Blizzard induces pants sexytime explosion
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http://pc.ign.com/articles/788/788627p1.html
Sorry, i'm a little excited here, may want to wear a raincoat.
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3:00 - FMV sequence in a spaceship - looks Terran - zooming in on a metal door - door opening - reveals a guy with a cigar in chains - prisoner - door shuts behind him - there's so much bass the room is shaking - guy steps into some kind of metallic devicce - legs are strapped in - guy rising toward ceiling - Korean text on screen got people very excited - another part of the machine is dropping metal arms on him - machine whirring - applying armor to his torso - extremly detailed visuals here - now guy is strapping on gloves - armor is molding together - seems like a Terran marine - rockets turn on - zerg now onscreen - Marine delivers a line - StarCraft 2 officially announced.
3:05 - Morheim says everyone eager to see actual game - going to show actual gameplay - bringing up SC2 lead designer. Dustin Browder.
3:07 - Showing gameplay footage - Looks like protoss ships - floating over asteroid/ base structure - entering protoss ase - similar looking buildings - vespene gas still in the game - character pane shows up on right side - some protoss guy - shifts to terran bases floating on rockets over same type of territory - sill collecting crystals as resources - marines load out. Dustin is actually playing the game - nothing in the game is final.
3:09 - controlling protoss zealots - still has psi blades and personal shield - new charge ability that let him quickly close range on enemies. Siege tanks shown - still the same type of behavior where they can lock down - take out zealots really quickly - new protoss unit - called immortals - have special shield that only activates upon being powerfully attacked - siege tanks could barely do any damage to them.
3:10 - Terran reapers - can hop across unever terrain with jump packs - two types of small pistols that don't activate immortals. Protoss now have the ability to create shields whereever they want. Protoss can now warp in units from manufacturing facilities anything within pylon range. New protoss unit - stalker - can teleport - quadripedal thing - can keep blinking forward - seems to be a shot cooldown on the ability. Zerg start coming in, giant worms pop out of ground unleasing zerglings. Protoss can use phase fields and teleporting abilities to create an army anywhere on the battlefield, according to Blizzard.
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Sorry, i'm a little excited here, may want to wear a raincoat.
[ QUOTE ]
3:00 - FMV sequence in a spaceship - looks Terran - zooming in on a metal door - door opening - reveals a guy with a cigar in chains - prisoner - door shuts behind him - there's so much bass the room is shaking - guy steps into some kind of metallic devicce - legs are strapped in - guy rising toward ceiling - Korean text on screen got people very excited - another part of the machine is dropping metal arms on him - machine whirring - applying armor to his torso - extremly detailed visuals here - now guy is strapping on gloves - armor is molding together - seems like a Terran marine - rockets turn on - zerg now onscreen - Marine delivers a line - StarCraft 2 officially announced.
3:05 - Morheim says everyone eager to see actual game - going to show actual gameplay - bringing up SC2 lead designer. Dustin Browder.
3:07 - Showing gameplay footage - Looks like protoss ships - floating over asteroid/ base structure - entering protoss ase - similar looking buildings - vespene gas still in the game - character pane shows up on right side - some protoss guy - shifts to terran bases floating on rockets over same type of territory - sill collecting crystals as resources - marines load out. Dustin is actually playing the game - nothing in the game is final.
3:09 - controlling protoss zealots - still has psi blades and personal shield - new charge ability that let him quickly close range on enemies. Siege tanks shown - still the same type of behavior where they can lock down - take out zealots really quickly - new protoss unit - called immortals - have special shield that only activates upon being powerfully attacked - siege tanks could barely do any damage to them.
3:10 - Terran reapers - can hop across unever terrain with jump packs - two types of small pistols that don't activate immortals. Protoss now have the ability to create shields whereever they want. Protoss can now warp in units from manufacturing facilities anything within pylon range. New protoss unit - stalker - can teleport - quadripedal thing - can keep blinking forward - seems to be a shot cooldown on the ability. Zerg start coming in, giant worms pop out of ground unleasing zerglings. Protoss can use phase fields and teleporting abilities to create an army anywhere on the battlefield, according to Blizzard.
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Replies
Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXoekeDIW8
Logo
http://wow.gamemeca.com/ftp_data/community/section_wow/st_wow_wwi/2007/0519/84/84_11179554885.jpg
Two really blurry shaky cam shots of the game being played :
http://gall.dcinside.com/list.php?id=game1&no=127676&page=1
http://au.media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/imgs_1.html
exciting stuff!
I just came a little
And ingame video
http://tvpot.daum.net/theme/ThemeView.do?themeid=122&lu=t_c_theme_1
uhm watch it till the end.. awesome stuff in the end ;D
Lookin pretty cool, but Im sure the gameplay is gonna be where it really shines. I thought the gfx were a little underwhelming for the resources that Blizzard has right now, but they certainly are polished incredibly nicely.
Anyways, check out this thread on penny-arcade. Better info. More screens.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=22901
it all looks really cool, but just it looks so gamy, i wish it was more realistic and looked like shit actually belongs there as opposed to just a bunch of sci fi crate textures slapped on the ground all over the place, like man would it be awesome to play gears of war the rts or what? i know they can do it... guess i'll have to wait till diablo 3, maybe that'll fit the bill.
Yup official site is up. Go go go.
Gotta say, after the initial omfgwtfsooocool phase of seeing all this, I've started to realize, even the gameplay looks exactly the same as SC1. Just a few more units, and 3d good-ness. They didn't really innovate all that much it seems, which is their perogative, but a little disspointing. I suppose the Koreans would have gone insane if it was too much different from the original. I feel like maybe Im expecting too much from Blizzard or setting them on too high of a pedestal, because with most other companies, this would be a great job at a sequel to a former game they made, but with all the money Blizzard has made off of wow, I expect to see some billion dollar ideas and billion dollar tech. It makes me kinda wonder how epic would have made this game. Or Will Wright.
Edit again: just saw an interesting quote from another forum "Well the theory behind being NOT nex-gen at all is so it can be available for South Korea users, who control the Starcraft market, and GeForce4 is an average graphic card in there."
Thats a pretty interesting way of looking at it.
A screenshot of this lined up next to a screenshot of the latest C&C, and I'd choose C&C.
Edit again: just saw an interesting quote from another forum "Well the theory behind being NOT nex-gen at all is so it can be available for South Korea users, who control the Starcraft market, and GeForce4 is an average graphic card in there."
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That's how the company has always looked at it. From a marketing and sales point of view... how would you maximise the sales of your product in a market where the "base" PC isn't even defined?
You make a product that runs on the absolute bare minimun that you're willing to let it to. In this case, a machine with a Geforce 4 video card.
You can argue that, with the popularity of this game, many players will upgrade just to play it. Sure that could be the case. But why take that chance? You immediately cut your market by a large portion by taking that risk. Because they either upgrade or they don't. And you never know just how many people will have the lastest set up to play your 'next-gen' game.
Why do you think WoW has sold over millions of copies? Because the game is available to be played over a WIDE spectrum of PC set ups. Fuck, even I can play WoW and I'm at the bottom end of the PC market with a machine that's easily 7 years old.
The focus of Blizzard games has never been the graphics. It's always been about the gameplay. Cartoony, stylized graphics is just one of the ways to hide and overcome the lack of technical brute.
I cant really understand what you guys complaining about? There are hundreds of zerglings and space marines on the screen above and also a lot of environment stuff! How should this work with high detailed models??
I personally really like the cartoony style, im really tired of all the wannabe reallistic games! If they would go with a desaturated more realistic style like gears of war you would lose the overview very fast.
I think SouL is right on the money about Blizzard appealing to the largest market possible, its what every company should be doing if they ever stop the run away tech train for half a second and think about it. I'm not saying forsake tech and go back to building games like we did 6 years ago but build in scalability, most engines have it so why not use it? Money and time I guess...
@ rawkstar: I hear ya and second that plan if it wasn't Blizzard and wouldn't destroy one of the best / coveted teams in the industry.
I do have one complaint about the art very minor and people who are not me wouldn't care. The example units on the site specifically the mechanical units aren't mechanical as far as animation is concerned., they have vert weighting and it shows on most of all on the Protoss Immortal.
- "Maybe if we speed up the animation no one will notice we used blended weights...?"
- "Wouldn't be easier just to 'not blend' the verts?"
- "Don't be silly, those stupid players won't care as long as we recycle the game play they know and love"
Edit again: just saw an interesting quote from another forum "Well the theory behind being NOT nex-gen at all is so it can be available for South Korea users, who control the Starcraft market, and GeForce4 is an average graphic card in there."
Thats a pretty interesting way of looking at it.
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Actually if you look at what games sell shitloads they tend to be playable on low end hardware like the sims and rollercoaster tycoon for example and ofcourse blizzard games.
Also i think in south korea most gaming takes place in those internet cafe kind of things and to force them all to upgrade so they could run sc2??
But can anybody explain why the hell the game is rendered from an orthographic camera from a fixed angle of view? Now this might change, but it looks stupid and would play dumb if you can only navigate an entirely 3D world from 1 angle.
And it's very blue.
this looks awesome.
And let's be honest, their graphics are all rather lousy when compared to Company of Heroes.
I played many hours of starcraft and i am yet to play a strategy game that is packed with so much depth and balance. The cartoony style is a Blizzard trademark and i wouldnt trade it for any "gears of war" style visuals.
I think you all should visit the website again and take a look at the gameplay trailer because it looks quite nice in motion, even at such low rez.
What defined starcraft was clever character design, no one unit was like another, and no one race was like another, yet on BNet it was a hugely enjoyable and competitive strategy game with a LOT of depth despite looking quite childishin and unserious.
I understand the remarks though, people expected everyone to follow in the same suit of "next gen" graphics, but i find it looks great and up to standard for strategy games in little gameplay vids they showed.
I wouldnt speculate that it's the same game refreshed.
Furthermore, i think i've just heard the entire population of South Korea squeel in joy
his blizzard art contest entry looks pretty damn close to the real thing
the cinematic just blows me away. all the subtle animations.. damn!
There was a brief glimpse of Kerrigan from broodwars
I wonder if this is a heavily modified Warcraft3 engine?
-caseyjones
The screenshots definately don't do it any justice, it looks badass in motion.
Gameplay vid tomorrow
3 unique races just doesnt cut it for me anymore. I hope too they refine their building of units, and or selection methods.
I'm still excited, but i'm not tottally floored.
When Supreme Commander came out I was uber excited, and then it ran like shit even on low-medium settings.
[url="mms://211.33.120.153/Data1/2005/8/000594448-a317000000000000.wmv"]mms://211.33.120.153/Data1/2005/8/000594448-a317000000000000.wmv[/url]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1KnmnFxHoE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1RxXko-AnM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=050akGtHDM4
I think this will be a good time, blizzard has a proven track record of quality games so even if SC2 is more of the same with a little bit of flavor that's enough for me. I can't see them changing it too much anyway with it's huge following in korea.
Can't wait, just wish they'd have given some info on how far into the project they are.
As for the game...from the stills, I was a little let down. However, after watching the videos...it just looks beautiful. Everything seemed to flow so well, and the effects were just off the chart. Starcraft was never about the graphics, it was about the gameplay....and thats why it is still a huge force today.
too nice!
On the topic of using last-gen tech, hasn't that always been BLizzard's way? WoW wasn't terribly cutting edge even when it was in beta, and Diablo II was of course still just a 2D game despite shipping in summer of 2000. That approach clearly hasn't hurt sales and I don't think it's affected quality much, either (though I'd love me some 3D Diablo..)