StarCraft 2 Preview

While they are meticulously designing every aspect of gameplay, the developers are also striving to convey an epic atmosphere, allowing for huge battles and large skirmishes with as many as 300 units onscreen at once.

Behold, the Phase Prism!

This is our rock, so be gone!

As for the graphics, it's obvious, judging from the footage and screenshots, that the designers, animators and programmers, once again, did what they do best. Character artwork as well as the creature designs are excellent and boast the traditional Blizzard coolness. Though it's definitely too early to say for sure, but from what we could tell StarCraft 2 sports a sound frame rate even at this stage, with solid number of highly detailed units on the screen and an equally impressive backdrop. As usual, the splendid graphics are accompanied by first-rate sound effects and a catchy soundtrack that fits perfectly into the in-game ambiance.

Gamers packing next-gen PC graphic cards will be disappointed to learn that Starcraft 2, in its present state, does not support DX10 graphics. However, it does carry all the benefits of DirectX 9.0, such as the Pixel Shader 2.0, HDR lighting, etc.

Blizzard is planning to include a map editor to ensure a growing SC community. Not much is known about multiplayer features, other than the fact that the game will allow online matches via Battle.net.

Presently, the renowned developer has around 40 people working intently on StarCraft 2 and from what was revealed thus far, the game seems to be coming along just fine. They also didn't want to point to any specific release dates. Instead, they prefer to leave things open, saying the game will be out "when it's done."

It's comforting to know that they are taking their time and that the core team isn't pressed with any strict deadlines. What's more, they are concentrating on PC version exclusively, with no plans to bring the game to consoles at this point.

While the dust still needs to settle from the recently held press event Korea, we are eager to bring you our E3 coverage in July, at which time we expect to have a closer look at StarCraft 2.