Starcraft 1 was an awsome game and now that were into 9 years of better graphics and game engines this game should be awsome. Too bad there wont be another race though :(
@ixaarii, The difference is that Blizzard has a reputation. Their game is one that people will buy. I don't think they are requiring top of the line computers, but theres no way most of the people over in Korea will be able to play it for a good couple of years unless they really take that into account, which would limit the overall game.
@pilias_simber, yes, but i believe way too often pc devepers think that way resulting in games that have higher requiremetns in the expectations of technology changing, but that results in less people playing their games at max settings/looking best on launch. I think i was reading recently about this developer conference where they were asked how often they upgrade their hardware. Most of them did it yearly, but it was underlined that while they, and hardcore gamers do others do so maybe only in 3-4 years. it seems to me there's been a slowdown in the hardware evolution because less people see the reason to trade in their perfectly good laptop for another for which they don't really see the boost most of the time (more cpus less used, ram which most of the time they dont need...)
Please keep in mind that Starcraft took a number of years to reach it's sales, it's likely Starcraft II will as well. It doesn't have to play well on modern low-end computers, the computers that can play it will one day be low-end computers and then the game will sell huge numbers. It will probably already do well in countries where more people have high performance PCs, like the US well before that.
wow! such huge numbers!My big worries for it to reach such success are: a)will the game run looking good on all hardwares? I think starcraft did so great because it ran amazingly great on every hardware and it's grandfather. But a lot of that was because the graphics was prerendered... can this still be done with 3d? Will it run looking great on a onboard card or a fx5200? I know i was even able to play starcraft ona 133mhz laptop... b)is the pc gaming market able to sustain such a big hit? I see a lot of the sales going to consoles recently and as they now have harddrives and internet so widespread this may happen even more. Of course this doesnt apply to strategy games... but still
anyway, huge numbers. Not saying they aren't justified, certanly not with blizzard behind them and the ladder chapnionships i imagine tehy'll make, just amazed at their hugeness
An early version of StarCraft 2 was offered to a few people to play at BlizzCon. Still no release date however. (Beta coming up?)
Also Blizzard gave away a load of new screenshots. (Extreme!)
Jim Raynor stars as Terran protagonist. Also "Blizzard has implemented character dialogue trees into the mix. So, instead of just watching in-game cut-scenes (WC3) or non-interactive dialogue panels (SC), you can click on characters surrounding Raynor on the bridge to engage them in conversation."
"The new unlock system in StarCraft II allows players to pick and choose which units and research options they have for successive missions, instead of being fed upgrades over the course of a linear story."
As many of you may remember, 1UP's live coverage of Blizzard's recent Starcraft II unveiling from South Korea was the most authoritative play-by-play of the event, and helped to convey to all of the gamers unable to be there (a lot of you) the excitement and energy of the game's first big reveal. Well, now 1UP's back to bring you the second...
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