Starcraft II gets a Graphical Update (56k warning)

If you thought the game looked good before. Check this out.

http://kotaku.com/5156241/starcraft-ii-graphical-updates-before-and-after

* 56k tag entered by a mod *

Yeah. They mentioned it in a brief little FAQ last week.

I see lots of questions about timelines. Here is a little FAQ.

• Why hasn't Blizzard released the Beta? or WTF have they been working on, I played it at Blizzcon last year and I thought it was done! Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet. When these things have enough work done that we know when our release date is going to be with strong confidence we will announce the Beta. Unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year.
• Why don't you just give us your target dates if you don't know the final date? We promise, we won't get mad if Blizzard misses target dates. Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time. Putting those out there would be pretty close to lying to the fans. We are not going to do that. We want to be able to give good info, not info that we know is suspect. We'll give target dates when we think it is very likely that we will hit them.
• When can we have the next Battle Report?We were waiting on getting some improved graphics in (some of the new stuff looked REALLY rough). That was finished last week and we are now playing and looking for a good game. Once we get that game the process is reasonably quick to get it out. Once we go Beta, you guys can do these and put them up. When that happens I'm sure there will be a ton of them and I'm sure the quality of the games played and the announcing will go way up.
• I notice that you haven't actually given us any dates.... Yeah. Sorry. We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know.

Hang in there. We're in the final stretch.

Blizzard

Paul Sams, the COO of Blizzard also mentioned they they will be releasing a frontline title every year for the foreseeable future.

What that implies is Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty(2009), Diablo 3(2010), Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm(2010/2011), Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void(2011/2012), and their next MMO(????).

Yeah. They mentioned it in a brief little FAQ last week.

[QUOTE="Blizzard"]

I see lots of questions about timelines. Here is a little FAQ.

• Why hasn't Blizzard released the Beta? or WTF have they been working on, I played it at Blizzcon last year and I thought it was done! Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet. When these things have enough work done that we know when our release date is going to be with strong confidence we will announce the Beta. Unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year.
• Why don't you just give us your target dates if you don't know the final date? We promise, we won't get mad if Blizzard misses target dates. Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time. Putting those out there would be pretty close to lying to the fans. We are not going to do that. We want to be able to give good info, not info that we know is suspect. We'll give target dates when we think it is very likely that we will hit them.
• When can we have the next Battle Report?We were waiting on getting some improved graphics in (some of the new stuff looked REALLY rough). That was finished last week and we are now playing and looking for a good game. Once we get that game the process is reasonably quick to get it out. Once we go Beta, you guys can do these and put them up. When that happens I'm sure there will be a ton of them and I'm sure the quality of the games played and the announcing will go way up.
• I notice that you haven't actually given us any dates.... Yeah. Sorry. We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know.

Hang in there. We're in the final stretch.

horrowhip

Paul Sams, the COO of Blizzard also mentioned they they will be releasing a frontline title every year for the foreseeable future.

What that implies is Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty(2009), Diablo 3(2010), Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm(2010/2011), Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void(2011/2012), and their next MMO(????).

by date their next MMO will certainly be "next gen".

this would also mean system req will also greatly increase.....TheOwnerOner

this would also mean system req will also greatly increase.....TheOwnerOner

They look nice, but did they have to loose the bright colors?Philmon

Well if you have an Nvidia GPU you can just increase the color saturation :D

Don't know if the ATI control panel has it, haven't used ATI for a while now.

I doubt it'll be that noticeable when you're actually playing it unless your screen's resolution is like 10". hopesfall2own

So very wrong.

The models look a lot better.

And the difference should be most noticeable when a model is near lights.

What's a zerg? :?

:P

I think I'll try out Starcraft tonight. Put it on my mac a few weeks ago and haven't had the opportunity to play it yet. Should probably see if I like it or not.

I doubt it'll be that noticeable when you're actually playing it unless your screen's resolution is like 10". hopesfall2own

[QUOTE="hopesfall2own"]I doubt it'll be that noticeable when you're actually playing it unless your screen's resolution is like 10". agentfred

[QUOTE="agentfred"]Really? I thought they looked a lot better. But hey, I'll take any upgrade I can get.hopesfall2own

But seriously, when you look at the full resolution comparison, it's pretty clear that the upgrades are actually quite significant.

[QUOTE="agentfred"][QUOTE="hopesfall2own"]I doubt it'll be that noticeable when you're actually playing it unless your screen's resolution is like 10". hopesfall2own

Yay! The character models look much better, as well as more realistic. Before it looked much more cartoony like the Warcraft universe, which doesn't exactly fit the theme of StarCraft. However, we should probably wait until we see it ingame before we make further judgement.

Now I wonder if Diablo III is going to get the realistic treatment as well...

[QUOTE="hopesfall2own"][QUOTE="agentfred"] Really? I thought they looked a lot better. But hey, I'll take any upgrade I can get.Mehdi1984

[QUOTE="Mehdi1984"][QUOTE="hopesfall2own"] didn't say it wasn't an upgrade, just said you probably won't notice when you're actually playing it unless you have a small resolution monitor..hopesfall2own

Solution: zoom in a bit more;)

[QUOTE="hopesfall2own"][QUOTE="Mehdi1984"] That doesn't make any sense. The more resolution you have, the more detail you see. You are stating the opposite.swazidoughman

Solution: zoom in a bit more;)

i never played a starcraft game or a RTS i'm not a big fan of them.iam2green

This is silly.

[QUOTE="Mehdi1984"][QUOTE="hopesfall2own"] didn't say it wasn't an upgrade, just said you probably won't notice when you're actually playing it unless you have a small resolution monitor..hopesfall2own

Um yeah, i dont like the artstyle. Seems as though Blizzard are failing to differentiate between the warcraft universe and the starcraft universe.-DrRobotnik-

Actually that's exactly what they just did. The original models were much less realistic. To be honest, I think they look a lot like WoW-style models. Starcraft has a very realistic style, while Warcraft has more of a fairy-tale look.

Um yeah, i dont like the artstyle. Seems as though Blizzard are failing to differentiate between the warcraft universe and the starcraft universe.-DrRobotnik-

They did the same thing with Diablo 3.

I personally like the artstyle, but if they start using it for every peice of software they make then it will get boring.

I doubt it'll be that noticeable when you're actually playing . hopesfall2own

Wow... looks great!

That's what they should do with World of Warcraft... they should AT LEAST double the poly's.

[QUOTE="TheOwnerOner"]this would also mean system req will also greatly increase.....dgsag