Starcraft II drool-fest, part 2

Next month's PC Gamer features an exclusive scoop on new units in Starcraft 2. Until it comes out, we have a leaked video from that issue's included disc to give the Zapruder treatment. New units abound and some old favorites are confirmed to return.

Behold, new units:

Soul Hunter. Looks like a Protoss bike cop.
Phase Cannon, a Photon Cannon upgrade that can warp to relocate.
Tempest, the next evolution of the Carrier.
Twilight Archon: looks like an Archon to me.

Confirmed returning units:
Observers, High/Dark Templars, and Reavers.

Starcraft II drool-fest, part I

The 20-minute gameplay video was a gift from on high, but they just keep piling on the awesome.

We learned earlier that individual units use Havok physics, cast realistic shadows, and react to terrain using Blizzard's custom inverse kinematics system. Also, individual units will have different animation cycles—packs of Zerglings will now dip and dive in unpredictable swarms instead of perfect harmony.

In an interview with Blizzard Insider today, Bliz's own cinematic director NIck Carpenter added some spicy details to the pot. First, individual units use normal mapping, a technique put to great use in games like Doom 3 to give models that pre-rendered look. Combined with the greater control the game's designers have over camera angle, lighting, and unit animation, Carpenter promises that the in-game cutscenes will be more cinematic and less tiresome this time around.

On the pre-rendered cinematics for which Blizzard is revered, Carpenter had this to say:

"I think the polygon count on the marine ended up being well above five million. So when we tried to render the cinematic teaser, we actually broke our renderer."

Sexy! Check out the interview here.

No StarCraft for You

Blizzard Entertainment and the Soup Nazi have a lot in common. Not only do I hear they make wonderful soups, they both enjoy crushing your dreams like ripe bananas. Especially when they're ripe...

Not too long after the Starcraft 2 bombshell, Blizzard's vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, recently spoke in an interview with MSNBC's Kristen Kalning about player expectations, Starcraft's release timeline, and the future of Battle.net. The disappointing (but bitterly expected) news is that Starcraft 2, without a doubt, will not be arriving in 2007:

"The only thing I can give you [that’s] concrete is it’s not going to be this year. Some people were hoping, because of how advanced the game looks, that we’d have it out by Christmas, but that’s definitely not happening."

He continues saying it should be worth the wait:

"'StarCraft' was and is a great game, but it’s certainly an older game. Across the board, 'StarCraft II' is a better game in a lot of ways."

How long can you wait?

Source [MSNBC via Kotaku]