Blizzard Talks About Lack Of LAN Support In Starcraft II

Well, it’s definitely true. Blizzard has killed LAN support in the upcoming StarCraft II, and here’s the official word from Bob Colayco at Blizzard PR:

"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 directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we’re encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."

So, let it hereby be noted that pirates killed the LAN parrrrrty.

Source

StarCraft Class Opens at UC Berkeley

OK, as cool as this is from a purely ‘geek’ point of view, this news gave me a wtf?? moment…

A college class based entirely around Blizzard’s real-time strategy game StarCraft has opened at UC Berkeley, according to a course listing found by StarCraft Wire.

The class will begin with a lecture on topics "from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted." Following the lecture, replays of students’ battles will be "analyzed," and "homework" will be assigned. Required materials include a copy of StarCraft: Brood War and an "open mind."

Source: ShackNews.com

StarCraft Patch 1.16 Released

Ten years later, Blizzard is still releasing patches for StarCraft.

Today’s update, now available at FileShack, comes in two flavors: one for those with plain old StarCraft and one for those with the Brood War expansion.

Patch 1.16 brings some CPU optimizations–the game “now only uses as much CPU as it needs to run smoothly.” In-game chat but not whispers is now saved in the replays. There’s also a few bug fixes and the removal of numerous exploits. Sorry Terrans, no more drop-anywhere nukes. Don’t worry, the Zerg lost some exploits too.

Feature Changes:

• • In-game chat is now saved in replays. Note: whispers are not saved.
  • Hitting the Escape key while in the chat room will clear your typed text.
  • “/reply” (or just “/r”) will send a whisper to…

Source: ShackNews.com Read more

Video: Six Minutes Of Starcraft 2

Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival.

* Fast-paced, hard-hitting, tightly balanced competitive real-time strategy gameplay that recaptures and improves on the magic of the original game
* Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg
* New units and gameplay mechanics further distinguish each race
* Groundbreaking single-player campaign
* Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes
* Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net
* Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience

Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company’s world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game. Read more

Upcoming Releases From Fantasy Flight Games

Fantasy Flight Games, the makers of Tide Of Iron, Starcraft The Board Game, World Of Warcraft The Board Game, and a host of other fine products, has an extensive list of projects currently in development. Here is a list of those products with their expected release dates.

Thanks to BoardgameNews’ Gone Cardboard

Tribune	June 2008
World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game	July 2008
Cosmic Encounter (new version)	Q2/Q3 2008
Descent: Tomb of Ice	September 2008
MotoGrandPrix	September 2008
Tannhäuser: Operation Novgorod	Q3 2008
Arkham Horror: The Black Goat of the Woods	October 2008
Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game	October 2008
Red November	October 2008
Talisman (revised 4th edition)	October 2008
Talisman: Death and Glory Expansion	December 2008
Age of Conan: The Board Game	Q4 2008
Aye, Dark Overlord!	Q4 2008
BlackSheep	Q4 2008
Kingsburg	Q4 2008
“Not-Dune”	Q4 2008
Gears of War: The Board Game	Q4 2008
Si, Godfather	Q4 2008
Battles of Napoleon: The Eagle and the Lion	2008?
Blood Royale (new version)	2008?
Constantinopolis	2008?
Runebound: The Frozen Wastes	2008?
Borderlands (new version)	Q2/Q3 2009
Reins of Power	2009

Initial Impressions of Starcraft The Board Game

Logan and I got a chance to run through three turns of Starcraft The Board Game by Fantasy Flight Games.

After receiving the game, I read the rules once all the way through, and then skimmed the first half of them the second time. The rules are very clear, have quite a few examples of use in play, and are easy to read.

Punching the game pieces and setting up a two-player game took about an hour. There are a ton of bits that come with the game, but once you separate the factions out to their respective colors, one factions’ bits are easy to handle.

The minis are detailed and have a nice tactile feeling to them. The counters have very accurate art from the computer game and are easy to distinguish. After doing a count of all of the pieces, everything was present and accounted for. There were a few extra minis as well. Three of the flying minis came broken off of their pegs, but a little super glue and you would never notice.

The game map is of a modular design, where you lay down planets randomly and connect them with navigation routes. This allows a very flexible design with continued re-playability.

Logan played the Zerg: The Overmind. I played the Terrans: Mengsk’s faction. After the setup we walked through the first turn very carefully. The second and third turns went a lot smoother. It helps tremendously to have played the computer game BUT it is not necessary to enjoy the board game experience.

The first two turns consisted of basically building units, moving them around to mobilize, and building bases, base modules, and individual buildings. The third turn saw the first combat of the game so we slowed down a bit to make sure we covered everything we could think of regarding the rules.

There is resource gathering and management, building units, buildings, bases, and modules, combat; all that a good RTS already has.

This is a dice-free game. Combat is card-based and there are basic combat cards, reinforcement cards, and technology cards purchased to be used for combat.

Overall, it represents the RTS experience for the most part. For a turn-based game, I think it is well represented of the computer game. We plan on setting up a full game soon and from what I’ve seen, I like the game. Logan also likes the game and picked up the rules as well or better than me.

I’m guessing we got about 75% of the rules correct. After the sessions I went through the rules again and found just a few things that we missed. All in all, a very nice experience.

Starcraft The Board Game In Stock

In stock now at the TC Games Store.

From Fantasy Flight Games comes Starcraft The Boardgame based on the bestselling PC Game from Blizzard Entertainment.

Including a total of over 180 plastic figures and dozens of unit types, StarCraft: The Board Game features an innovative modular board consisting of planets of varying sizes which guarantees a new experience each and every game. An exciting card-driven combat system allows players to modify and upgrade their faction with a wealth of powerful technologies. Players can unleash a Zergling rush, use powerful Protoss shields to halt an enemy invasion, or even send cloaked Ghosts out to guide nuclear missiles to their target.

$62.95