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Shinova wrote:I abandoned Starcraft long time ago, but it should be interesting to see how Blizzard does this one, whether they actually advance or whether they prove once again that Blizzard games always pander to the lowest common denominator and succeed in somehow being two generations behind everyone else graphically AND still sell tens of times more than anyone else.

Vympel wrote:Well, Warcraft 3 sucked ass, IMO.

Stark wrote:I thought the WC3 hero system was totally broken. Most RPGs use a more Kohan-like 'reset xp' system in my experience.

Stark wrote:They were hugely powerful and constantly improved? I recall that later patches tweaked the hero/cost/xp thing, but when I played the heroes were cheap for the power and could be resurrected with little trouble. There was almost 'no risk' to using them. They were also all over the place power-wise, like the Battle Realms heroes.

Having heroes in an RTS doesn't mean they 'copied' Blizzard.

Flagg wrote:Having heroes doesn't mean they copied Blizzard, but I'm mainly talking about the RPG heroes system alot of games used after WC3 that were clearly inspired by that game.

Stark wrote:They were hugely powerful and constantly improved? I recall that later patches tweaked the hero/cost/xp thing, but when I played the heroes were cheap for the power and could be resurrected with little trouble. There was almost 'no risk' to using them. They were also all over the place power-wise, like the Battle Realms heroes.

Having heroes in an RTS doesn't mean they 'copied' Blizzard.

Stormbringer wrote:PS: for all Blizzards graphics might not be cutting edge (I'd disagree that they're so far behind as you make it out to be) they are more than sufficient for the game play. Blizzard makes good, playable games which is why they keep pumping out successes instead of super-flop eye candy.

However, trustworthy information is being leaked from previous Blizzard employees, and through an acquaintance of ex-Blizzard North employees, StarCraft 2's development and its announcement at the WWI has been confirmed.

No smoke without a fire

Whether or not these claims are true will be difficult to confirm because of the nature of the source (anonymous leak). Over the years there have been much said about the sequel - Blizzard has repeatedly mentioned that they have always been interested in "revisiting the StarCraft world". However, only recently has there been an increasing number of leaks regarding Starcraft 2, all hinting that it is indeed coming out soon. Here's the recent history:

# December 2006: An 'Unannounced project' was what Chris Sigaty, Lead Producer of WarCraft 3 (and its expansion), said he was working with when GosuGamers met up with Blizzard in our recent interview called » When Blizzard started talking. He would not comment further on what project it was.

# 8th January 2007, GosuGamers » reported about a claim that StarCraft 2 would be announced early 2007. That source also leaked a lot of other unconfirmed information to the gaming community, much which have turned out to be true.

# Only days later, 16th January 2007, at the launch of the Burning Crusade, » a Blizzard representative made further, and this time public, hints about StarCraft II.

# 9th April 2007, sources at FighterForum (» translated at TeamLiquid) claimed that information about a new race and 3D graphics being included in StarCraft 2 had leaked from the company and that a beta would be out by the end of 2007. It only contained claims for a new "Kerrigan" race and that the original units of StarCraft would be included in the sequel, but with a modification.

It took a good day of calls and emails, but Blizzard just got back to us about the rumor floating around that Starcraft 2 will be announced next month during their World Wide Invitation in Seoul, South Korea.

According to a Korean website, StarCraft 2 is being developed in 3D with a new race and lots of changes for existing units. The site went on to say that additional details would be revealed during Blizzard's WWI on May 19th in Seoul.

When reached for comment today this was Blizzard's official response:

We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don't have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

So that's a yes on a StarCraft 2, eventually, and a yes to a product announcement next month. The only question now is are they one in the same. Brian Crecente

Darth Tanner wrote:If it turns out to be World of Starcraft I think I'll cry.

Stark wrote:They were hugely powerful and constantly improved? I recall that later patches tweaked the hero/cost/xp thing, but when I played the heroes were cheap for the power and could be resurrected with little trouble. There was almost 'no risk' to using them. They were also all over the place power-wise, like the Battle Realms heroes.

Having heroes in an RTS doesn't mean they 'copied' Blizzard.