The Return of Starcraft

[doomguardian]

Yes, people, just recently today Blizzard announced Starcraft 2 at a large event in South Korea!!!! This is huge and exciting news! (sequel to second most played online game to date still after 10 years; sold 14 million copies).

Watch the off-screen CGI announcement trailer of Starcraft 2 here: Click HERE!

For those of you who don't know Stracraft that well, it's a game by Blizzard Entertainment (Warcraft, Diablo, World of Warcraft) and is considered by many the best RTS game of all time - if not best game overall. It's known for it's extremely balanced gameplay; overwhelming, competitive and addicting online matches; and well-told story.

So far, it's been said that the game has been in development for over 4 years, by approximately 40 people (most of the guys who made the original), and has no budget (thanks to the gold mine that is WoW).

Features:

* Fast-paced, hard-hitting, tightly balanced competitive real-time strategy gameplay that recaptures and improves on the magic of the original game
* Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg
* New units and gameplay mechanics further distinguish each race
* Groundbreaking single-player "story-mode" campaign
* Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes
* Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net
* Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience

http://www.starcraft2.com/

 

[mike c]

nice! there's a shortage of good strategy games nowadays.

is this a game release or just an announcement?

 

[doomguardian]

It's just an announcement.

 

[avaserfi]

I was extremely excited and surprised at this news. After waiting so long for a sequel I can just hope that its as good as the original. We need more information, but if Blizzard does their thing it'll be a great game.

 

[mike c]

thanks. I'm gonna buy this one when it releases. personally, I'm waiting for Blizzard to release a new Diablo. on the topic of strategy games, who else thinks the new C&C tiberian wars suck?

 

[j_garcia]

Sweet. That was easily my favorite PC strategy game. Will it be PC only?

 

[avaserfi]

Sweet. That was easily my favorite PC strategy game. Will it be PC only?

No word yet, I'm hoping for it to be released on some consoles along side pc, but we will have to wait to see.

 

[zhimbo]

No word yet, I'm hoping for it to be released on some consoles along side pc, but we will have to wait to see.

Blizzard says PC only. There's a FAQ on their website re: SC2.

 

[j_garcia]

Based on the preview it did look like PC only. I don't use the PC for games these days, but I guess I will be again for this one

 

[Guiria]

Now I finally have a good excuse to upgrade my PC. By the time the game is released (after 2007) I'll need something better than my current machine to play SC2. I can hardly wait.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Now I finally have a good excuse to upgrade my PC. By the time the game is released (after 2007) I'll need something better than my current machine to play SC2. I can hardly wait.

I doubt that, from the look of things SC2 will be more graphics card dependent than CPU dependent, and in terms of CPU usage, the most taxing aspect of the game will probably be the Havok physics.

I would say that any cerca 2005 or later CPU would run it just fine, and a geforce 6600gt or better card (that supports at least shader model 3.0) would handle the graphics fine. At least, this is my opinion based on the HD video they released a while back.

CPU's really haven't advanced a whole lot in the last few years in terms of raw processing power. They have mostly advanced in terms of operation efficiency and power efficiency (which was badly needed for the intel chips - netburst just plain sucked, and pretty much all pentium 4's were best used for adding extra heating to your room.) If they add multi-threading support to the game, then I would say that *any* dual core CPU would work just fine.