NeoGAF

Yoshichan · 09:00 AM

Update 4:

Blizzard DotA apparently won't be out until Heart of the Swarm.

Originally Posted by VG247:

Blizzard DotA aiming for Heart of the Swarm launch, says StarCraft boss

StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty has said that Blizzard DotA is still in development at the company.

“We basically put it back up in the shop and did some massive overhauls to some things, which I’m not going to go into specific detail about,” Sigaty told Joystiq during the first media showcase of the second story chapter for StarCraft II, Heart of the Swarm.

He told the site that it was aiming to have the mod ready for release around the time Heart of the Swarm launches, which looks set to be a 2012 launch.

In terms of it actually requiring HotS to play it, Sigaty went mum.

“We’re not even talking about the business level decision of it at this point.”

Blizzard Dota was one of four mods that was announced during Blizzcon last year for Wings of Liberty. All of those mods bar Dota have since launched.

Its development also ties in with that of true sequel Dota 2, being made by Valve.

Source: http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/31/bliz...tarcraft-boss/

Update 3:
So this is why it's taking so long:

Originally Posted by TeamLiquid:

Q: How long was the production cycle?

A: Ongoing - I've said some numbers in the past. We didn't get started in earnest on HosS until the new year, however, we have been doing art and design concepts since the release of WoL. It's really difficult to say how long the production will be.

Source: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=228212

Also, we're losing some multiplayer units.

Originally Posted by TeamLiquid:

We're going to add some new multiplayer units, and take out some multiplayer units and we're going to try to make it really great, but a ton of the work is going to go into single player.

Update 2:

Originally Posted by IGN:

In this campaign she won't simply be a character that walks and talks, but a fully controllable, upgradeable hero unit useable in nearly all of Heart of the Swarm's 20 or so missions.

Originally Posted by IGN:

According to Blizzard, Wings of Liberty will be required in order to play Heart of the Swarm, at least in North America and Europe, and though there's no final price point it sounds as though Heart of the Swarm will be priced lower than Wings.

Originally Posted by IGN:

No doubt many have questions about what Blizzard's doing with its multiplayer mode that's popular in competitive gaming circuits like, if you'll excuse the blatant advertisement, the IGN Pro League, but so far that's all being kept under wraps. I can say there will be new multiplayer units and maps in Heart of the Swarm, though no specifics are available. There will also be changes to Battle.net, mostly related to getting an organized Marketplace live so players can easily sort, rate and even purchase user-generated content.

Update:

Preview: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-swarm-preview

Originally Posted by Eurogamer - Short Snippet:

Think of the StarCraft series, and you think of multiplayer. Its single-player campaigns are unavoidably overshadowed by the competitive scene, and news that Heart of the Swarm's reveal would be exclusively single-player leads to an irresistible question. Just how important is StarCraft's lore and single-player to StarCraft's fans?

"Incredibly important," begins Dustin Browder, the lead designer of StarCraft II. "And I'll tell you what: I think most of the press ends up reporting on the multiplayer because that is what their fans are reading. But I know that most players just play the campaign. So there's a bit of a disconnect there between what we're talking about and what we're actually doing - a huge percentage of our players are coming just for the campaign."

A huge percentage? "I don't know the exact percentages off the top of my head, but I do know it's well over 80 per cent that play significantly into the campaign." Browder later clarifies that figure, saying he doesn't know exactly how many of Wings of Liberty's players play single-player only, or when they dip into the multiplayer, but his point remains: the perception of StarCraft as multiplayer-only just isn't borne out by the stats. For a silent majority of players, the campaign is a Very Big Deal indeed.

Heart of the Swarm, the second of what will eventually be three StarCraft II games, makes more sense in this context, because the switch to the Zerg as central characters has brought profound change to the campaign: this is now a hero-led RTS. Series staple Sarah Kerrigan, AKA the Queen of Blades AKA the genocidal Zerg leader, is the central focus and player-controlled character throughout HotS (and what a lovely initialism that is).

Originally Posted by Insaniac:

gameplay vids of sp if it hasn't been posted...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwkUr...&feature=feedu

starts around 1:40

next one around 5:15

obviously, possible spoilers

Originally Posted by Mairu:

http://wellplayed.org/forum/114/thread/3805016/show concept art trailer, cinematic trailer, gameplay trailer, q&a

edit: stuff is up pretty much everywhere:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/117/1171307p1.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/game/sta...t-of-the/13639
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/plungi...rg-swarm/3274/
http://kotaku.com/5806131/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-swarm-preview

take your pick of whichever outlet :p

Original:

Here's some of the new singleplayer screenshots released!

More here:
http://www.insidegamer.nl/pc/starcra...medium=twitter

Ellis Kim · (05-31-2011, 12:30 AM)

...

Time to upgrade my PC!

Eggman · (05-31-2011, 12:31 AM)

So will this be shown at E3 or what?

SteelAttack · (05-31-2011, 12:32 AM)

Boobs of the Swarm.

Love them (I mean, the screens). Still working my way through the terran campaign, and I'm pretty much ecstatic at the way the SP campaign was handled. Heart of the Swarm will be a definite purchase.

Narag · (05-31-2011, 12:32 AM)

Can't wait.

Yoshichan · (05-31-2011, 12:33 AM)

Originally Posted by Dr Eggman:

So will this be shown at E3 or what?

Lots of news tomorrow + Blizzcon. Not E3.

Tomat · (05-31-2011, 12:33 AM)

Anyone know if this game is going to alter the multiplayer content at all?

darkpaladinmfc · (05-31-2011, 12:34 AM)

Originally Posted by Tomat:

Anyone know if this game is going to alter the multiplayer content at all?

Yes, it will a lot.

ksan · (05-31-2011, 12:34 AM)

yesyesyseyesyesyseyes, but where are my new zerg units?!

Originally Posted by Yoshichan:

Lots of news tomorrow + Blizzcon. Not E3.

Tomorrow, as in May 32? or June 1?

bbyybb · (05-31-2011, 12:35 AM)

I am looking forward to this expansion.

I wonder how many new units there will be for multiplayer.

Narag · (05-31-2011, 12:35 AM)

Originally Posted by ksan:

Tomorrow, as in May 32? or June 1?

June 1st will never come for Yoshichan.

ElectricBlue187 · (05-31-2011, 12:35 AM)

Hmm I think this is the hardest sale of the three. Nasty bugs probably won't sell as well as Terrans and Protoss. I will obviously buy the shit outta this though

Mister_Bubbles · (05-31-2011, 12:36 AM)

I like Abathur already. Seems like a handy guy to have around.

Corran Horn · (05-31-2011, 12:36 AM)

Yum

Kalnos · (05-31-2011, 12:37 AM)

Originally Posted by bbyybb:

I am looking forward to this expansion.

I wonder how many new units there will be for multiplayer.

2 I would guess. They don't want to worry about fucking up balance too badly.

mescalineeyes · (05-31-2011, 12:38 AM)

so they're adding AA?

yeah, definitely need to upgrade *something* for this.

ssoass · (05-31-2011, 12:38 AM)

Those zergs on Kerrigan's sides are some creepy bastards.

I guess they are cerebrates or something?

MYE · (05-31-2011, 12:39 AM)

Quote:

"I am the memory of you, as the Queen of Blades"

Oh boy...

Yoshichan · (05-31-2011, 12:40 AM)

Originally Posted by Narag:

June 1st will never come for Yoshichan.

;_; Sad but true...

Originally Posted by ksan:

Tomorrow, as in May 32? or June 1?

31!

StopMakingSense · (05-31-2011, 12:40 AM)

That ice environment looks HOTTTTTT.

Kalnos · (05-31-2011, 12:41 AM)

Originally Posted by MYE:

Oh boy...

Yeah, I lol'd pretty hard at that.

Looks like more of the same from this game.

pieatorium · (05-31-2011, 12:41 AM)

Hype!

Tomat · (05-31-2011, 12:41 AM)

Originally Posted by Kalnos:

Yeah, I lol'd pretty hard at that.

Looks like more of the same from this game.

Bad I take it? I've never played SC2.

Somnid · (05-31-2011, 12:42 AM)

SC2 had one of the best single-players of any Blizz game. I'm looking forward to this.

clip · (05-31-2011, 12:43 AM)

Why the fuck can the richest game dev. studio not afford some decent writers, fuck it all.

claviertekky · (05-31-2011, 12:43 AM)

They're really going with the story from Wings of Liberty?

I thought they would say it's a dream and make the story turn dark again.

Bring on multiplayer new units info.

Sliver · (05-31-2011, 12:44 AM)

Honestly they fucked the story up so bad in SC2 I don't really care about the singleplayer at all this time around. Just tell me what's new for multiplayer.

droopy · (05-31-2011, 12:44 AM)

Originally Posted by Tomat:

Bad I take it? I've never played SC2.

Just confirming the irrelevance of everything that happened in WoL.

Neo Child · (05-31-2011, 12:44 AM)

Originally Posted by Somnid:

SC1 had one of the best single-players of any Blizz game. I'm looking forward to this.

fixed

Kalnos · (05-31-2011, 12:44 AM)

Originally Posted by Tomat:

Bad I take it? I've never played SC2.

The single-player is embarrassingly bad, anyway. If you want to get into the 1v1 multiplayer community it may be your thing, but I wouldn't touch team games or the campaign mode.

Originally Posted by Somnid:

SC2 had one of the best single-players of any Blizz game. I'm looking forward to this.

Somnid
Corporate Ballwasher
Ignore everything I say

Hasphat'sAnts · (05-31-2011, 12:46 AM)

"Jim?"

:lol

mescalineeyes · (05-31-2011, 12:46 AM)

the fact that they're showing single player before multiplayer only proves that Blizzard knows what people really care about.

they just get off on being withholding.

Neo Child · (05-31-2011, 12:46 AM)

remembering in the exact voice - howdy boys. im jim raynor. marshall of these parts'

claviertekky · (05-31-2011, 12:46 AM)

I bet it won't be confirmed here.

I hope Blizzard decides to add tri-core/quadcore/hexacore support.

Shame how SC2 only takes advantage of two cores.

Yoshichan · (05-31-2011, 12:47 AM)

The actual singleplayer campaign is really entertaining and fun... the story however, sucks so hard.

Hasphat'sAnts · (05-31-2011, 12:48 AM)

For those of you asking, story in Wings of Liberty is interesting up to a point, then it goes full-retard.

But the mechanics in the levels themselves are top notch. Go play it.

ElectricBlue187 · (05-31-2011, 12:49 AM)

Originally Posted by Kalnos:

The single-player is embarrassingly bad, anyway. If you want to get into the 1v1 multiplayer community it may be your thing, but I wouldn't touch team games or the campaign mode.

Lies. Everything about SC2 is great.

Ok except the story...

jsrv · (05-31-2011, 12:51 AM)

I hope the ending for this is going to be completely different from that in-development leaked ending I saw the other day which was pretty terrible..

jett · (05-31-2011, 12:54 AM)

i'm the memory of you as a the queen of blades ahahahahaha

there is no hope.

Kuran · (05-31-2011, 12:55 AM)

She looks so stupid now.

The ice background looks good.

Draft · (05-31-2011, 01:01 AM)

Ice maps :)
Cerebrates to talk to :)
White girls with dreadlocks :\

hamchan · (05-31-2011, 01:02 AM)

So same hub world stuff like in WoL except with a Zerg skin?

Max · (05-31-2011, 01:03 AM)

BEAUTIFUL.

cubicle47b · (05-31-2011, 01:03 AM)

War for the brood? 25 missions where all you do is make roaches. (the screenshots of actual gameplay are quite honest)

pieatorium · (05-31-2011, 01:04 AM)

Originally Posted by hamchan:

So same hub world stuff like in WoL except with a Zerg skin?

Well it is the zerg expansion of wol, not sure what you were expecting lol.

FantasticMrFoxdie · (05-31-2011, 01:04 AM)

Live for the swaarm!

pieatorium · (05-31-2011, 01:05 AM)

Originally Posted by cubicle47b:

War for the brood? 25 missions where all you do is make roaches.

nowai, ling bling ftw

Aquavelvaman · (05-31-2011, 01:05 AM)

I love seeing the high res models in the upgrade screens. Can't wait for this. Show us lurkers :3

Aquavelvaman · (05-31-2011, 01:06 AM)

Originally Posted by pieatorium:

nowai, ling bling ftw

Infestors will just spawn infested marines AND infested medics.

Hexadecimalt · 01:11 AM

The Protoss campaign always had the best storytelling of Starcraft in the original games. Really I see it all coming down to them, as it did for the originals.

Terrain < Zerg < Protoss IMO in terms of campaign storylines for the orignals.

It's too late for the Terrans and possibly the Zerg given what we've gleaned from the leaked script. Perhaps the Zerg campaign may shed more light on the true nature of the Xel'Naga, but from these screens it looks more like it is going in the direction of sitcom bullshit, especially with the 'I AM THE MEMORY OF YOU' screen.

So, fuck the humans and their terrible "we're the center of the universe" bullshit and squabbling for petty political control. Fuck the Zerg TV-trope of having Kerrigan re-confront a force she was just previously in full control of. And I'm not even going to think about Kerrigan's herp-derp resurrection.

Blizzard always saves the best for last.

Bring on the real masters of the universe.

Legacy of the Void will redeem the story.

BELIEVE.