Starcraft II announced, first details and video revealed

Old school PC gamers must be rejoicing right now. A few weeks ago it was the news that PC RPG classic – and arguably the first “sandbox game” – Fallout would get some love in the form of Fallout 3. Today, it’s official confirmation from Blizzard Entertainment that Starcraft II is going to be made.

Reports from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (WWI) say that from what’s previewed so far, the game looks very similar to SC1, with an almost identical user interface – and almost the same unit proportions. Yes, flashy new lighting effects, but it seems that Blizzard doesn’t want to mess with a working formula – a formula that’s considered a sport in Korea.

Other reports note that previews showcased a scene where there was “a giant rush of Zerglings – probably over 100 of them, swarming with no slowdown.”

Units, two videos, and the rest of our Starcraft II coverage after the Jump!

Old school PC gamers must be rejoicing right now. A few weeks ago it was the news that PC RPG classic – and arguably the first “sandbox game” – Fallout would get some love in the form of Fallout 3. Today, it’s official confirmation from Blizzard Entertainment that Starcraft II is going to be made.

Reports from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (WWI) say that from what’s previewed so far, the game looks very similar to SC1, with an almost identical user interface – and almost the same unit proportions. Yes, flashy new lighting effects, but it seems that Blizzard doesn’t want to mess with a working formula – a formula that’s considered a sport in Korea.

Other reports note that previews showcased a scene where there was “a giant rush of Zerglings – probably over 100 of them, swarming with no slowdown.”

Additional revealed details about the game include a new Protoss unit, with reports saying that it’s called a “Warprey.” According to the reports, it has the ability to do increased damage the longer it hits a target with a blue laser.

Other revealed Protoss units include the Protoss Colossus, a large unit with dual lasers – two of them can kill fifty or so zerglings – and the Protoss Pheonix (or Phoenix, we’ll keep checking) – a unit that can “overcharge” its weapons for a short period of time, but then has it’s weapons rendered useless for a short while afterwards.

There’s also a Protoss unit called the stalker that can teleport. Blizzard also revealed that Protoss can now “warp” in units from facilities to anywhere within pylon range.

Then there are the “Immortals:” Protoss units that gain a special shield that only powers up when faced with strong attacks. They can survive Siege tanks (emphasis on the plural).

Zerglings can now also mutate into suicidal bombs that roll across the ground and cause explosions. Revealed Terran units include the reapers that have jump packs and weapons that can get past the Protoss Immortal’s shields.

As nice as those units are, we’ve saved the best for last. Here’s Gamespot’s take on what they saw from the previewed footage:

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.

It seems that Starcraft II, much like its predecessor, is still a game about conflicts between large armies. Our trusty Internet hamsters are trying their best to dig up videos to present to you folks. That being said, we have two for now… click play on the embeds below to check them out.