alone? You have blood on your hands, Blizzard!
Also, registering using my Diablo 2 key.

*fist pump*

fuck yea

Got a notice that the Beta is starting "this summer"! Nice... not much longer.

It'll probably be like August 27th.

See ya next year!

That's gonna get Blizz-Con off to a roaring start.

Anyone surprised by this?

Not really, no. Blizzard doesn’t surprise people with release dates, and they would never wait this long to confirm a fall release. And, to be perfectly honest, who cares? The staying power of a Blizzard title is measured in years, a few months here or there really wont make much of a dent in the grand scheme of things.

It was going to be a tough sell in 2009, too many titles coming out in the upcoming months. Some are going to fail hard. Even though that probably wasn't their reason for pushing this back.

To be honest I don't remember Blizzard themselves ever committing to Q3 '09. It has always been 'when it's done' with them. And considering they already have a few million sales guaranteed, taking it out of the holiday period might help them making it more of a crossover hit.

That deep exhale is the rest of the gaming industry breathing a sigh of relief over not having to contend with one of the most anticipated sequels ever.

This is not a surprise at all. There is no need to get excited about a release date until Blizard gets close to shutting down the beta tests.

Hang in there. We're in the final stretch.

I want new Starcraft just as much as the next guy, but man, i would kill for some info about Diablo 3. Even news that its getting delayed would hint as to when we could possibly be getting it.

I do my best to not look for information on Blizzard titles in development. Until I hear a release date I try not to think too much about them. They're consistent with their "We'll release it when it's ready", and they've certainly earned a little bit of gamer patience.

The StarCraft II Beta Test Has Officially Begun

I didn't get in, but I imagine at least someone on these forums might have.

Doh. http://chud.com/articles/articles/22...INS/Page1.html

Was going to ask the same thing, anyone here get their email?

Bwahahahaha!