Blizzard said the beta was starting this month and they weren’t lying. Lucky folks like the Brad Shoemaker over at GiantBomb have already downloaded the client and begun the closed beta testing.
I wasn’t a chosen one. I logged into my Battle.net account and was greeted with my StarCraft: Anthology games and an offer to try World of Warcraft.
No thanks, Blizzard. I just want in the StarCraft II beta.
Update: Add Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne III to the list of delayed games for TakeTwo.
It seems like publishers and developers like to start the week off with disappointing news.
Such as game delays.
TakeTwo’s BioShock 2 was pushed to 2010 which starts November 2009, but don’t expect it this year. It’s definitely a 2010 title. And here’s why:
“.. it was essential to invest the additional time to ensure that this title will deliver what its fans expect and deserve.”
Unlike BioShock 2, Sony’s Heavy Rain was delayed until 2010 for strategic purposes.
“Most publishers today realise that it’s not ideal to release a new IP or a new genre just before Christmas. It’s a very crowded place to be, and certain games need more space to live their life.”
The last piece of game delay news involves StarCraft II. Despite not having an official release date, analysts are expecting Blizzard’s real-time strategy game to be a 2010 title as well. I’m not surprised.
Bethesda tops off today’s delay news with a delay of Fallout 3 downloadable content for the PlayStation 3 which was pushed into September 2009.
Two news articles caught my eye this morning; both StarCraft II related.
The first stated that Blizzard beloved RTS was held up for a year as staff was shifted to the World of Warcraft cash cow.
“One of the reasons that StarCraft II had some delays very early on in development is because a fair amount of the design team went onto World of Warcraft for a year to really help finish that game off,”
They even had a playable build of StarCraft II’s multiplayer for balancing purposes since 2005-2006!
Scout Class Update Coming To Team Fortress 2
The Team Fortress 2 updates continue to roll and I continue not to check them out. The next update is for the Scout which Valve will be detailing over the coming days. They’ve created a site dedicated to the Scout’s upcoming changes.
StarCraft 2 Status Update
I am sure we are all curious about Blizzard and their progress with StarCraft 2. Fortunately, they’ve updated their blog with a handful of Q&A’s concerning the beta, the release date and the next battle report. They wrapped up with the following: “Hang in there. We’re in the final stretch”.
Enough with the demonstrations! It’s time to watch a real StarCraft II match in play. 21 minutes of awesome StarCraft II play which show off some new units, a new map and some new spectator features. They even got an eSports broadcaster to commentate.
You can watch it here.
GameTrailers is getting really good with their game franchise retrospectives. They’ve done a Zelda retrospective, a Metal Gear one and their latest is of Blizzard’s beloved franchise Warcraft.
Ya heard? StarCraft II is being divided into three parts. StarCraft II is now a trilogy! This certainly doesn’t sound very Blizzard-like. In fact, it sounds like a move to get the game out faster while milking it for all its worth. Here are the names of the three campaigns:
We are assured that parts two and three of the trilogy will act like standalone expansions with enough content to justify the cost. They’ve even said that each campaign will be very different from one another.
Sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.
I’m guessing this setup will be similar to the Company of Heroes where you’re given both the Axis and Allies to play with, but only the Allies had a single player campaign. So all the multiplayer fanatics will simply purchase the Terran campaign and be happy with all three races in the box. Cool, hmm?
I wonder how much these expansions are going to cost. I’m assuming the Terrans campaign will serve as the full retail title with a $49.99 CAD price tag to match it. Is it safe to assume the expansions will be $29.99 CAD each? $110 CAD for the entire StarCraft II story? That’s just mean. They know there are folks out there who will fork that amount over.
I’m one of them.
