Starcraft II: Fact Sheet

[Emperor Pan I]

Game Description:
Starcraft II is the sequal to Blizzard Entertainments award winning Starcraft. Announced May 19th, 2007 in Seoul South Korea, Starcraft II will continue the space age conflict between the Terrans, the Protoss and the Zerg. Starcraft II has been confirmed to have started development sometime in 2003 after the release of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Starcraft II will continue the legacy of the original Starcraft as a real-time strategy, combining enhanced 3D graphics and new physics into the game play. Starcraft II is geared for highly competitive, skill-based game play. Many features from more recent real-time strategy games are absent due to the development teams belief that it doesn't enhance competitive game play.

Rob Pardo has confirmed that any and all rumors about an Xel'Naga or a Hybrid race being added are false, and that development teams are focusing on creating asymetrical balance among the three current races.

Gameplay:
The game will be strictly focused on fair and balanced gameplay. Starcraft II will be focused on replicating the same fast gameplay presented in the first game. Despite early gameplay trailers, The gameplay will not be slowed down by graphical enhancements, or unit changes. Additionally trailers seem one sided for Protoss, as the Protoss have been the first to feature their new units.

Multiplayer:
Starcraft II has been developed around Multilayer game play, and it's first years of development were primarily for that purpose. Current Game play status suggests the three races are able to be played in multiplayer games in the current stage of development.

Requirements:
Game Requirements at this time haven't been fully finalized, but that the game will support Pixel Shader 2.0 graphics and PCs with either Windows XP or Vista. PC and Mac versions will be release simultaneously and no console versions will be available.

Release:
Despite reports of being in pre-Alpha phase, Starcraft II has been described as "very far along". Multiplayer games are confirmed to already be playable, and largely Single player aspect is still being developed. Starcraft II is aimed to be a Teen rated game. Blizzard has stated that "The game will be released when it's ready."

Sources:
http://www.starcraft2.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...ml?sid=6171172
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/starcraft-2/790164p1.html