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Kotaku
Kotaku (www.kotaku.com) has great StarCraft news, photos, videos and more
Thursday, Nov 19
StarCraft II Web Site Upgrade Complete, New Info Deployed
There's new media to soak in, including a close look at the stars of StarCraft II's single-player campaign, Tychus Findlay, Zeratul, and Jim Raynor, plus ample background info on each. Blizzard has also added new details on the Zerg's Changeling, some updates on multiplayer mapmaking a...
Monday, Nov 16
In College, the Party Never Stops — for LAN
And that helps explain the persistence of LAN gaming. The standbys of a LAN party are usually real-time strategy games such as StarCraft, or WarCraft III, then shooters such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament. TF2 is the most recent of these, releasing in 2007, with o...
Saturday, Nov 14
Kotaku Originals: News that's Hot, Spot or Not
Nintendo Explains The Red Box, Dashes Hope For Yellow Ones More Bang For Your Buck Wii Price Drop Puts Nintendo Back On Top In U.S. StarCraft II Expansions, Diablo III Coming in "Next Few Years" You Came, You Saw, You Critiqued Nintendo Thanks People For Ratting Out R4 Retailers
Friday, Nov 13
Meet StarCraft II's Brutalisk
Blizzard has spawned a new Zerg strain for StarCraft II, the race's biggest and most brutal, the legendary Brutalisk. So what is this giant monstrosity? And what does it do? This "surprise custom unit," as Blizzard calls it, shouldn't be a multiplayer balance concern. But maybe someday we...
Thursday, Nov 12
AI Convention Features StarCraft Competition
Bots for StarCraft can be developed using the Broodwar API, which provides hooks into StarCraft and enables the development of custom AI for StarCraft. A C++ interface enables developers to query the current state of the game and issue orders to units.
StarCraft II Expansions, Diablo III Coming in "Next Few Years"
While StarCraft II, an upgraded Battle.Net and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm are all firmly pinned down to 2010 releases, Diablo III, StarCraft II expansion packs and Blizzard's next MMO still show a release date of the "next few years".
Monday, Oct 26
Hey Blizzard, What's It Like To Make Non-WarCraft Games?
Browder doesn't believe there was any sort of conscious decision to focus on a particular — it was just a matter of the different teams at Blizzard (Diablo III, for example) getting to a point last year where they could show what they had been working on. Browder goes on to say he and Blizzard w...
Tuesday, Oct 13
World of Warcraft Players, You're Gonna Need A Battle.net Account
You just better have it done by November 11, as Blizzard will be requiring it for WoW players, not to mention future games, like StarCraft II and Diablo III. Better yet, it's easy, free and will net World of Warcraft players a virtual penguin to pal around with in-game. There's even a FAQ!!
Tuesday, Aug 25
StarCraft: Ghost Lives On In StarCraft II
It's good to know that all of that StarCraft: Ghost development didn't go to waste. If you're interested in of the lore behind Ghost and its lovely protagonist Nova, be sure to check out the StaCraft: Ghost Nova novel, recently featured in our 2009 Summer Reading List.
Keeping Things Fresh In The StarCraft II Expansions
With StarCraft II's single player experience spread across three titles, how is Blizzard going to keep things fresh? Sam "Samwise" Didier answers the question with hatchet wounds while dodging the fierce enemy UI. All joking aside, Sam explains that certain ideas have been held back fo...
Monday, Aug 24
StarCraft II Can Be Played Offline
Some of our readers were a bit put off by the suggestion that the single player portion of StarCraft II would require logging into Battle.net, as evidenced by some of the comments in the post following the Battle.net panel at BlizzCon this weekend. The next day we followed up on the issue with B...
Tricia Helfer Is StarCraft II's Kerrigan
Original voice actress Glynnis Talken Campbell is still out as the voice of StarCraft II's Kerrigan, but Blizzard found a worth replacement in the form of Cylon Number Six, Tricia Helfer. BlizzCon 09: Kerrigan Gets Cylon'd [IGN UK]
Sunday, Aug 23
Blizzard: Lack Of StarCraft Lan Is "No Big Deal"
sat down with Blizzard's executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo this weekend to talk Battle.net, but we couldn't resist touching on the subject of the lack of LAN in StarCraft II. So it really doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but as Pardo said, we won't really know until the game...
Saturday, Aug 22
BlizzCon 2009: The Show So Far
We took a closer look at the Monk, the Street Fighter character of Diablo III, with low survivability but quick and devastating attacks leaving enemies reeling from the feeling. We also looks at the integration planned for Battle.Net and StarCraft 2 in words and pictures, discovering tha...
Kotaku Originals: Slim Goodbody
Sony Sony: PSP Minis Not An iPhone App Store, No PSPgo UMD Transfer Update Europe, You Are Officially Getting Pre-Paid PSN Cards Sony Completely Rebrands The PlayStation 3 Sony Talk PlayStation Lifetime Sales, PSN Revenue Did You Get Into The MAG Beta?
Friday, Aug 21
Opinion: Upcoming Blizzard Battle.Net Feature Draw From Warcraft, Xbox Live, Life
Rob Pardo came on stage to talk about Battle.Net. Launched in 1996 with Diablo, it was the first matchmaking service integrated completely into games. It's evolved with StarCraft, Diablo 2, and Warcraft 3. The service now has more players on it than World of Warcraft - 12 million to WoW's 11.5 m...
Blizzard: You May Sell Your StarCraft 2 Maps On Battle.net, Eventually
Blizzard wants to foster the best mod community in existence, and to that ends they've unveiled plans to single out premium custom-created maps for sales on a StarCraft 2 marketplace. Maps will be split into two categories - normal and premium - with the former free and the latter for sale,...
101 Ways To Decorate Your StarCraft II Space Marine
Blizzard shows off the countless ways fans can customize the new nOObz vinyl space marine figure, with a gallery of employee-made creations that could very well blow your mind. Warning - huge gallery.
Stuff You Can Buy At BlizzCon
I see several things here I want desperately, like the vinyl nOObs StarCraft firgures, and the plush murlocs, and the Diablo Fresh Meat t-shirt. Unfortunately I don't have enough room in my suitcase for the swag I already got, so it's either spend nothing, or ship it all home ahead of me. Hmmm...
Thursday, Aug 20
What's Inside The BlizzCon 2009 Swag Bag?
The swag bag this year is dominated by a box, and inside that box is the nOObz StarCraft II Raynor figure. The urban vinyl figure is simply gorgeous, tempting me to pick up a few friends for him tomorrow during the convention. Other than that, the code for the Grunty the Murloc Space Marine Worl...
Wednesday, Aug 19
Kotaku At BlizzCon 2009
Well, I will be there representing Kotaku, but judging by my height and girth I am worth any two of them on the human meat aftermarket. Last year I shattered the very world, so what trouble could I possibly get into this year? With news expected on all fronts, from a potential World of Warcraft...
Gamescom Booth Blitz: Blizzard
The doors to Germany's Gamescom swing open later today, but here's a quick peek at the Blizzard booth. World of Warcraft! StarCraft II! Diablo III! Famous Blizzard games!!
Tuesday, Aug 18
Diablo III Confirmed At Gamescom
You'll be happy to know that we've seen World of Warcraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III all on the yet-to-be open show floor. While I can't confirm that Diablo III will be playable, it certainly looks like it will. The game has a sizable booth, but it was also closed off—likely because of the gra...
Monday, Aug 17
A Couple Of Starcraft II Gameplay Clips
As Mike has told you, Starcraft II is coming along nicely. Need to see for yourself? Here's two new gameplay videos from the Terran campaign. StarCraft 2 Evacuation/Lava Mining Gameplay HD [GameVideos]
Opinion: First StarCraft II Single Player Campaign Hands-On (With Spoilers)
That mechanic gives StarCraft II's single-player campaign a bit of an adventure game feel, even if most of what the game offers during these moments is atmosphere. These moments replace the talking head intermissions from the original StarCraft.
First StarCraft II Single Player Campaign Hands-On (Now Spoiler-Free!)
In the Hyperion's armory, you'll have access to plenty of units, technology and buildings that didn't make the multiplayer cut. This makes StarCraft II's single-player campaign much more than a series of mission-based levels using multiplayer style rules.
Sunday, Aug 16
StarCraft II LAN Petition Hits 100K
In late June, Blizzard defended the removal of LAN support - and thus the end of the LAN party for this game - as a way to "ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy." The petition, in a quite pleading tone of voice, asks for LAN support to be saved,...
Wednesday, Aug 12
Is This The New Voice of Starcraft II's Kerrigan?
Glynnis Talken Campbell, the original voice of StarCraft's Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of the Blades, lent her famous pipes for the StarCraft II reveal trailer at BlizzCon 2008, but ultimately the actress will not be voicing the villain for the game.
Tuesday, Aug 11
Blizzard Taps Razer For Official StarCraft II Gear
It's interesting that Blizzard is going to Razer to create official peripherals for StarCraft II, seeing as they've maintained and still maintain a strong relationship with the Steel Series folks. I suppose there's plenty of Blizzard to go around. Why Razer?
Wednesday, Aug 5
StarCraft Delay, Weak Economy Has Activison Expecting A Lot Less Money
The company reported $1.04 billion in revenue for the company's second quarter of 2009, ended June 20, 2009. Executives credited sales of franchises World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty as well as new games Prototype, Transformers and Wolverine.
StarCraft II Officially Delayed To 2010
Activision Blizzard's reason for the delay of StarCraft II is reportedly tied to the relaunch of its upgraded Battle.net service, which handles multiplayer for all things Blizzard. In a statement to the Blizzard community, the developer writes "Over the past couple of weeks, it has beco...
Thursday, Jul 30
Atari Founder Returns To Development With Battleswarm
Nolan Bushnell, creator of Pong and founder of Atari, returns to game development with Battleswarm: Field of Honor, a real-time strategy / first-person shooter hybrid he describes as "a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers."
Wednesday, Jul 15
This Week In Video Game Comics
World of Warcraft #21... Written by Walter Simonson and Louise Simonson; Art by Mike Bowden and Tony Washington In "War-Torn, "Senator Corbin Phash used his power and influence to hide his young son Colin's psionic abilities from the Dominion, but their secret has finally been exposed!
Friday, Jul 10
Analyst Sees StarCraft II Inevitably Delayed To 2010
We've already braced ourselves for the bad news, considering Dustin Browder, the game's lead designer, told us the developer needs four to six months of public beta exposure to get the game in tip-top shape. Still a possibility, as Blizzard released StarCraft: Brood War at the end of Nove...
Thursday, Jul 9
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
I foolishly purchased a digital copy of the game via the Blizzard Online Store a few weeks back, thinking my Windows-only CD key wouldn't work. Oops! Hopefully, Blizzard will put my $15 to good use. I'll definitely put my Mac installs of StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War to some sort of use t...
Saturday, Jul 4
Kotaku Originals: Hot Fun in the Summertime
s Summer of Gaming Blizzard/Starcraft No LAN Play For Starcraft II Three Things We Weren't Allowed To Photograph At Blizzard HQ Ogle Blizzard HQ's Epically Mounted Orc StarCraft II Beta Planned To Last 4 To 6 Months What's Inside Blizzard's Library? StarCraft II Hands-On: Round Three
Wednesday, Jul 1
Starcraft II's Campaign Is Certainly Trying Something Different
Browder also describes some of the mission scenarios for the story mode, which aim to add a little originality and spice to the standard patrol/destroy formula most RTS games go for. StarCraft 2 Interview: Reaction and Reflection
Learn StarCraft From A "Full Blooded Korean"
There's lots to learn about in StarCraft. The entire nation of South Korea seems fixated on the game — with tournaments and TV programs. You could say it's the country's national (digital) pastime! So if you are going to really learn StarCraft, then ByunTae wants you to learn it from an "auth...
Tuesday, Jun 30
And The StarCraft II LAN Petitioning Commences
Angered by news that Blizzard has decided to leave LAN multiplayer out of StarCraft II, fans are doing what fans have done in such situations since the dawn of time - signing a letter. LAN in StarCraft 2 Please. [Petition Online - Thanks Kay!]
Monday, Jun 29
No LAN Play For Starcraft II
We don't currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and d...
Three Things We Weren't Allowed To Photograph At Blizzard HQ
The campus is filled with Blizzard concept art, from a Protoss starship in the library to earlier maps of Azeroth adorning the walls. Interestingly, some of the in-development artwork was hung in hallways, but carefully covered with black blinds that could be pulled down to obscure what...
Blame WoW For Starcraft II's Late, Late Release
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. WOW held up StarCraft II for a year [Eurogamer]
StarCraft II Beta Planned To Last 4 To 6 Months
Dustin Browder, lead designer on StarCraft II at Blizzard, says that the team is planning to have a publicly playable beta for the game that runs about "four to six months." When that would go live, Blizzard still isn't saying. It's getting there," Browder said, adding "We can still make fou...
Opinion: StarCraft II Hands-On: Round Three
While much of the early StarCraft II game feels familiar, Blizzard has added another layer of strategy to something as simple as resource gathering. Each faction, Terran, Zerg and Protoss, have ways of boosting their resourcing means.
Saturday, Jun 20
Kotaku Originals: Bustin' Makes Me Feel ...
Microsoft Officially Doubling Xbox 360 Arcade Storage It's Too Early To Discuss Whether Xbox 360 Could Do OnLive Xbox Live's Return Brings Xbox Live Issues This Week In Video Game Comics Halo+ Kingdom Hearts + Metroid Blizzard Preps For StarCraft II Beta
Thursday, Jun 18
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Heading to Blizzard on Monday to play some StarCraft II, but first I really need to sort out this Battle.net account. Other than that, probably getting in a few rounds of Rock Band Unplugged. Yourself?
Yes, Blizzard Is Still Aiming To Release StarCraft II This Year
The release dates we've been hearing for StarCraft II have been fourth quarter 2009. In an interview with Swedish game site Press2play.TV, StarCraft II lead designer Chris Sigaty says... This pretty much confirms what Blizzard exec Mike Morhaime said earlier this month, which is that the de...
Monday, Jun 15
Blizzard Preps For StarCraft II Beta
The email, which asks game writers to make sure they have a Battle.Net account set up and a request in, says that Blizzard has no date yet to announce for the start of the beta. The email ends, however, by saying that all Battle.net account login info for game writers needs to be sent to Blizzard b...
Tuesday, Jun 9
Things Dying In Starcraft II
For some of us, playing StarCraft competitively is a beautiful ballet of dying over and over again, so it's good that Blizzard is working hard on making death interesting in StarCraft II. StarCraft II Unit Death Animations Update [Official Website]
Monday, Jun 1
Starcraft Could Be Out This Year, If...
The Starcraft II beta starting this summer is a sign of things to come. A release date is a sign of we things come to all of us. We don't have a release date. Blizzard has high standards and so do Starcraft players. We hope they're able to see eye-to-eye this year. If not, hey, we'll wait. Better late th...
Wednesday, May 27
Activision Reveals Its E3 2009 Lineup
Although the info comes from Activision Blizzard corporate, there's no announced last-minute representation from the Blizzard side. We may just have to see StarCraft II and Diablo III at a later date.
Wednesday, May 13
Blizzard's Next Online Game Is Completely Original
Dreams of World of StarCraft are dashed as a blue poster in the World of Warcraft forums confirms that Blizzard's next massively multiplayer online game is part of a brand new franchise. Blizzard going the way of SOE? [WoWBlues via WorldofWar.net]
Tuesday, May 12
BlizzCon Exclusive WoW Pet Is A Space Marine, Sort Of
He's cute. He's cuddly. He's got a gauss rifle. Grunty the Murloc Marine is the premium pet for this year's BlizzCon event, available to those who attend the yearly celebration of all things Blizzard Entertainment in Anaheim this August. As with last year's exclusive polar bear mount, Grunt...
Monday, May 11
Blizzard Trumps Nintendo In Develop 100
While last year's top developer Nintendo still performed admirable, Blizzard Entertainment pulled ahead this year to score the top spot in the Develop 100. With more than $100 million in subscription revenue per month generated from World of Warcraft alone and the fastest selling PC ga...
Wednesday, May 6
New Beta Opt-In Process For StarCraft II
Relatively quick and painless, the new beta opt-in procedure foregoes the usual uploading of DXDIAG files in favor of a more Blizzard-flavored method of obtaining your system specs. First log into or create a new Battle.net account and head to the beta profiles page. Then download the Bliz...
Tuesday, Mar 31
Opinion: Blizzard's April Fool's Day Spectacular
They could have simply stopped there, but no. On the StarCraft 2 webpage they introduce Terra-Tron, the most powerful Terran unit ever created. With a role listed as "Omega Supreme Defense", Terra-Tron is an entire Terran base that transforms into a giant robot. It is a thing of beauty to beh...
Friday, Oct 10
StarCraft II Lead Producer On The Split Single Player Campaign [BlizzCon 2008]
Don't think of it as a split. That's main point StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty was trying to get across during our brief interview following the StarCraft II panel at BlizzCon where it was announced that the single player campaign would be delivered as three separate products - fi...
Sunday, Sep 21
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Calls Out Starcraft
And here's another one from Suki (Kelly Hu), posted as a response to a Star Trek vid. Actually, she's got others up in which she hates horror (Left 4 Dead) and expansion packs (you name it). She also likes "impressive creatures" which is probably carrying water for Spore.
Sunday, Sep 14
Diablo III's Release Will Precede StarCraft 2's
This is getting tons of notice over on Battleforums, which quotes the ubiquitous Anonymous Source (he does get around), this one "from inside Blizzard," as saying that StarCraft 2's development will be "largely postponed" until Diablo III is ready to go.
Monday, Aug 25
Will Diablo III Be Playable At BlizzCon?
While waiting for my turn to click-click through an all too brief taste of StarCraft II, I asked Blizzard reps the inevitable "Since Diablo III isn't here, I assume will it be playable at BlizzCon?" After all, when the sequel to StarCraft was announced, it was publicly playable just four m...
Monday, Jun 23
StarCraft II Dated?
No, Blizzard hasn't yet applied an official date to Starcraft II, but that hasn't stopped a trio of retailers from pegging its release. That'd be December 3. Of this year. According to Best Buy, Circuit City, and Gamestop, via Joystiq, the long awaited RTS sequel will make it in time for Chris...
Thursday, May 22
These Are Supposed To Be Starcraft 2's System Specs
These were obtained by Spanish mag Micromania, after a visit to Blizzard's offices. As such, I'm just going to class them as "official estimates", confirm my PC can run the recommended specs, then get on with my "waiting for Starcraft 2" candlelight vigil.
Friday, Apr 25
StarCraft Board Game Demo
StarCraft the PC game is nuts. StarCraft: The Board Game is nuttier! Dr. Gregory Wilson, fantasy fiction professor at St. John's University (bwah?), points out the finer points of table top gaming while touring the New York Comic Con. NYC Comic Con geek-gasm [Boing Boing TV]
Monday, Mar 10
StarCraft II Official Zerg Fact Sheet [Rumor]
Classic StarCraft unit, or new to StarCraft II?: Classic from StarCraft: Brood War Classic StarCraft unit, or new to StarCraft II?: New Classic StarCraft unit, or new to StarCraft II?: New Classic StarCraft unit, or new to StarCraft II?: New
Sunday, Mar 9
First Look at StarCraft II Zerg [Clip]
This new StarCraft II trailer that just debuted in Korea gives a first look at the Zerg alien race. Great looking trailer! Just checked the news, and no, South Korea hasn't imploded.
Sunday, Sep 30
A Personal View of Nintendo In Korea [Korea]
Cubed³'s Adam Riley has a great personal piece up on gaming in Korea - specifically, how is Nintendo doing? What's selling well - and why? From the sounds of it, the DS Lite is a relatively hot item (at least among the younger set). It's an interesting piece and well worth a read through: At las...
Monday, Aug 27
Leipzig Uber Round-Up [Gc07]
Games For Windows Live Maybe, PhysX Not So Much Gabe Newell Smack Talks the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 (And your Mother) GC Offers EA Tats Strippers Invade GC Starcraft II, the Multiplayer Experience The Booth Babes of GC StarCraft II, Lich King Playable At Leipzig Games Con
Monday, Aug 20
Another Warcraft RTS "On The Table" [Blizzard Says]
The announcement of Starcraft 2 got one monkey off Blizzard's back. The other three (Diablo 3, Warcraft 4 and, for me, Lost Vikings 3D), they're working on, one at a time. First up is another Warcraft RTS, which Blizzard's Rob Pardo says is definitely "on the table". The way that we develop thi...
Monday, Aug 6
StarCraft: The Board Game Eyes-On
At this weekend's BlizzCon, tabletop game specialist Fantasy Flight Games showed the first prototypes for its upcoming StarCraft: The Board Game set. At $79.95, the six-player board game may seem a tad on the pricey side, but when you consider the set includes 180 plastic play figures, ba...
Thursday, Jun 14
On Mac Gaming
People applauded. Those, like myself, who covered the Macintosh gaming world for a living saw a bright future ahead. EA wasn't there, but Activision was, and Aspyr was bringing Madden to the Mac anyway. MacSoft was bringing Unreal Tournament over, and StarCraft was still on the Mac, and sti...
Monday, Jun 4
BlizzConners Getting StarCraft II Beta Key? [Korean Invasion Imminent]
With BlizzCon tickets $100 a pop, you might have a hard time justifying attending a real-life raid on the Anaheim Convention Center. Today, Blizzard revealed one little fact that might make fence-sitting conventioneers jump at the chance to attend. Everyone who attends BlizzCon this ye...
Saturday, May 5
StarCraft MMO Coming, Say Sources
According to CVG, Blizzard will reveal a World of StarCraft-style massively multiplayer online title in Korea next month at the Blizzard World Invitational. While many fans of the original StarCraft were probably expecting a proper real-time strategy game to be unveiled, if CVG's "we...
Friday, Apr 27
Blizzard Working on "Next-Gen MMO"
Remember, yesterday was also when Blizzard told us that they intend to announce a new product at th Worldwide Invitational in Korea on May 19. They also said they do plan to revisit the StarCraft universe at some point in the future. Job Postings [Blizzard, thanks Ryne]
Thursday, Apr 12
Rumor: Starcraft 2 on Its Way [StarCraft]
An article from a Korean site called Fighter Forum is claiming that a StarCraft 2 release might be around the corner at the end of 2007. The article is also full of meaty gossip morsels that include a new race being added to the game, and a super-sized whopper of a rumor that claims Blizzard wil...
Thursday, Jul 20
StarCraft Gets Fan-Flick [StarCraft]
A "worldwide team" of 3D artists plan to bring a short fan-made CGI StarCraft movie to life, called "StarCraft Chronicles." While the flick has nothing to do with the game's maker Blizzard Entertainment, it is being put together by highly skilled StarCraft lovers. Game site Blizzplanet s...
Monday, Jul 18
Diablo, StarCraft DS or PSP Bound? [Ds]
In a recent newsletter, the company asked what readers thought about the idea of bringing Diablo II to the DS or PSP if it supported multiplayer wireless gaming. It also asked whether readers would buy a DS version of StarCraft. Blizzard Games DS Bound? [N64 Europe]
