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Can koreans be beaten in StarCraft? In the latest WCG qualifying rounds Stork defends his country´s reputation against Malaysia and Mexico. First match is against JohnRambo from Malaysia.
Second match is against GOSl which represent Mexico.
And now to some epic fight between Bisu vs Jeadong, an PvZ match that will entertain you.
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| Developer Panel. StarCraft II November 19 2009 On November 6 at Igromir, Lead Producer Chris Sigaty talked about the development of the hotly anticipated game, StarCraft II. He described some features that look set to make the sequel even better than the original and at the same time keep all the things that made StarCraft an RTS classic. Chris explained that four basic principles have been taken into account during the development of StarCraft II. The first is to improve all the features of the original StarCraft; the second to implement an absolutely new approach to singleplayer in an RTS game. The third and the fourth principles are the complete incorporation of the game into the Battle.net platform, and the creation of a unique game editor. The game’s engine has been built from scratch. The graphics follows the style of the first game but look modern and up-to-date. The three races will be different not only visually but also in how they play. Many units familiar from the original StarCraft have been changed, and many new units have been added. However, StarCraft fans will recognize many units they already know very well. The maps are rich, filled with lots of new objects, and the user interface has been greatly improved. The singleplayer campaign will be absolutely unique. The story of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty takes place four years after the conclusion of StarCraft: Brood War. Players take the role of Jim Raynor. The singleplayer mode will be brought to life with a so-called history mode where players will be able to interact with the environment; for instance, you can talk to NPCs and discover the latest news from all over the in-game world. Players will be able to buy upgrades, hire mercenaries and conduct laboratory research. For example, if a player prefers to use marines, he or she can concentrate all their efforts on upgrading this unit. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty’s singleplayer campaign will consist of 28 non-linear missions. The sequence of events will differ depending on the actions of the player. The new version of Blizzard’s online gaming platform, Battle.net, will be one of the most important parts of StarCraft II. It will allow users to always be online: now players will not need to log into Battle.net to find a match. Moreover, each player will be able to find an opponent of the same experience and skills. Each player will have their own profile which will contain all the up-to-date information about them including achievements. Achievements will be something new to the StarCraft series. They will make the gameplay more exciting and challenging. Also some of them will have unique rewards like decals. Players will be able to participate in multiplayer with the implementation of leagues. Each player will have to take part in 10 qualifying matches to be included in a league uniting players of the same experience and skills. Ladders will be compiled within those leagues. Battle.net will also unite players of all Blizzard games. One of the features which will help in this is cross-game chat for all Blizzard games. Thus, a StarCraft II player will be able to talk to his or her friend who is currently playing World of Warcraft. The StarCraft II editor will allow users to create various maps and mods for the game with very few restrictions. Also planned is a special map market which will ultimately allow players to trade maps with each other for money. |
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Today, with the new updated Starcraft2.com, we also got a batch of all-new screenshots! Four to be precise, enjoy them!
Something Awful has contributed a comedy piece purporting to answer that very question. They’ve got (fake) emails from various imaginary Blizzard employees on the issue, which you may find amusing to read. Here are a couple of their “quotes” from the Diablo team:
“We were actually ready to send the gold master out last month, but it turns out somewhere along the line spellcheck turned every instance of ‘Diablo’ into ‘Dublin’. Right now we’re regrouping figuring out whether we want to start the whole thing from scratch or just roll with it and rework the graphics/story to go all-out Gaelic with what we’ve got.”
Eric Hiccupcure
Diablo III Speedboat Physics Consultant“A few weeks ago one of our testers told us, ‘You guys do realize that there’s no such thing as magic in real life, right?’ and we’ve been scrambling to rework the majority of the skills ever since.”
Skeet Faultline
Diablo III Test Animal Wrangler
"Thought Bubble is a four day annual event which celebrates sequential art in all its forms, including everything from superheroes to independent small press. We are a non profit making organisation dedicated to promoting comics and graphic novels as an important cultural art form. Taking place at a variety of venues across the city, our aim is to cater to both long-time comic book fans and those who have never picked up a graphic novel before! Thought Bubble will take place 19th - 22nd November 2009 with a centre-piece one day convention on Saturday 21st
Thought Bubble will include art and writing based workshops for young people and adults, panels and talks lead by industry professionals and a programme of sequential art related film screenings. The special one day convention includes an incredible line up of leading artists and writers, and over 150 tables selling comics and merchandise. The day will also feature portfolio viewings and competitions. This promises to be one of the best events of its kind in the UK, where you’ll be able to meet some of your favourite comic book creators and browse the huge selection of memorabilia on sale - brought to you by the biggest and best exhibitors and dealers from across the country"
The Starcraft II Q&A Batch 55 is now available. There were only two relevant details in this Q&A in my opinion that weren’t known before. During the World of Warcraft installation, you don’t have to stare at the installation progress bar for 20 minutes. You get to read the background story from previous games and expansions.
Karune just revealed that during the installation of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty you will be able to read the background story of Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War—this for the many players new to the game who never played the original games. Pretty nice.
The second one is Window mode works exactly like in World of Warcraft where you can set the window mode to full size or disable resize—very good option for those who like to check out their email while waiting on a queue. Map makers won’t have a map converter to get original Starcraft maps converted to Starcraft II maps—kinda like ... duh?
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| 1. Not all potential players of StarCraft II have played the original StarCraft before, thus they might encounter problems with the understanding of the story. Is it possible to play the campaign of StarCraft II without knowing anything? Will you come up with some things that happened in the original StarCraft and Brood War again – just so that people not familiar to the story get more information?
We plan on having story elements that will bring players up to speed on the most recent plot developments and prepare them for the StarCraft II storyline. We also plan on having a plot summary of what transpired in the original StarCraft and Brood War during the installation process. However we feel that regardless of your familiarity with the original story, all players will be able to enjoy the story developments in StarCraft II. 2. You have already announced that you are going to record various stats when playing StarCraft II with the new Battle.net 2.0 – but how detailed will those statistics be? Will one be able to see how many units of a certain kind (for example Marines) one have build or even killed so far? We will be recording a large amount of stats for StarCraft II, but we are still in discussion as to which stats will ultimately be tracked. We will determine how detailed the stat-tracking will be based on what information we think will benefit our players the most to help improve their game. 3. You have already stated that you will support DirectX 10, but what about DirectX 11? We currently do not have any plans on supporting DirectX11-specific features, but the game will be compatible with DirectX11. 4. How many stats will a Hero unit be able to take? Three like in Warcraft 3 or is there even a limit? If you create a user-map with heroes, you can outfit them with a large number of stats. However, currently only three stats will be able to be displayed on the UI due to limited space. 5. In lore Protoss warp in their units and buildings from some far planet. Will there be any mechanic that reflects this such as a “warp out” that could act as a refund? We do not have any plans to include a “warp out” game mechanic. We have discussed the possibility of this in the past, but it felt too similar to the Terran mechanics of being able to salvage the structures. 6. Will there be a converter to convert our favorite original StarCraft maps to StarCraft II maps? I don’t want to lose all of my favorite maps from the original StarCraft when I get StarCraft II. There will not be a map converter for StarCraft II. Map-makers will have to manually rebuild any of their maps using the new StarCraft II map editor. 7. I’m just going to assume that you will have some sort of window mode in StarCraft II. But I was wondering if you’re going to implement a windowed mode like the one that World of Warcraft has? You know where you can maximize the window, removing the borders and enabling fullscreen mode yet providing easy access to the desktop. You will be able to select both windowed and full-screen windowed modes from the options menu. |
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Tokyopop provided a copy of Starcraft: Frontline Vol. 4 for review. I have been awaiting this volume for months with a lot of enthusiasm because Chris Metzen is the writer of one of the stories. It’s titled HOMECOMING. Basically it is a backstory tie-in with Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. We were invited to play the Single Player back on July 17, and fans could play the single player demo at Blizzcon 2009. Those who were able to may have experienced and interacted with Jim Raynor at the Joey Ray’s Bar in Mar Sara the first three missions.
The story in this manga starts with Jim Raynor crossing the streets of Mar Sara on his Vulture hovercraft unit and arrives to a ruined house. On the ground there’s a secret vault that opens up after he enters the password. It contained within a box that held his Marshall badge, a photo of the Heaven’s Devils with Tychus Findaly in it, the Heaven’s Devils insignia, and more importantly ... his wedding ring. You can see all of this in our recent preview scans.
The story is very nicely told shifting from the present to the past, back and forth. We get to see flashes of Jim Raynor’s past with his pregnant wife, then back to the present as Raynor browses through his box of memories. The artwork is great, except for some inconsistencies between young Raynor and old Raynor. And a bit of a puzzle ... why is Jim Raynor getting letters from the Confederates, instead of email or a video transmission? If Jim Raynor is a Marshall in the story, why is he not bald-shaved following military protocol like we met him in Starcraft. Oddities in continuity. Constructive criticism aside, let’s move on to the juicy highlights of this story.
SPOILER ALERT
There is a fast-forward scene with his child playing, and a conversation with his wife about their future together. The Confederates sent a letter to Jim Raynor to inform him that his child’s tests revealed some potential psi-abilities and want to train him off-world.
Jim Raynor opposed that decision, but his wife wanted the child to serve their people and sorta have a brighter future than his dad ... did that stung his pride as a backwater Marshall. Shortly after the Confederates took the child off-world, Raynor was informed that his child tragically died in an accident. Year, right. Those dirty backstabbing treacherous lying @#$%. Overall, I enjoyed the short story ... I see some interesting potential twists in the mind of a man of ideas: Chris Metzen. Did Jim Raynor’s child truly died? Did the Confederates secretly trained the child into a Ghost? If so, after the Arcturus built the Terran Dominion and took over the Ghost Program ... what could have been of him?
I’m not sure if I am reading the signals correctly, but here is my take on this:
A. An unknown brand-new character
B. Agent Devon Starke (Ghost # 25876)
C. Is he among the Starcraft Ghost: Academy cadets?
C. Drools .... protoss/human hybrid: Gestalt Zero (former human)
I see some drama coming our way throughout the three episodes of StarCraft II. The manga story by Chris Metzen wraps up at the Joey Ray’s Bar where we see how the Mar Sara Marshall badge ends up strapped to the wall in-game, and a report by Kate Lockwell plays in the background. Here we see Raynor taking his first glass of alcohol, and we learn why he stubbornly persists on his fight against Arcturus and his Terran Dominion.
The story was too short, and could have explored other aspects of Jim Raynor’s past, such as a more in-depth view of the Heaven’s Devils team, and those outlaw stuff Raynor did in his young years prior to marrying. At least just a mention. I guess we will have to find out on April 6, 2010 when Pocket Books launches Starcraft: Heaven’s Devils by William C. Dietz.
A little backstory or mention of the Zerg invasion, the destruction of the infested Command Center that got him arrested by the Confederates, his liberation by Arcturus Mengsk and other stuff could have served to stretch the story a bit longer than what we got, but I am optimistic that Chris Metzen’s story had two specific goals: to see what the ghosts tormenting Jim Raynor are, and my personal interpretation of a possible plot hanging in the air ... did the Confederates say the truth about Raynor’s son? Did he truly die? Will his son play an important role in the game, and later climax revealing out of nowhere X character is his son?
This manga doesn’t really answer any of those questions. As far as I read, Jim Raynor did never see a corpse. He simply read a letter saying so. He took it for granted to be true. Will this plot find out its way into any of the three episodes of Starcraft II? Or in a Starcraft II novel maybe? Hmm .. that’s worth a thought. More on the next Starcraft: Frontline Vol. 4 stories as I read them. For now, get your hands on this final volume of the Starcraft: Frontline series, and if you can, collect the other four volumes. They have very nice plots that tie-in with the single player—as you can hear straight from Chris Metzen in our video interview.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the G-Star 2009 enlisted this year Blizzard Entertainment which would participate in the event for the first time with the largest size.
November 13, 2009
Held at BEXCO in Busan, Korea on November 26 ~ 29, the G-Star 2009 announced the confirmed game publishers participating in the largest Korean game festival. This year, Blizzard Entertainment and MGame are participating in the festival for the first time, while other participants include major Korean game publishers such as NHN, Nexon, NCsoft, Neowiz Games, CJ Internet and WeMade Entertainment.
As they did last year, NCsoft, Neowiz Games and Nexon plan to minimize events or shows and create their booths to display new games this year, likely filling the festival with a plenty of eye-catchers.
- BEXCO of Busan to Host G-Star 2009
This year, the G-Star is held in BEXCO of a harbor city, Busan, far away from Seoul instead of KINTEX in Ilsan where all the other G-Star events took place. BEXCO is a specialized exhibition center located in Centum-city, Busan’s largest multi-functional city combining IT, media, entertainment and shopping. It is considered the optimal showroom space for visitors, companies and buyers thanks to multiple five-star hotels and recreational & shopping facilities within its vicinity.
The G-Star 2009 will build facilities such as the contents sector PR hall, next-generation game PR hall, job fair center and online game genre showroom. In addition, the online game genre showroom with four themes (MMORPG, FPS, action and casual zones) will be available for small and medium game publishers that can hardly participate in the festival with their exclusive booths.
The G-Star 2009 will be carried out along with diverse auxiliary events, including the ICON 2009 (an international contents developer conference), GNGWC 2009 (game contest), music concerts, family game contest and board game contest.
- NCsoft , NHNand Blizzard Entertainment
Celebrating its fifth anniversary, the G-Star 2009 enlisted this year Blizzard Entertainment which would participate in the event for the first time with the largest size.
The War Pigs launch their suicidal assault on Tamsen Cauley’s mobile base of operations. Even if they’re lucky, no one gets out alive! But this isn’t the end. Unknown to the War Pigs, uber-Ghost Nova is shadowing them. But are her intentions merely a prelude to a fate far worse than death?Keith R.A. DeCandido is the author of more than 40 novels, most of them in the media universes of Star Trek, Farscape, Supernatural, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, CSI: NY, Resident Evil, and a ton more. This year, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
New friday, new batte. We start things with a match between Stork vs Nada an pretty intresting terran vs protoss match.
Next up we have a great match, Jedong vs Mind. a terran vs zerg battle. Jedong is one of the best zerg players out there which makes this a “must see”
Next up we have battle report 4 but just like last time with a twist. It is the same person who does this sarcastic commentary but it is quite entertaining.
Thats it for now. Take care and have a nice weekend.
We have direct contact with Blizzard Entertainment’s Community Managers, Public Relations and some developers. So we get the scoop pretty fast on things whether we contacting them or they sending us flash news.
We want to alert all of our visitors to halt any flight or hotel arrangements provoked by the rumor that BlizzCon would take place at Las Vegas. It has been confirmed to be a rumor.
Blizzard Entertainment has not provided any details on the next BlizzCon, so you should leave all your planning for the moment Blizzard makes an official announcement either at the Blizzard.com or BlizzCon.com websites.
It would be very saddening to see thousands of players spending in arrangements for something that hasn’t been confirmed or announced officially. This year over 20,000 Blizzcon tickets were sold in less than 30 seconds.
“If you didn’t make it into the queue in those 30 seconds, you didn’t get a ticket.”—said Mike Morhaime a few months ago. For that matter, rumors like this could be devastating pushing thousands of people to arrange flight and hotel right away or to cancel, ever seen how much you get charged for cancelling? ouch.
It’s unclear if there was an approach; if the Las Vegas convention administrators accidentally leaked too early—you know dates can change at any time specially rushed this early; or if it was a publicity stunt. Whatever happened here, just ignore it. Blizzard might have other plans for location or date, and it would be too risky to make reservations this early under those nebulous terms. Blizzard always gives fans a four months window in advance to make arrangements after they make the official announcement.
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| “We haven’t announced any details regarding our next BlizzCon, so please refrain from making any travel plans at this time.”—said a Blizzard representative to all fansites last night. | ||
Update (1:28pm): The nail on the coffin for the Las Vegas rumor ... Nethaera (WoW Community Manager) has reached all fansites via email to inform us the following:
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| Nethaera: We haven’t announced any details regarding our next BlizzCon—though we can confirm that it will not be held in Las Vegas—so we recommend everyone refrain from making any BlizzCon-related travel plans at this time. | ||
Update (4:30pm EST): WoWInsider got a statement from the Las Vegas Convention Center apologizing for their human error listing BlizzCon on their website.
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| We're actually preparing some website updates for you at the moment to give you some cool new content to help with the wait for beta. Until we get that out, why don't you post some cool artworks you know - official or fanart. There is some pretty cool artworks out there already. A cool fanart I found recently: http://oxoxoxo.deviantart.com/art/Terran-Marine-StarCraft-II-80010854 You all should actually follow twitter! http://twitter.com/starcraft  |
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He was talking about beta in general and not specifically about a Russian beta.  About Mike Morhaime contradicting that. Where did you read it? Don't remember him saying anything other that the development team is working hard towards beta - which they in fact are. This does not contradict Chris' statement though. --- I think everyone here in the forums is aware of why it is taking so long even if you are impatient with us because of it. I'll give you a hint: It has something to do with our second core value. Majincilos: Well you refer to quality by saying this. I think everyone's under the belief that Battle Net 2.0 is holding up Beta. While having Battle Net running perfectly is great, I don't see how this is required to begin playtesting. But hey, I'm not making the game (though I wish I was). Well, it is a matter of quality. We do not want to show you guys stuff that does not meet our quality expectations. We don't want even the beta testers to be anything other than excited and amazed by the gaming experience. Battle.net is as much part of that gaming experience as the core game is. Our development teams are working hard on getting it out, but you will have to wait until we are ready and we are happy with it before we get it out there. D34dagain: The fact is it's your lack of communication that's caused these forums to become this sess pool of intolerance. Just give us some updates, anything. I'm honestly, sincerely happy you've finally come out and confirmed this, but the sooner you become consistent, the sooner these forums clear up. For all our sakes, be consistent. It is hard to give updates, when all updates that you have to give are small and insignificant ones compared to the update you really want to know about - beta and release. Any update we gave got shouted down by a wave of: "Who cares, give us beta". She also comments on how to get a blue response: It won't always be possible, but respectful and clear postings with a good title will always have a better chance of getting answers. Which is not to say they have a 100% chance of getting one. |
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Yes….as you expected, it is the…..Brutalisk!
We’ve heard about this fearless, brutal Zerg unit long time ago from one of media invitations by Blizzard to their headquarter, but we’ve never seen the real deal but the descriptions from our reporter. Today, Blizzard posts this picture on their twitter page.
Thanks overlordwat for the tip!
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| We've shared a few stuff in our Launcher from StarCraft 2's Launchers since they're pretty similar and we're moving towards Battle.net. Unfortunately some error message slips through. If you replace StarCraft 2 with World of Warcraft, you'd get the proper error message. | ||
The russian gaming event IgroMir 2009 served as platform for Blizzard’s announcement during a Q&A where Chris Sigaty revealed Starcraft II beta is planned to start some time through 2010 and when they feel it is ready. Considering Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is expected to ship by the first half of 2010, that seems to be anywhere between January - March. That if there aren’t further delays pushing it after the summer.
Goha.ru has some screenshots and details here. (russian).
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| When does StarCraft 2 beta start? Sigaty: Tomorrow (laughter in the hall). Certainly no. Usually at Blizzard, we do not say release dates. Thus far we plan our beta test to start next year. As soon as we will feel the game is ready, we will announce it immediately. (a rough translation) |
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Update: SCLegacy has coverage screenshots of the IgroMir 2009 show
- StarCraft Videos |
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06/11
