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The announcement session is underway, and the lights are up. The Korean emcees are making announcements about the tournaments and music concerts that will also be held at the event. Blizzard Korea managing director Jungwan Han has taken the stage to deliver the opening remarks, greeting and thanking Blizzard fans worldwide for their support, take his seat, and the emcees briefly introduce Blizzard's top brass, including Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo, and Chris Metzen.

Next up are the introductions for the professional gamers, who are greeted with great fanfare by the audience as they're announced individually and step onstage. First are the Starcraft players, introduced by their name, faction played (protoss, zerg, or terran), and country of origin. These are followed by the Warcraft III professional players, also introduced by their name, played faction (humans, orcs, undead, or night elves), and country of origin. After the players are brought onstage, they are brought forward individually to take an "oath" of fair play.

p After the players are ushered offstage, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime takes the stage to make the big announcement, noting first that this year's event will host more tournaments than any previous event (including competitions for Starcraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft), then introducing a video montage with footage from Blizzard's previous games (such as the original Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft) and previous tournament events. Morhaime is finally getting closer to the announcement...the crowd cheers in anticipation. Says Morhaime, "when it came time to make this announcement, it was easy to decide where it should take place." The president praises the enthusiasm and support of Korean game players, then introduces another video trailer for the new game.

The trailer begins with a spaceship, lowering a coffinlike object. The camera cuts to a chamber, then do a gigantic metal gate that cranks open, and cuts to a man with a cigar in his mouth, wearing shackles on his ankles. The man staps into mechanical restraints that lock around his ankles and the platform around him rises. The cofflinlike object sprouts metal pincers that brace his wrists while the champers reveal whirring turbines that sprout metallic drills and rivets which fit metallic armor on his body. The figure is a terran soldier, and the camera pans up his body, cutting to scenes of protoss and zerg warriors rushing to battle. The new game, as rumored, is Starcraft II.

Morhaime then introduces the lead designer of the project to discuss it--none other than former EALA designer Dustin Browder. The video cuts to a demonstration that shows a fleet of protoss ships that disembark several zealot infantry units, then cuts to a scene showing terran transports touching down and becoming base structures, spouting infantry and vehicle units. Browder points out that this demonstration is in a very early stage of code. As we see in the demonstration, the new game will add new abilities to existing units--the protoss zealot, for instance, will now be able to charge into battle to quickly close the distance against terran gunners. The terrans retaliate by bringing in siege tanks to shell the protoss from a distance. The protoss respond by commissioning "immortals"--heavy-duty tanks with powerful energy shields. Morhaime then introduces the lead designer of the project to discuss it--none other than former EALA designer Dustin Browder. The video cuts to a demonstration that shows a fleet of protoss ships that disembark several zealot infantry units, then cuts to a scene showing terran transports touching down and becoming base structures, spouting infantry and vehicle units. Browder points out that this demonstration is in a very early stage of code. As we see in the demonstration, the new game will add new abilities to existing units--the protoss zealot, for instance, will now be able to charge into battle to quickly close the distance against terran gunners. The terrans retaliate by bringing in siege tanks to shell the protoss from a distance. The protoss respond by commissioning "immortals"--heavy-duty tanks with powerful energy shields. The terrans then commission reapers, medium infantry with jetpacks that can jump barriers to raid enemy bases extremely effectively. The reapers leap into action against the protoss base to attack the pylons, but have a new series of structures that help the protoss be much more resilient when attacked at their base, such as phase prisms, which let you quickly move units from place to place. The protoss stalker unit has a "blink" ability that lets them jump anywhere they can see, and makes them excellent pursuers.


The zerg have arrived, sending zerglings to overwhelm the protoss stalkers--a huge swarm of them charges the protoss. Browder points out that Starcraft II will still be a game about large armies against large armies. The zerg then run into a few protoss colossus--gigantic walkers with cutting lasers that specialize in liquifying zerglings. The zerg have mutated into a new kind of suicide unit that explodes in a burst of acid. The colossus also uses inverse kinematic animation to walk up and down cliffs. The colossus uni is vulnerable to air attacks, such as mutalisks, which slaughter it. In response, the protoss have a new unit, the phoenix, which can "overload" to eliminate squads of nearby airborne enemies but leave them helpless and immobile briefly afterwards. The new game will also have new texture work and deep space background environments. The phoenix can't hold its own against terran battlecruisers, which crush them--in response, the protoss commission the "warpray," a laser-firing ship that deals more damage the longer it focuses its fire on an enemy.

Browder caps the demonstration with one last new unit, the protoss mothership, the ultimate weapon in the protoss army. It's an incredibly expensive unit with a "time bomb" ability that distorts time within an energy field, making enemy fire too slow to actually reach and hit the mothership. Once the time field collapses, enemy shells clatter uselessly to the ground. The mothership also possesses the "planet cracker," a stream of multiple lasers that devastate anything beneath it. Finally, the mothership can create a black hole--an extremely damaging ability that wrecks flying enemies. The glowing black hole simply sucks in the terran warships, which warp in appearance before disappearing utterly into oblivion.

The demonstration ends with a battle between the protoss and the terrans, who whale on each other mercilessly. As you might expect from the successor to Starcraft, it seems clear that the key to success in the sequel will be combined force of arms, as both armies pummel each other to a standstill, racking up casualties on each side as they grind away at each other. The battle ends with an orbital strike that wipes out both sides utterly, so that both sides are left with only one infantry unit. Both get mobbed by zerg units that crawl out of the ground and butcher them, then mutate into their new form and crawl into formation to spell out the letters "GG" (a shortcut many online players use to say "good game").

After the Starcraft II demonsration, another video montage is shown, this time featuring a series of concept art drawing that gives way to another gameplay demo that highlights various units new and old, such s the protoss colossus, the zergling, and others, ending with two portraits that appear to be Jim Raynor and Kerrigan.

Covenant wrote:I liked Starcraft, but until I can actually see some of this footage, I'm going to be hesitant. After seeing Ghost just go... ghostlike and so many of Blizzard's projects take similar vaporous routes in the past, I'm really unsettled by the idea they're going to leap back into the Arena.

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:

Covenant wrote:I liked Starcraft, but until I can actually see some of this footage, I'm going to be hesitant. After seeing Ghost just go... ghostlike and so many of Blizzard's projects take similar vaporous routes in the past, I'm really unsettled by the idea they're going to leap back into the Arena.

The only Blizzard game besides StarCraft Ghost that I can think of that have been canceled was WarCraft Adventures.

So unless I'm wrong, that's only two projects of Blizzard's that have ended up as vapourware.

Covenant wrote: I'm really hopeful, since the RTS market right now is pretty obviously not doing well in the "Harvest Minerals lol" school of thought, so if blizz is following the money, we might get something different and very cool--Like a Supreme Commander or take-and-hold style of game.

Sea Skimmer wrote:

Covenant wrote: I'm really hopeful, since the RTS market right now is pretty obviously not doing well in the "Harvest Minerals lol" school of thought, so if blizz is following the money, we might get something different and very cool--Like a Supreme Commander or take-and-hold style of game.

I fail to see what was fundamentally different about Supreme Commander compared to other mine and build hoards of crap based RTSs. Now mind you, I see nothing wrong with that kind of game play. But if they want to improve on it, then they should follow Act of War and try to actually force you to use all the different kinds of units as a combined arms force. Add for example multiple armor facets (at least eight, hopefully at least ten) and generally higher level f detail that can better reflect the dynamics of a real war.

Ford Prefect wrote:I dunno. That game play footage looked pretty uninspiring. Looking at the screenshots, it's looks exactly like a prettier Starcraft. That the Behemoths still look dinky is not particularly pleasing.

Ace Pace wrote:Some gameplay footage.

Batch of in-game images.

Stark wrote:I'm not sure it could be *less* inspiring?

Hilariously there's a built-in fanbase, so regardless of it's quality it will be a 'success'.