StarCraft

I'm perhaps too far behind to catch up on StarCraft. I played back in the day but 15 years of competitive epsorts later, I rarely understand what I'm seeing when I watch the Big Match. (For what it is worth, I'm suddenly finding Rainbow Six: Siege to be the most watchable esport competition. Lemme know if that's how you're feeling too.) But for the game…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, Korea Starcraft Leauge, StarCraft, StarCraft Remastered.

This year's BlizzCon will run November 2-3, Blizzard have confirmed, and the first round of tickets will go on sale on May 9th. BlizzCon is their annual fan convention in California, with panels, tournaments, and events for all their big games. It always brings some big announcements too, setting up the year of Blizzard to come. For people who can't get there, Blizzard will also…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, BlizzCon, BlizzCon 2018, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, StarCraft, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft.

Blizzard have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of Starcraft all month long with a series of giveaways and perks for their endlessly cross-promoted stable of games. Today, they're finally giving away something of real value for Starcraft II players: One of their premium-priced playable characters for the RTS giant's still-growing cooperative mode. You remember Fenix, right? Protoss hero, seemed friendly if a little death-prone. Now…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft, StarCraft II.

If you've ever looked at your pet in Diablo III and thought "it's a shame that's not a miniature version of a high-tech flying battleship", then I've got some good news. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of StarCraft's release, Blizzard are giving out some free bits and bobs for StarCraft: Remastered, StarCraft II, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. You…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft.

The next Overwatch map will launch on January 23rd, Blizzard World have confirmed. It's taking the gang to the magical kingdom of Blizzard World, a theme park based on Blizzard's other games, from the StarCraft rollercoaster 'Journey to Aiur' to the 'Snaxxramas' restaurant. Us, nah we're not having fun, we're going there to shove a payload around. After a stretch on the test servers, Blizzard…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, Diablo, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, StarCraft, Warcraft, World of Warcraft.

We've trapped in two main cycles of revamps, revivals, remakes, and rethings. One is giving us revivals and remakes of games from 20 years ago, while the other goes revamping games released during the previous generation of consoles. StarCraft: Remastered [official site] is from the former camp, a remake of Blizzard's wonderful sci-fi real-time strategy game from 1998, now fancied up with new art and…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft, StarCraft Remastered.

After being finally announced in March -- confirming rumours that felt like they’d been going on forever -- StarCraft Remastered [official site] now has a release date: August 14th. The remastered version will contain all the original content from the main game and the Brood War expansion, gussied up in 4K. It’s available for pre-purchase now.

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft Anthology, StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft, StarCraft Remastered.

Blizzard's seminal 1998 strategy game StarCraft [official site] and its expansion, Brood War, are now free for all and sundry. The game that birthed modern digital sports! The game that launched a thousand zerg rushes! The game that still has the best tanks in all RTSland! Blizzard have updated StarCraft a touch to play nicer with modern computers but mostly it's still just StarCraft ("just…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, free games, StarCraft Anthology, StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft.

Blizzard have fired two blasts from the news-barrels, finally revealing a vague release window for the long-rumoured StarCraft Remastered [official site] project, and informing the world that the original version of the game will be free to download and play once the next patch arrives. What's more, owners of the original will be able to play against those using Remastered. StarCraft is back, even though…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft Anthology, StarCraft: Brood War, StarCraft, StarCraft Remastered.

The Korea e-Sports Association, KeSPA, has announced it will be discontinuing the world's longest-running esports league, the StarCraft ProLeague as of 18 October. Its closure comes after 14 seasons of competitive play across the Brood War and SC2 iterations of the franchise. You can read the statement in full after the jump but I wanted to say that the golden years of competitive StarCraft were…

Tagged with StarCraft: Brood War, esports, StarCraft, StarCraft II, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void.

Blizzard could very well announce an HD remaster of StarCraft next month, if reports from iNews24, a reputable Korean news source, are correct. iNews24 says multiple sources with access to Blizzard's inside plans suggest that the company will reveal a StarCraft HD remake some time in September.

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, rumour, StarCraft.

Prepare the cake and light up the candles, because Heroes of the Storm [official site] has announced its next hero, bringing the roster up to 50 characters! What do you say? We don't do candles and cake anymore? We just give them an achievement? Anyway, as reported by Destructoid, it's Dehaka's turn to join Blizzard's MOBA. He comes from Starcraft, and among his abilities it…

Tagged with battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft.

[Update: Oh! Blizzard told GameSpot it's simply to maintain them. Dreams are always so short-lived. Hey, maybe do consider revamping them though! That would be lovely. Official support for modern resolutions in Diablo II would be a grand start.] Once a games studio has been around for long enough, different generations of players will each have their own idea of the devs' finest days. Perhaps…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft: Brood War, Diablo II, StarCraft, Warcraft III, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Today I will mostly be watching the Student StarCraft AI Tournament. It's been running every year since 2011 as a challenge to student AI developers. The idea is that students submit bots to compete against each other playing 1v1 Brood War matches.

Tagged with SSCAI, Student Starcraft AI Tournament, StarCraft.

Gigantic pretty clearly wants to be a big deal. It's from the former lead designer of StarCraft and Guild Wars, it has $20 million in backing, and its team size is kind of, er, gigantic for an indie studio. So it can talk the talk, but can it justify a series of costly expenditures on the part of shadowy investors and/or see why kids love…

Tagged with Guild Wars, Motiga, Gigantic, StarCraft.

That headline might be confusing for some of you, so allow me to elaborate: Rob Pardo's been one of Blizzard's top designers for 17 years, making him - among many other things - one of Diablo's many daddies. So when I say the devil cries, I'm mostly referring to that. I'm sure he's blowing his 666 nostrils into a +44 WIS Hanky Of Wretched Despondency…

Tagged with Blizzard Entertainment, rob pardo, Diablo, StarCraft, World of Warcraft.