I’ve never really been a fan of the Command and Conquer series. Maybe it was the horribly cheesy cutscenes. Maybe it was lame units from previous entries in the series, such as the armored attack bear units, or the transforming mechas and ninjas. Something about the whole series just doesn’t sit well with me.
I can’t think of two more dissimilar games…if you pre-order The Dawn of War II expansion, Chaos Rising, you’ll get a copy of Saints Row 2 for free. I wonder who came up with that idea. Regardless, free is always good and apparently you can sell sex in Saints Row 2 for respect, which is interesting.
[ Kotaku ]
After what feels like years of waiting, Blizzard is starting the Starcraft 2 closed beta. I beta that I won’t be getting a key for because Bob at Blizzard’s PR department noticed I’ve only updated the site like 3 times since last year. He was harsh, harsh but fair. I’ve been slacking, but no more. I will prove to this Bob that I have what it takes.
Anyway, if you haven’t yet setup a Battle.net account, you can visit here to sign up and, hopefully, get into the beta. Maybe.
Full press release, below…
Blizzard’s Korean community manager Kicho has hinted of a possible open beta, saying that the StarCraft II beta will be available for “all fans of the franchise”, not just press and VIPs.
We know that all of you are very curious about the development of the Beta with the release of many Starcraft 2 Beta Testing related news across various news portals…
I can definitely say that the Beta test will not just involve industry experts and other VIPs but rather will involve all fans of the franchise.
That’s great news, since I’m pretty sure I don’t count as a member of the press and I’m certainly not a VIP.
[ Starcraft2.pro ]
I really liked Dawn of War II, I’m pretty excited to see more of the expansion.
Starcraft’s map editor allowed users to create their own maps and just generally do a lot of cool things with the game (this mostly resulted in the creation of about a million different Starship Trooper maps). Well, Starcraft II’s editor is going to be even cooler. At BlizzCon’s StarCraft II gameplay panel, they showed off three different custom maps, each showing off different ways the editor can be used. The first shows how players can create new enemies, it featured a custom made “uberlisk.” The second is a third-person action game, basically the now cancelled Starcraft: Ghost. The third is a Galaga-like top-down shooter. Basically, users can do a lot more with the editor now, which should give a lot more variety to their inevitable Starship Trooper maps.
Today Blizzard officially announced that Starcraft II will be delayed until sometime in 2010, citing the development of the newly improved Battle.net as the major reason why we won’t be seeing the game in 2009. I think everyone kind of, sort of, knew that Starcraft II was going to be delayed, it’s Blizzard after all, famous for their “when it’s done” policy, polishing and refining all their games thoroughly before release.
Halo Wars latest downloadable content, “Historic Battles”, will be available July 21 for 800 Microsoft points and offers 4 new multiplayer maps:
• Barrens (1v1 Map): Difficult terrain channels units into killing zones. The side that controls the Forerunner artifacts will have the advantage.
Barrens
