[Bondo]

We're supposedly only hours away from a major announcement in Korea, aka Zerg Country.

The gameplay is grossly dated by now so they could go almost any direction to put a fresh sheen on it. What would you like to see, and what would you like to play (...circa 2010. "Hang on, we're in for some chop").

[Jason Vines]

From GameSpy: Blizzard announces Starcraft II.

I'm not much into RTS's, and I've never played the original Starcraft. This sequel looks interesting, though; I might delve into it when it debuts.

[Bondo]

Jason Vines, on May 21 2007, 03:31 PM, said:

and I've never played the original Starcraft.

Yeah, I knew you were an FPS guy, but... never? You missed out on one of the greatest stories/sagas of pc game history.
The Human faction, while post-apocalyptic in some regards, has a very strong "Aliens" Space marine vibe to it, and it steals heavily from sci-fi sources, including trek. The human medic quotes the EMH's "Please state the nature of the medical emergency" when clicked, among other things, and the human transport is a complete ripoff from the Space Marine Pilot in Aliens. Plus they had some great, noble Russian starship captains straight out of Hunt for Red October.

The Zerg are your typical biological menace, while the Protoss are the stoic alien jedi.

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This sequel looks interesting, though; I might delve into it when it debuts.

I don't expect the the 2010 date to be too far off. Late 2008 at the earliest, although they seem to have a promo figure for late this year. So it'll be about 10 years since the original game was released.

I''m less blown away by it than I thought I'd be. The new siege tank looks terrible and the best thing I've seen is the new protoss pylon ship (pylons provide necessary power to protoss buildings).

[-Oz-]

[url="http://www.starcraft2.com"]http://www.starcraft2.com[/url]

It is awesome.

[-Oz-]

To anyone who hasn't checked up on SC2 in a while, you need to head over to IGN and check it out. They've got some new videos/screens up. Still looking amazing.

[Bondo]

-Oz-, on Nov 21 2007, 06:59 PM, said:

Still looking amazing.

Yup. But I'm still worried. With great expectations come great responsibility. The graphics are incredible. Blizzard's styling is once again top notch. But for the first time, I'm disappointed with the choices they've made (well, I'd like to be an Ogre and a Pandaren in WOW....). The siege tank still looks blocky, and worse, the marines and medics can have a clunky shield. It'll be great for on the fly gameplay (you know when they have the defensive bonus) but it looks terrible.

And then there is the Terran "transformer" unit, which looks and is embarrassing. My understanding is they cut the Terran "interceptor" But that one was actually cool in looks and ability. The transformer is awful.

I'm biased in their favor, but the Protoss look to be amazing. I still love the phase prism, and the new archon is a nice amalgam of the old units. And the new "War of the Worlds" inspired walker unit is better than the discarded Reaver. And the carrier is back! And, while I have an emotional attachment to the Dragoons, I can live without them.

Still no sight of the zerg though. I'd be upset if the Hydralisk and the Lurkers (or a mutated form of them) aren't back.

[-Oz-]

I feel confident that the Zerg are being kept under wraps because it probably has had the most over-hall than any other race from the original game, which both frightens and intrigues me at the same time.

As far as the new units, I think they all look pretty nifty. I never really played the Terran much in the first game, though, so I'm gonna hold out and wait for more Protoss videos, and hopefully some Zerg videos. <3 For the swarm!

[Bondo]

First Overlord screen here. Don't know what that green boil is on his back, but the dangly tentacle things and the green eyes are great. Graphically, these shots are a mess though.