BlizzCast Episode 6 has been released.
Karune talks about how units evolve from concepts to playable units with
Samwise Didier, Blizzard Senior Art Director, and
Dustin Browder, lead designer for
StarCraft II.
Samwise wrote:
We'll come up with a unit and we'll all like it and then we'll decide it too powerful or unmanageable and it will end up getting delegated to just single player play but we also create a lot of things specifically for single player. Like we've created the Jackel now I believe it called the Hellion and we will take variations of that, strip off the black paint, make flames on it, and then it becomes a single player civilian vehicle.
New
StarCraft II media has been released with the BlizzCast, including portrait animations for the Mutalisk, Marauder and Thor (who bears an uncanny resemblance to
Chris Metzen):
There are also new portrait renders, and one new screenshot showing new artwork for a Nullifier attack animation and the Xel'Naga Watchtower:
Source:Blizzard - BlizzCast Episode 6
Blizzard Entertainment has announced
Echoes of War, a partnership with
Eminence Symphony Orchestra to produce classical versions of
StarCraft,
Diablo and
Warcraft audio tracks. The songs have become icons of the series in many cases. "Tristram" jogs as many memories as LE does for
Diablo 2 players while also representing
Diablo (along with the gutteral screams of the catacombs).
StarCraft audio is used continuously in shoutcasting, podcasting and tournaments.
You can listen to the original tracks on Battle.Net's audio player
here.
Echoes of War is an album of rearranged orchestral music from previous and upcoming Blizzard games i.e.
Wrath of the Lich King,
StarCraft II, and
Diablo III. Here is the official trailer:
According to
IGN,
Russell Brower, Blizzard's director of audio and video, has this to say about
Echoes of War:
Russell Brower wrote:
It's amazing to know that we're going to bring music that's really just starting to mature in its genre to a larger audience. Not just the gamers out there, but their friends, and their parents and siblings, and they'll start getting curious about the music and the games.
A sound track of rearranged
StarCraft music called "
En Taro Adun" is available for previewing at the
Echoes of War sample tracks Here is the tracklist:
Quote:
The Third War Symphony [music from Warcraft III]
1. Journey to Kalimdor
2. Eternity's End
The Shadow of the Legion Symphony [music from World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade]
3. A Tenuous Pact
4. Anar'alah Belore
5. The Betrayer and the Sun King
The Visions of the Lich King Overture [music from Wrath of the Lich King]
6. The Visions of the Lich King Overture
The Koprulu Symphony [music from StarCraft]
7. No Matter the Cost [Terran]
8. En Taro Adun [Protoss]
9. Eradicate and Evolve [Zerg]
10. Victorious But Not Unscarred [Starcraft: Ghost]
The Hyperion Overture [music from StarCraft II]
11. The Hyperion Overture
The Symphony of Sanctuary [music from Diablo II, Lord of Destruction, and Diablo III]
12. The Eternal Conflict [Diablo II]
13. Legacy of Terror [Diablo III]
14. Children of the Worldstone [Original Composition by Kow Otani]
15. BONUS: Last Angel [Original Composition by Ladybird Moai]
Echoes of War is available for purchase at the
Eminince Online Store in both a standard and legendary edition.
Sources:Echoes of War WebsiteIGN - WoW, Starcraft and Diablo: Together At Last
Blizzard Entertainment announced that they will streaming select tournaments from BlizzCon live via the BlizzCon website:
Battle.Net wrote:
When the fierce gaming competition gets underway on the tournament stages at BlizzCon, you'll be able to follow the action at home -- right on your computer screen. On October 10 and 11, we'll be providing streaming video coverage of select tournaments live from the convention floor. Whether you prefer the coordinated team play of World of Warcraft's Arena, the meticulous hero management of Warcraft III, or the fast-paced space battles of StarCraft, you're sure to find something to cheer about. Stay tuned to BlizzCon.com for the live stream on the first day of the show.
This will allow us to watch some of the most competitive
StarCraft matches live from home!
Source:
Battle.Net - BlizzCon Tournaments Live Stream Information
Blizzard recently announced that at this years Blizzcon there will be several community tournaments.
These include a StarCraft II tournament. This will provide not only a brilliant opportunity for community members to test their micro against the best in a new environment, it will also allow us all to see StarCraft II in its natural place as an e-sport. This will be helpful for both fans and developers alike, allowing them to see for the first time how new players deal with the game in a competitive situation.
Also announced were the tournament brackets for StarCraft and other games. As usual, tournaments will be in the double elimination fashion, and should take place over both days of the event. Particular interest will most likely be placed on the non-Korean participants, particularly IdrA. Can they end the complete Korean dominance of professional StarCraft?
Source:
BlizzCon Official Page
Today Blizzard announced that the first of its three current projects is about to be released. Their largest and most profitable franchise
World of Warcraft is going to get it's expansion in just a few months:
Quote:
Wrath of the Lich King invades stores November 13
In the frozen wastes of the north, the Lich King Arthas Menethil rallies his undead army and schemes to bring an end to all life on Azeroth -- and in a couple of months, you'll begin your epic journey into Northrend to confront the Lich King and his minions yourself. Blizzard Entertainment's second expansion to World of Warcraft -- Wrath of the Lich King -- will be in stores on November 13...
In addition, WotLK will be available in a standard edition and (surprise, surprise) a collector's edition.
Quote:
We're happy to announce that World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King will ship in standard as well as Collector's Edition packages. The Collector's Edition will come in a special box that contains many exclusive extras to enhance your adventure into Northrend, including:
World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King on DVD-ROM.
The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from the game.
An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic with director commentary, and more.
The official soundtrack CD, containing 21 epic tracks from the game, along with exclusive bonus tracks.
A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector Edition.
Traditionally these collector's editions have gone very quickly. We can only speculate as to what StarCraft II's will look like - but we can image in will be incredibly awesome. The release of WotLK means that Blizzard can devote much more of its resources to finishing up their other two major projects - it means that the other two games are coming.
Sources:Blizzard's WotLK Launch Official Press ReleaseWrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition
Quote:
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that a wide selection of music from its popular games has been added to the iTunes store. Much of this music was originally available only in collector's editions of the games, or at special events such as the company's BlizzCon gaming convention. Six Blizzard Entertainment soundtrack albums are currently available:
StarCraft Original Soundtrack
Diablo II Original Soundtrack
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Original Soundtrack
World of Warcraft Original Soundtrack
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Original Soundtrack
World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth Original Soundtrack
The albums have been placed on a new Blizzard Entertainment hub page within the iTunes store. This page also hosts content such as the BlizzCast podcast and trailers and gameplay footage from upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games, with more material to be added in the months ahead. In addition, the "Diablo III Overture" from the company's recently announced action role-playing game, Diablo III, is available as a single and has been highlighted as a Discovery Download, making it free to download until Tuesday, September 9.
Blizzard seems to invest more in its music department than many other developers. The fantastic scores written for their games creates a unique atmasphere and contributes to the awesome expierence that their games provide. It's just another reason why Blizzard is one of the best at what they do - every part of their games is carefully and passionately constructed. For anyone that doesn't already have their favorite soundtrack - why wait?
Sources:Blizzard's Official Press ReleaseBlizzard's iTunes Hub
BlizzCast Episode 5 has been released. It wraps up a few panels from WWI '08 and contains an interview with
Diablo III Lead Designer
Jay Wilson. This Blizzcast contains no
StarCraft II information.
The Escapist has two great articles that everyone should read:
Daeren Wang has written an
article about the popularity of
StarCraft in Korea and the attempts to replicate this popularity to more western countries.
In
Gamer Nation,
Allen Varney discusses the great gaming environment that has been fostered in Korea and theorizes whether this kind of environment could be brought over to America.
Sources:BlizzCast Episode 5The Escapist - World of StarCraftThe Escapist - Gamer Nation
BlizzCast Episode 5 has been released. It wraps up a few panels from WWI '08 and contains an interview with
Diablo III Lead Designer
Jay Wilson. This Blizzcast contains no
StarCraft II information.
The Escapist has two great articles that everyone should read:
Daeren Wang has written an
article about the popularity of
StarCraft in Korea and the attempts to replicate this popularity to more western countries.
In
Gamer Nation,
Allen Varney discusses the great gaming environment that has been fostered in Korea and theorizes whether this kind of environment could be brought over to America.
Sources:BlizzCast Episode 5The Escapist - World of StarCraftThe Escapist - Gamer Nation
BlizzCast Episode 4 is up, this time focusing more on
World of Warcraft, but the cast does contain an interview with Blizzard Senior Designer and Balance Designer (
Mike Heiberg and
David Kim respectively). They discuss some of the resource decisions that have been made and a few tech questions.
Quote:
Bornakk: The first question is from D10 at teamliquid.net - What is the reason for the decreased mineral collection by workers? (It goes from 8 to 6 per round.) Is it better worker A.I. or a more economy heavy game maybe?
Mike Heiberg: The harvest rates for classic and Starcraft II are basically the same -
David Kim: It feels faster though, the minerals anyway.
Mike Heiberg: It feels faster at certain points, certainly more so mid to late game but it kind of depends on the race and the expansions and stuff. I think that a matter of when you cap out on three per mineral field, just how much income you get versus - like in Starcraft a lot of times you get up to like two per mineral field and you couldn't quite tell if you were capped out or not because there a lot of guys moving around and a lot of times you have an empty mineral field for a few seconds here and there.
When we did the original Starcraft harvesting numbers they were just pulling back way too much minerals because the units path so much better and they don't do the strange harvesting A.I. that classic Starcraft did. But yeah, that why when we put in the original numbers they were harvesting way too fast and we had to take it down a notch. We first tried - we tried a lot of things - we tried bringing their movement speed down, then we had a lot of problems, with an SCV moves slower that means you can't scout as quickly right, you can't run away from certain threats, you can't like dance around and avoid a zealot anymore. You know same thing with some of the other slower units but we tried other things like the acceleration, tweaking how fast they accelerate and decelerate, that got really tricky with how good the unit feels when you're moving him around. So then we tried how much time they spend at the mineral field, which is actually still in there, right now a unit will bring back 6 per trip instead of 8, but at the same time he will spend a little less time at the mineral field. So overall the amount of time that he spends going back and forth he comes out to about the same harvesting rate as a single SCV in the original Starcraft.
Overall we're trying to make the feel of the harvesting about the same as it was in classic Starcraft where you really have to think about how much money you have and the minerals-gas ratio and what you can afford to do. How do you think it feeling for the whole?
There isn't any significant new information but still, it's worth checking out!
Source:BlizzCast Episode 4Karune's Battle.net Intro Post
