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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">News, news,
news. size="3"> It's why we here at Ten Ton Hammer came to size="3">Blizzcon size="3">, and it's why this article is here for you.
We'll give you the run down on what the size="3">Starcraft size="3"> 2 Panels brought to the table for new
features and what's worth getting excited about! And believe me, there
is a lot.  

style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">The Art Panel was headed up by none other
than the legendary size="3">Samwise size="3">, who moonlights as the lead singer of the
Level 80 Elite size="3">Tauren size="3"> Chieftains (soon to be 85?). We got a good
look at how some of the models are being touched up, the size="3">Zerg size="3">
in particular. The drone animation almost seemed as it was swimming on
the surface of the creep rather than a sprite rolling around normally.
In the last six months they've taken a new coat of paint on the units
in the form of size="3">Specular size="3"> Lighting as well, to give it those glows
and shades of light and shadow as the unit animates. 

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Team
Colors are a big part of this game, and it was a part of every unit
design to have the team color
readily identifiable and not ugly at the
same time.
With size="3">StarCraft size="3">, and to a lesser extent, size="3">WarCraft size="3">
3, the colors were just thrown on the units. This is a thing of the
past as every unit has the colors in an easily viewed position without
destroying the visual appeal of the unit itself. Other units were also
redesigned, such as the Corruptor, which now somewhat resembles a
Sentinel from the Matrix. Did everyone get that reference, or am I
getting too old for this?

style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3"> Banelings size="3"> now pulse as they move and especially while
stationary it looks violent, like a concoction ready to explode. The size="3">Ultralisk size="3"> now seems a bit more normal with the blades
being a part of its forearms rather than... size="3">whereever size="3"> they were on the original (chin?). Also of
note are size="3">Mutalisks size="3">
having much bigger horns, which is a bit disappointing seeing as they
can't ram enemy air units. It would be like Joust! ...Maybe that
reference really is too old.

style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3"> Brian,
the lead environment artist took the helm and showed us some of his
magic. Which somehow involved him immediately going to a shot of the
Goliath pilot which has a stunning resemblance to size="3">himself size="3">.
He then pulled out a pair of the very same goggles the pilot was
wearing and more or less confirmed the fairly obvious. We moved on to a
comparison of scale.
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Category Starcraft Starcraft
II Tilesets 5 22,
more on the way Viewpoint 2D
Isometric Full
3D, Zoom, real rotation Lighting Fixed Vivid
shadows and Dynamic Lighting 

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That's a
big upgrade, to say the least!

style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3"> He
specifically said there was nothing for restrictions on the artists
when it came to designing the campaign. Doodads could be as elaborate
as the artists wanted to make them, and boy did size="3">they size="3"> not hold back. Reactors pulse and valves
turn in animations that last a whole minute before recycling. size="3">There's even new backgrounds size="3"> for missions size="3">involving
space platforms, as you can see planets in the background, debris
storms, even invading fleets passing by. It'll be hard to play this
game without getting distracted in single player by the pretty pictures!

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">Allan,
Lead Artist and Animation took over and more or less said we like
blowing stuff up. We got a sneak peek at how different weapons and
different levels of damage cause units to die in a variety of
...painful ways. Even buildings now have different animations on death
as well size="3">The size="3"> best way to put it is stuff is flying
everywhere now on death and it's beautiful.

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">And then we got to see what size="3">is quite possibly the greatest unit size="3"> ever. size="3">The size="3">Terratron size="3">. size="3">
You might recall it as a bit of a joke previously, but this was no
joke. This baby was the size of the Empire State Building and had death
lasers, and a laser saw, and generally was the coolest thing ever to
see in an RTS game. Unfortunately in a recurring theme of the panel,
they blow it up after showing it. I shed a tear :(

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We then had
Mr. size="3">Metzen size="3"> himself introduce the lead voice cast of size="3">StarCraft size="3"> 2 Wings of Liberty. A lot of it was voices
we had size="3">alerady size="3"> come to love, but of course, the one that
the crowd went insane about was Tricia size="3">Helfer size="3"> as Kerrigan. I swear I must've been the
only person in that room that hadn't seen size="3">Battlestar size="3">Galactica size="3"> and had no idea who she was, even dwarfing
the applause James Harper got for returning as size="3">Arcturus size="3">Mengsk size="3">. Tricia revealed that we will have
flashbacks to the missions of size="3">Starcraft size="3"> where Kerrigan was a human and her
adventures together with size="3">Raynor size="3">.

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">The size="3">gameplay size="3"> panel was perhaps the most size="3">eye size="3"> opening though. I was expecting a bit more
of a multiplayer focus but the campaign took center stage. With size="3">StarCraft size="3">
2 the focus is on more story, deeper characters, more choices, and
unique missions that amount to a lot more than mass up and attack move.
They showed a mission where the lava rises and falls over the low
ground, and some unfortunate Marines didn't quite make it. size="3">Messy.

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">They showed something I hadn't noticed
before, and that's foliage on the terrain. It's quite simple to place size="3">though, size="3">
you just select it based on the texture in that area of ground. It then
auto populates and you can control the density, size of the patch, and
other ways of customizing your ground to your liking. From rocks to
grass, they said the possibilities are endless.

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">Custom
games are the highlight of the genre for me, and the highlight of the
show! They placed special mention to Defense of the Ancients/ size="3">dota size="3">, Element TD, and Footman Frenzy as maps
that have the staying power and unique size="3">gameplay size="3"> that have generated massive communities
centered size="3">around size="3"> them. I personally can vouch for all three,
and it pleases me greatly that they see the power these custom games
wield.

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">Behold, the size="3">Uberlisk size="3">! Employees from Blizzard whipped up some
maps to show us the power of the editor in action at last, and this size="3">ultralisk size="3"> had 6 Spine Crawlers on its back, and took
on all challengers while strolling along casually. size="3">It even took on a pack of Spore Crawlers
that were launching size="3">Banelings size="3"> through the air, exploding on contact in a
shower of green. And when thousands of Roaches, size="3">Hydralisks size="3">, and size="3">Zerglings size="3"> were summoned in a full circle around it to
take it down, the size="3">Uberlisk size="3"> detonated in spectacular fashion upon death
and left nothing but blood and guts on the screen. Oh, it was beautiful.

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Next they
showed a ghost... running in a
third person behind the ghost view!? Is this size="3">StarCraft size="3"> Ghost?! size="3">Hardly. size="3">
They've implemented Mouse Look and keyboard commands into the editor
this time, enabling a wonderful sense of third person action in an RTS
game. The UI was fully customized to not be obstructive, and you could
even enter buildings. Talking to NPCs was fully implemented, and she
even went underground at one point, which leads me to believe that
multiple size="3">tileset size="3"> maps
might exist in the future. Perhaps the best part was the Crazy Taxi
style arrow that pointed where she needed to go next. Take me to the
Original Levi's Store!

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">Perhaps the biggest shocker of the show was
a vertical scrolling shooter that resembled the old size="3">Raiden size="3">
games. You were controlling a fighter and smaller interceptors were
flying in patterns and firing bullets aimed at you (but do not track)
so you dodge just like one of those quarter- size="3">munchers size="3">. A size="3">protoss size="3">mothership size="3">
even came up as a boss, and a custom green life bar filled the top
right of the screen. All that was missing was the boss flashing red as
he was about to be defeated and I would have stood up and cheered at
this point. Immediately after, they announced that map locking will be
in the game but they can't announce details at this point, so you can
sign and be secure in your creations not being stolen and modified to
another's profit or need.

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style="margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt;"> size="3">StarCraft size="3">
2 is going to be worth the wait. After seeing what we saw at these
panels, the time, effort
and most of all little teasers they're showing
us here and there are proving that they are not wasting their time and
the game is truly not finished yet. But even at this point, they're
capable of lighting up my eyes like a little kid at Christmas when they
demo a new toy such as the size="3">Terratron size="3"> live. See you in 2010, size="3">StarCraft size="3"> 2. I'll be waiting!

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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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