Monday, August 17, 2009

StarCraft 2: Invasion of the Single Player News

So, Blizzard has this title coming out in the not too distant future. It's called StarCraft 2 and I hear it is supposed to be fairly popular. I mean, it is only the very (very, very, very) long awaited sequel to one of the most successful games of all time.

Not too long ago, word emerged from Blizzard HQ that SC2 would have no LAN play; the only multiplayer option would be via the New and Improved Battle.Net. This resulted in much internet weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Today, Blizzard may have dried some of those tears. No, they haven't relented and instituted LAN play. And since we don't even know what the new Battle.Net will look like or how it will work, there really isn't much call to worry over that one yet. Instead, Blizzard has provided us with some decent insights into the single-player campaign.

Last year it was announced that StarCraft 2 would ship in three installments. The given reason was to allow time to really make the single player campaigns something amazing. Then a few weeks ago, the Blizzard-Activision stock price dropped on the news that SC2 would be delayed until 2010. Knowing Blizzard, that simply means they needed more time to up the awesome, and would take the stock hit to get it. The future status of Blizzard-Activision's bank account not withstanding, it does appear that when Blizzard said they wanted to make the StarCraft 2 single player something special, they weren't kidding.

Several members of the gaming press were recently invited to Blizzard HQ to see the SC2 singleplayer campaign. Despite writing for this fine establishment and living just down the road from Blizzard, I was not among the fortunate few. So, rather than simply rehash what those who did get to make that trip have reported, I'll just link you to their words.

There is alot of good stuff coming in StarCraft 2. So far, it looks like it will be well worth the wait until 2010 (for the first installment). These writeups are all excellent reads; I highly recommend you scan through all of them. Enjoy.

StarCraft 2 write ups brought to you by:
Ars Technica - did not actually see the game first hand, but a good read none-the-less.
ShackNews
IGN
Kotaku
Destructoid - has been loading slowly today. Be patient with this one.
And GameSpy promises to have a preview up in the near future.

No comments: