A silly little blog for me to drop the excrement of my mind.
-or- A huge announcement and a long awaited sequel
Published on May 23, 2007 By BlueDev In Real-Time

1998.  Real-time strategy games were no new commodity.  Dune, Command and Conquer, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires and Warcraft were all well known, well regarded and loved titles.  But Blizzard wasn't content to sit on the success of Warcraft and Diablo.  After exploring the world of fantasy, they were ready to tap the wells of sci-fi.

Enter Starcraft.

Other RTS games have come and gone.  I have loved many, but none quite so dearly as Starcraft.  You see, Blizzard managed, with Starcraft, to do something that, for me, has yet to be accomplished in another game: They created an interesting narrative with characters I cared for.  The story was fascinating (as far as sci-fi schtick goes), well written, with great dialog and fabulous cut-scenes.  Nobody does cut scenes like Blizzard. 

Add to that the fact the you had three well balanced, but completely unique races to play, and you had a really special game.  But that was almost 10 years ago.

But now we have the sequel.  Yep, Blizzard announced this week (in Korea, of course) that they were working on and will be releasing Starcraft 2.  The gameplay doesn't look groundbreaking, but it looks familiar.  And for those of us who loved the original, that is quite all right.  Check out the trailer.  Another killer Blizzard CG cut scene.

To echo the marine, "Hell, it's about time."


Comments
on May 23, 2007
I, too, saw it.

I, too, was effulgent. Yeah, it's really about time.
on May 28, 2007
Now it's just a matter of time, waiting for it to finaly come out...

I may have been young, but I was addicted to starcraft.... Great game... I think I still have it somewhere....
on May 28, 2007
Damn, someone get those guys a walker. Starcraft ?? OMG Gramps that game is soo old.

on May 28, 2007
Gramps that game is soo old.


Doesn't change the fact that it's probably the best RTS game ever . . .
on May 28, 2007
starcraft was, and still is, a fun game (im only 13 so i was 3 when it was released) even if it is a bit overrated, the fact that even today it is fun is well worth respect
on May 31, 2007
StarCraft was the first game I played on my first computer and I played it until last year. Best RTS of all time if you ask me. It simply had everything (for its time). Interesting races: Units, technologies, strenghts and weaknessess was different. And it was very well balanced according to the pros (though I thought it was broken).

Fantastic story: It has memorable key characters that you care for and you don't know what awaits in the next missions. Ther's plenty of surprises and you can't wait to find out what happens next.

Argh must go to the gym...finish this later...
on May 31, 2007
My standards in RTS games have been raised considerably since Starcraft. If it's still just a linear, story driven campaign (ie. no strategic layer) I won't be bothering with it. Starcraft was the best RTS of its day, but it's been easily surpassed by the likes of Rise of Nations and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade in the intervening time. None of the prepress I've seen indicates that Blizz is prepared to raise the bar. In fact, my general sense is that they're going to change as little as possible in the interests of pleasing the Korean professional gaming market.
on May 31, 2007
i agree on just about every point so far. the first game i really played was the original warcraft. i was like 12. then i quickly found there was a sequal, and, *gasp* a space-based variant.

Starcraft was and still is an exquisite game. it didn't exactly break ground in any way i can think of, but everything about the game was done with a level of care and detail i don't think even blizzard has matched since then. i've wondered several times over the years if they'd ever make a sequal.
on May 31, 2007
The only thing I can think of that was bad was the A.I. It always did the same things and was therefore easily predictable. Worse, it didn't use any advanced strategies at all. Though two people I know say that StarCraft was the first RTS with a new type of A.I. Don't think I believe that though....

Another thing I've noticed is that there hasn't been any mention of the A.I! Not a word!
It was good in WarCraft III but perhaps that was simply since it's so incredibly fast.

I know what the community will say when I bring it up though. "Play multiplayer "
Especially the arrogant people over at [url=gosugamers.net]gosugamers[/url].

If a few friends start to play then I will play with them. Always preferred to play people you can talk to afterwards and play lots of games with.
on May 31, 2007
Campaigner, I agree. The AI is sooooo predictable as it is scripted..

Humm, will it be a Zergling Rush/Dark Templar Rush this time.. not sure.. lol But the only way I've been able to combat that is to just add more CPU's. lol I can beat 7 CPU's about 1/3rd the time.. as long as I still lose, I'll keep playing. I actually prefer to LAN party.. but that doesn't happen that often. Still, I play SC about 5 times a week still. I love that game. hehehe
on May 31, 2007
The only thing I can think of that was bad was the A.I. It always did the same things and was therefore easily predictable.


okay, fair enough, i did forget about that. i got trounced a bunch of times just because the thing was so fast, though, so i guess it didn't stand out as an issue to me.

I can beat 7 CPU's about 1/3rd the time..


sheesh... i don't think i ever beat more than 3 at once.
on May 31, 2007

Another thing I've noticed is that there hasn't been any mention of the A.I! Not a word!
It was good in WarCraft III but perhaps that was simply since it's so incredibly fast.


WC3 ended up being a challenge because the AI could micromanage so much better than you (and it's such a micro heavy game, which isn't really a knock against it as it does it all very well).

I'd forgotten about SC's AI but you're right, I suppose it's another reason it didn't have a lot of staying power on my hard drive. It's a much better MP game than SP, and I don't play much MP. That trend looks to continue with SC2 (though I'd love to be proven wrong on that between now and when the game releases). Blizz could regain an awful lot of their credibility with me if they made this into a game that's strong for SP as well as MP...