9 Years Later... 4 Years in Starcraft Time...

A sequel to what, in my opinion, is the best RTS game of all time, Starcraft, has been finally announced! Starcraft II is coming! Blizzard unveiled their plans to create a sequel to this award-winning game in Korea, at Seoul's Olympic Stadium. To my relief, they have NOT changed from the beloved realistic style (albeit via a 3D rendering engine) that so won me over in the original and expansion pack (though, in that case, via 2D sprite animations), Brood War, rather than using the cartoony 3D engine displayed in Warcraft III. Instead, they have added some amazing shine to an already-proved design, with prettier graphics, new units, new strategies, and, of course, a new storyplot, set four years after the ending of the Brood War story.

I must admit, this news leaves me a bit teary-eyed with joy. Even the official website for the game is, as with its predecessors, a beauty to behold. In a sudden burst of information, Blizzard has left me stunned with their beautiful screenshots, showing that the game is quite well on its way, in addition to some gameplay movies, wallpapers, and much more. Hell, they've even got a Tychus Findlay statue for order, if you're willing to dish out 250 bucks to celebrate this momentous occasion.

Thankfully, the game will be released with compatibility to both XP and Vista (as well as Mac), much to my relief, since I am not quite ready to take the next step and upgrade my OS just yet. As for system requirements, they have not been specified as of yet, but the intention is to make it as diversely-compatible (for PC--take that, console-whores) as possible, while still allowing for the maximum in visual beauty (yet the focus is on "fast-paced" special effects, so that they do not distract from the gameplay itself). According to Inside Mac Games, the intention is to focus on resource management, as was the case with previous Starcraft games, as opposed to the micromanagement that came with Warcraft III and its multitude of heroes and special unit abilities. I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Blizzard knows fully well what they are doing, and that Starcraft won't become "Warcraft in space."

As for Starcraft Ghost, I would say that it is quite safe to assume that it is dead and gone for good. Blizzard has a history of being quite picky with their released products (as was shown when they canceled a Warcraft game at the last minute in favor of Starcraft, back in the late 1990s because the Warcraft game "didn't stand up to company standards"), something that truly sets them apart as a gaming company. Their fearlessness in slashing games that just wouldn't make it, even after such games are fully ready for release, is something that many other gaming companies should take note of. On the other hand, it's a shame that we won't see how this turned out.



Frankly, when I heard that Blizzard would be announcing its new game during this conference some weeks ago, I rather suspected that the big surprise would be a Starcraft II (Tim of Ctrl+Alt+Del comments on this). I must admit, however, that I didn't at all expect what would be shown to be so well-polished. If I had to guess, I would say that the game will be released in 2008, riding on the campaign of revisiting the Starcraft universe after a decade (since both the original and its expansion came out in 1998). Now I have something else to look forward to aside from Spore, Bioshock, and Halo 3.

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