BlizzCon 2008: In Review

Written by rise | Thursday, 16 October 2008 23:00

Welcome to StarCraft: Legacy's coverage of BlizzCon 2008. BlizzCon is a celebration of the Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series. The event took place at the Anahiem Convention Center from Friday, Oct. 10 to Saturday, Oct. 11. Over fifteen thousand fans attended the event this year. LordofAscension, Gradius, Zero and DiscipleofAdun represented StarCraft: Legacy this year.

This post will be the index of our coverage.

* Major Announcements

StarCraft II Trilogy

Rob Pardo, Dustin Browder and Chris Metzen represented Blizzard for the StarCraft II Gameplay Panel. The highlight of the panel is the announcement of (the) StarCraft II Trilogy. Blizzard Entertainment will release the StarCraft II campaign in three sections of roughly 36 missions each. Each release will also have "updates" to multiplayer. This 'episodic content' - referred to as the Trilogy will be released one after another over a period of (unknown) time. Asked about the cost of this release method, they responded that each expansion will feel like a standalone product. This may mean that each part of the trilogy will be equal, or greater, in cost to an expansion. If Battle.Net 2.0 is free, Blizzard Entertainment's adoption of releasing multiple expansions will help cover server cost (similar to Guild Wars, for example). The reaction to this announcement has been luckwarm because there are a some important and unanswered questions:

1) How much will the Trilogy cost?
3) Will you need the expansions?
2) How much will each expansion change multiplayer?

Question #2 is the biggest question to date. StarCraft didn't truly thrive until Brood War. Will StarCraft II have to wait for Zeratul?

Please see the full article about Trilogy here.

Single Player

This is a shortlist of Single Player developments announced at BlizzCon:

You are (Raynor, Kerrigan, Zeratul) the main character in StarCraft II. This is a change from the second-person perspective of StarCraft.
Xel'Naga play a large role in StarCraft II.
Kerrigan invades the Kuporu Sector at the beginning of the first campaign.
The campaign order is: Terran ("Wings of Liberty"), Zerg ("Heart of the Swarm"), Protoss ("Legacy of the Void").
There are roughly 26-30 missions per race (not including possible bonus missions).

Please see the full article about StarCraft II's Single Player here.

Diablo III Class: Wizard

The third class, of five (in the core release), has been announced. The Wizard is a faster, more aggresive and more durable version of the Sorceress.

Wizard Trailer (StarCraft.org)
Wizard Background Story (Diablo3.com)

* Community Highlight

The StarCraft community, as well as the gaming media, have published some excellent BlizzCon coverage:

* Other Details

Beta

BlizzCon attendees are getting SCII Beta test keys in their goodie bags.

Gameplay Video

Blizzard provided the media with a disk containing a gameplay video:

Single Player Screenshots

The disk contained prerendered Single Player screenshots also. Raynor is featured in the graphic set: