StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Xenon]

Campaign demo

[Lavarinth]

Campaign demo

I love you.

[Xenon]

I like how the level seemed to load in less than 2 seconds. Even though Blizzard is most certainly using an absurdly high-end comp for the demo, it bodes well for the load times on other computers (unless it is as inefficient as wc3 for loading modded maps).

[IskatuMesk]

Yeah, the maps loaded pretty fast, but judging by the video watching carefully, that was a REALLY small map.

I think it's probably because that, unlike wc3 which has to "compile" XML/geometry data when it loads map, SC2's engine is built so that the data of the geometry and things is handled in a way the engine doesn't need to convert to read.

Possibly this involves a "baking" process similar to FPS games and NWN2, but I kinda doubt it... probably just a better engine in general.

[Meta]

Superficial info regarding SC lore, from SCLegacy:

At the Lore Panel, Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers revealed lots of information regarding the plot and characters. For example, The Protoss have a new female executor - Silendas (might not be spelled correctly), while Artanis is now the leader of the whole Protoss. He's trying to resolve the conflicts between the Dark Ones and the Khala Followers.

Meanwhile, Kerrigan moved back to Char, and hasn't launched an attack for the entire 4 years since the Brood War, although her ultimate attack might come at any time.

Jim Raynor is based on a character from the movie The Rush, sort of an "undercover Texas cop". Running out of money and belief, Raynor has been drinking a lot...

The previous characters the player played (The Executor, The Magistrate and he Cerebrate) are not coming back. Also, Metzen confirmed we might not see Stukov in StarCraft II, but maybe in the future. And no, Fenix will not return.

Interesting, looks like the entire Dark/Khala thing isn't settled yet. Looks like Aldaris' rebellion in BW was just the beginning... especially since he was right about the Matriarch being corrupted.

Raynor sounds like he's been through a lot. Let's see how his personality will evolve during the campaign...

[AA7Dragoon]

If the SC Map Editor is anyting like the campaign demo, Campaign Creations is gonig to be able to create AMAZING campaigns.  The customization, voice acting, character placement briefings... AWESOME!

I looked up the SC 2 voice actors on imdb.com.  Even though Raynor doesn't sound the same, he is still being played by Robert Clotworthy so Raynor is authentic from SC1! Yay!

Zeratul is still listed as "rumored" although his quick appearance does sound like James Harper.

Did you notice the Battlecruiser ground batteries?  They fire quickly!  It seems as if there's a lot of unit upgrades coming with these units that improves attack abilities, etc.

The extra features and game lore is just amazing.  SC2 is going to deliver.  I can feel it.  As long as the original voice actors are on board, SC 2 will deliver.  The gameplay is top notch.

[Maglok]

Raynor and Kerrigan both at least, Zeratul probably.

As for this storyline mode, it's awesome news for us campaigning people. HOT damn!

[Taeradun]

[6:06] The vikings aren't enough to breach their defenses, so Pardo uses a cheat command to spawn a ludicrous number of battlecriusers and Thor units, which utterly erase the protoss defenses from the map.

hehehe

[Meta]

Raynor and Kerrigan both at least, Zeratul probably.

As for this storyline mode, it's awesome news for us campaigning people. HOT damn!

Yeah definitely, I love the star map and how you can walk around in the starship. 

[Maglok]

Next question would obviously be, how moddable is that? Do we get a bunch of models to play with? Like have a base male terran then reshape him, hairdress, etc. or will they consider that to much work? I am also wondering about the zerg briefings then, and it's awesome to see protoss this high res.

Do we get to easily build together our own galaxy map? Do we get the tools needed to reproduce their campaign if we wanted to? Time will tell, but I for one can't wait to find out.

[Meta]

Next question would obviously be, how moddable is that? Do we get a bunch of models to play with? Like have a base male terran then reshape him, hairdress, etc. or will they consider that to much work? I am also wondering about the zerg briefings then, and it's awesome to see protoss this high res.

Do we get to easily build together our own galaxy map? Do we get the tools needed to reproduce their campaign if we wanted to? Time will tell, but I for one can't wait to find out.

Yeah, I begun wondering about that soon after watching the video. Questions such as "can we make our own galaxy map", "is the starship 'hub' moddable" and so on.

Blizzard also said in a Q&A following the Single Player demo that Protoss, Terran and Zerg campaigns will work differently, so there's a possibility that not all campaigns will have the 'walk around the base' stuff. Hopefully their videos will soon be available on the SC2 site.

[tipereth]

I'm really hoping that the zerg campaign has you going out and assimilating shit. This could lead to mission where like, the protoss are gonna do a nice big xenocidal rampage on this one planet so you as the zerg have to protect the indigenous lifeforms so that you can absorb them later oh god that would be sweet.

[Meta]

Yeah definitely, IMHO the Zerg need a more alien-like agenda again, not a politics/vendetta-driven campaign like that of BW. They could use more bizarre things involving assimilation of alien lifeforms, Zerg evolutionary developments, plenty of new weird organisms and such stuff. 

[AA7Dragoon]

^ That is going to happen for sure.

Remember how the Terran campaign is working?  You pilfer and earn money to buy more "units and upgrades."  Since that "progression platform" is part of the SC2 Campaign network, imagine the ZERG VERSION.  You capture certain species and then "Evolve" rather than "purchase" upgrades for the Zerg Campaign.  Same thing, but I'm sure it will involve missions where Kerrigan is strengthening the might and diversity of her Swarm!

For the Protoss, perhaps it will involve faction points rather than money and assimilation?

[IskatuMesk]

Next question would obviously be, how moddable is that? Do we get a bunch of models to play with? Like have a base male terran then reshape him, hairdress, etc. or will they consider that to much work?

Highly doubtful. Chances are you will need to do all of that in max.