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Blizzard Announces StarCraft 2
We'll be returning once again to the world of StarCraft, it appears, and not in the form of a Massively Multiplayer game. Blizzard has announced StarCraft 2 at their packed event in Seoul, South Korea. IGN is liveblogging the event, describing gameplay footage being played as well as full cinematics. From the description of ongoing events there are massive changes to the way the game plays, new units, a physics system within the game engine, and the capability to show over 100 units onscreen at a time. "Showing gameplay footage - Looks like protoss ships - floating over asteroid/ base structure - entering protoss ase - similar looking buildings - vespene gas still in the game - character pane shows up on right side - some protoss guy - shifts to terran bases floating on rockets over same type of territory - sill collecting crystals as resources - marines load out. Dustin is actually playing the game - nothing in the game is final." Additional coverage from Milky at 1up.
While the gameplay was more accessible - which I have no complaint with - the game itself seemed designed to piss me off. An extremely predictable story focusing on very unlikeable characters? An extremely predictable story focusing on very unlikeable characters that I'm forced to plod though and can't avoid? SIGN ME UP!
If I want a predictable story and unlikeable characters, I'll play one of the PlayStation Final Fantasies. If I want an RTS, there's a nice list of options, virtually none of which try to jam a story up my nose.
Game? Fine. Story? Could have been much better. Characters? My own extras are more interesting.