Hand-Crafted
Oop.
Arp.
Eep?
"Hayull. It's about taaahm."Yes! It's the brand new, hot-off-the-presses, delightfully fan-pleasing cinematic trailer for Blizzard's long-awaited Starcraft 2. It tells us very little about the game that we couldn't already have guessed (other than the fact that, hooray, Kerrigan's back), but it gives us some idea of the ludicrous standard of production values that we can look forward to from Blizzard's new offering. And what else would you expect from the designers and manufacturers of the world's most insanely successful MMO?
Not only is it extremely good to see Blizzard moving on to new projects rather than merely resting on their laurels, it's also encouraging that they don't seem to be going down the obvious route and making World of Starcraft (as was previously speculated). Of course, there's no direct evidence of this here, but the '2' suffix implies that the game's going to be in the same vein as the first - that is to say, real-time strategy.
Now, I've never really been an RTS fan. I've always been an avid lover of its 'slow gaming' cousin, the adventure game, but for some reason I've usually found it tricky to get into war games, probably for similar reasons to why I don't like MMOs. It could be the grinding resource management, or the sense of detachment from the action, but I've always managed to lose patience with them - except Starcraft. It could just be that I'm a sci-fi nut, perhaps the superb characterisation in the units, or it could be that it was bloody good, but Starcraft really grabbed me. And given the great standard of gameplay and animation that's been seen in RTS games of late (Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes), I imagine this latest installment will be one for the books as well.
And in other 'burly gaming mascots saying amusing things in excellent-looking trailers' news, this:
"WHO TOUCHED MY GUN!?"
Not only is it extremely good to see Blizzard moving on to new projects rather than merely resting on their laurels, it's also encouraging that they don't seem to be going down the obvious route and making World of Starcraft (as was previously speculated). Of course, there's no direct evidence of this here, but the '2' suffix implies that the game's going to be in the same vein as the first - that is to say, real-time strategy.
Now, I've never really been an RTS fan. I've always been an avid lover of its 'slow gaming' cousin, the adventure game, but for some reason I've usually found it tricky to get into war games, probably for similar reasons to why I don't like MMOs. It could be the grinding resource management, or the sense of detachment from the action, but I've always managed to lose patience with them - except Starcraft. It could just be that I'm a sci-fi nut, perhaps the superb characterisation in the units, or it could be that it was bloody good, but Starcraft really grabbed me. And given the great standard of gameplay and animation that's been seen in RTS games of late (Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes), I imagine this latest installment will be one for the books as well.
And in other 'burly gaming mascots saying amusing things in excellent-looking trailers' news, this:
"WHO TOUCHED MY GUN!?"Team Fortress 2. This trailer may at first glance not look as gorgeous as the Starcraft 2 one, but is far more impressive given that those are in-game graphics. Getting on a bit now, but I thought it was worth posting for the benefit of those four people who've not yet seen it. As Jachap so eloquently put it when he linked me to it for the first time: "I am incoherent with glee."
EDIT: And oh look, RTS it is! That's how up on the latest and greatest gaming news we are over here, readers, it's been up since yesterday! That link goes to a 22-minute developer walkthrough on Gametrailers, and very nice it looks too. Very traditional, but very pretty. Perhaps not quite as kinetic as Dawn of War, but still nice. A shame, however, that they're not branching out quite as much as they might. We could have had Starcraft: Total War! Vast Zerg swarms washing over epic landscapes. Ho hum. Should be fun enough. I'll give it a look, for one.
----
'Beat' Nick is not as burly or gorgeous as he would perhaps like.
EDIT: And oh look, RTS it is! That's how up on the latest and greatest gaming news we are over here, readers, it's been up since yesterday! That link goes to a 22-minute developer walkthrough on Gametrailers, and very nice it looks too. Very traditional, but very pretty. Perhaps not quite as kinetic as Dawn of War, but still nice. A shame, however, that they're not branching out quite as much as they might. We could have had Starcraft: Total War! Vast Zerg swarms washing over epic landscapes. Ho hum. Should be fun enough. I'll give it a look, for one.
----
'Beat' Nick is not as burly or gorgeous as he would perhaps like.
3 comments:
I never really got Starcraft.
As in I never bought it or otherwise acquired it. I remember playing the demo and thinking 'this is quite fun' back in the day, but that's it.
Generally, whenever it's mentioned now, all I can think of is 'Eff eff ess Korea!'
That said, the cinematic trailer is fantastic. Even though the screens look terribly uninspiring.
Yes. Watching the actual game, it looks... well... it looks like Warcraft III.
Which will probably work out fine. It may even run on my PC. But its still a bit disappointing.
With the whole of Korea set on buying it, it doesn't matter at all what I think - but, to me, the retro look of it all is sub-Dawn of War.
Like Nick said to me. The narrated demo walkthrough has the classic line, "As you can see, Starcraft is still a game where large armies fight large armies."
Compare what he shows to any recent strategy game... Supreme Commander, Company of Heros, Medieval: Total War... and he's referring to what looks like a very, very minor skirmish.
The epic battle at the end is even worse. The two sides line up and blast the shite out of each other until everyone's dead. No flanking, no squad dynamics... sure, its retro.
I'm still a bit dismayed that such a massive title can bring nothing new to the strategy table.
Post a Comment