StarCraft 2 announced

This morning I switched on my computer, and logged into my feed reader and was nearly drowned under a flood of StarCraft 2 blog articles. To say "people are looking forward to StarCraft 2" would be an understatement. I knew it was an anticipated title but the sheer scale of the anticipation was far higher than I had realized.

For the uninitiated I will keep this brief. StarCraft 2 is a game by Blizzard, those fine folks behind Warcraft (the rts and the mmorpg) and the prequel to this game, StarCraft. The game is an rts, set in space. It's very good fun.

To save some time you can jump straight to the official StarCraft 2 website here.

• 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 "story-mode" 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

And here's some gameplay videos....

Protoss Immortal vs Zerg Gameplay

Check out the pause effect near the start. That would be very cool for people like me who need time to plan their next moves. The way the size of the character affects the tactics is also worth pointing out I think.

Terran Battlecruiser Gameplay

Some spaceship based combat.

Epic Battle

Guns... Lots of Guns!

Based on Blizzards past performance, and the obvious fan anticipation, StarCraft 2 is clearly going to do very well. Now whatever happened to StarCraft Ghost?