By Kieron Gillen on September 10th, 2010 at 1:30 pm.
It’s Friday, so time to quickly nose around and see if there are any key stories we’ve missed. And Blizzard releasing their first official custom map for Starcraft 2? That’s a key story. Not an enormous key, like the one Superman uses to keep his Fortress of Solitude locked, but certainly some manner of key. Perhaps one for a padlock for a bike or something. ANYWAY! The map’s called Burning Tide and is basically a 3v3 map riffing off the Devil’s Playground mission from the campaign, with all the fun rising and lowering lava flows and desperate rushing to get Ore. Or, as I prefer to call it “Space-Iron”. You’ll find it in your Custom Games folder in Starcraft II if you just play now.
10/09/2010 at 13:42 JackShandy says:
Why no Starcraft 2 Wot I think? Did I miss it? I know there was the transcribed initial impressions chat.
10/09/2010 at 13:44 bleeters says:
Oddly, that was the one mission which bored me, mostly due to it being considerably less hassle to churn out marauders for a while and obliterate everything than it was to actually complete your objectives.
10/09/2010 at 13:47 Brumisator says:
Thanks for telling me we’re friday, I had no idea.
(No, I’m not actually kidding).
I was half-expecting activision to release this kind of stuff in a paying DLC.
10/09/2010 at 13:55 Rich says:
It’s been pointed our before, but Blizzard is (almost) completely autonomous, and receives little or no pressure from Activision to do anything. At least that’s what recent interviews have said.
11/09/2010 at 00:36 DJ Phantoon says:
Which on at least a couple of levels is bullshit.
Bobby Kotick’s smile is in the shadows somewhere there. I KNOW IT!
10/09/2010 at 14:38 Rinox says:
Is it in the MP rotation too? Because I usually play in teams and I dread anything requiring even more micro than my Zerg already do (oh God the larvae spawning, the overseer scouting, aaargh).
I know you can ask to not play some maps regularly but that’s not waterproof either.
10/09/2010 at 14:47 gromit says:
No it’s not on the rotation. As per all “custom” maps you need to join/create a custom game to play it.
10/09/2010 at 14:56 Rinox says:
Cool, thanks.
10/09/2010 at 14:48 Jutranjo says:
It’s not in the rotation, you have to select it from the custom game list.
10/09/2010 at 18:22 Sagan says:
Yay for free stuff!
Stuff like this makes me glad that we have Blizzard and Valve, who show how to properly support a multiplayer game. I just wish that Modern Warfare 2 would have gotten punished more for releasing a really expensive map pack. That’s no way to treat your community.
10/09/2010 at 19:46 Burningpet says:
There are already tons of amazing starcraft2 mods, and i think that rps should do a round up as there are some very good gems to be found.
10/09/2010 at 20:23 FluffyM says:
Sad days when developers get cheered on for releasing a free map.
11/09/2010 at 00:37 Rick says:
Really hope Blizzard keep at the free maps bit, and release some SP ones down the line. Back in the day, they released a whole mini-campaign for Brood War for free, Enslavers: Dark Vengeance.