Starcraft II - Heart of The Swarm due early 2012?

death1234567

GDC Online: Battle.net project director Greg Canessa hints that next installment in three-part series is 18 months away.

What we heard: Today at GDC Online in Austin, Texas, Battle.net project director Greg Canessa took the stage to talk about the future of the encompassing online service Battle.net. Following his presentation--a complete write-up of which can be found here--the former PopCap games executive took questions from the audience.

One inquiry may have led Canessa to tip Blizzard's hand about the release date of the first expansion to Stacraft II: Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm. When discussing such future Battle.net features as trading replays, broadcasting replays, and upgrading profiles, he said they were "a main area of focus we're going to be seeing on the Starcraft [II] side over the next 18 months between now and Heart of the Swarm." (Emphasis added.)


The next Zerg rush might not come until early 2012.
Such a time frame would have the expansion arrive in either March or April, 2012. Heart of the Swarm is the second installment in the three-part Starcraft II saga, the first of which, Wings of Liberty, focused on the human faction. Heart of the Swarm will concentrate on the Zerg faction of the real-time strategy, while the third installment in the real-time strategy trilogy, Legacy of the Void, will focus on the sinister Protoss faction.

The official story: A Blizzard representative stressed to GameSpot that there is no announced released window for Heart of the Swarm. However, he did say that the game would not be featured as part of Blizzcon 2010, which will take place in Anaheim, California from October 22-23.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus. Blizzard typically takes its time between expansions, as evidenced by the nearly two-year gaps between the World of Warcraft add-ons The Burning Crusade (January 2007), Wrath of the Lich King (November 2008), and Cataclysm (December 2010).

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pixelburp

I'm not in any mad rush tbh; as enjoyable as the SP campaign was (and still is, I've been going back for those achievements), the actual story & plot was fooking terrible. Teenage fanfiction terrible. Introducing ancient prophecies - I hate ancient prophecies - and big-bad-evils-from-beyond-time, I felt I was lumped into some bad Tolkien ripoff.

Am curious though as to whether the new game will introduce any new units to the multiplayer. I'd say that's the question on most people's lips, and the question most avoided by Blizzard I believe.

Dacian

pixelburp wrote: »

...............the actual story & plot was fooking terrible. Teenage fanfiction terrible. Introducing ancient prophecies - I hate ancient prophecies - and big-bad-evils-from-beyond-time, I felt I was lumped into some bad Tolkien ripoff.

Pretty much sums up most of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre............

TheDoc

I think I'm about 4-5 missions into the game.

I'm at some part trying to cleanse Zerg from some town, and they keep taking over more towns, so I simply couldn't be arsed getting past.

I find RTS single player campaigns are enver enjoyable, they are simply a case of making missions that are between 30-50 minutes to try create a sense of a long campaign and value for money.

So I tend not to go anywhere near single player campaigns.

Shiminay

Yea, I'm the same, I find the single player to be a chore and not all that enjoyable.

RoyalMarine

well i fookin loved the single player campaign! and i cant wait for the second installment, or the third for that matter.

pixelburp

Dacian wrote: »

Pretty much sums up most of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre............

Ah to be fair SC1 had a fairly intriguing plot - lots of factions, betrayals and drama. Very space opera. Then suddenly it's all impending doom this and ancient prophecy that. The Protoss just annoy the hell out of me with their portentous speechifying.

The missions themselves I quite enjoyed though - they did try to mix things up beyond the standard "go destroy the other base" variety. Yeah the colonist missions you're on about TheDoc are quite crappy (except the awesome day/night siege mission, that was just fantastic), but there's some fun ones after (always a fan of the lone-wolf missions in RTS games)

Grimebox

pixelburp wrote: »

Ah to be fair SC1 had a fairly intriguing plot - lots of factions, betrayals and drama. Very space opera. Then suddenly it's all impending doom this and ancient prophecy that. The Protoss just annoy the hell out of me with their portentous speechifying.

The missions themselves I quite enjoyed though - they did try to mix things up beyond the standard "go destroy the other base" variety. Yeah the colonist missions you're on about TheDoc are quite crappy (except the awesome day/night siege mission, that was just fantastic), but there's some fun ones after (always a fan of the lone-wolf missions in RTS games)

lol can't please everyone. I can't stand those type of missions

eg. the ones with zeratul... snore

TheDoc

Might finish SP just for the achievements

Dacian

pixelburp wrote: »

The missions themselves I quite enjoyed though - they did try to mix things up beyond the standard "go destroy the other base" variety. Yeah the colonist missions you're on about TheDoc are quite crappy (except the awesome day/night siege mission, that was just fantastic), but there's some fun ones after (always a fan of the lone-wolf missions in RTS games)

I too liked the mix of game types in SP. And not having to build up a base from scratch is always a help. I always though you wasted your money when you have to build the same base 15 times.

I want to go back to the Zeratul mission for the achievements but really couldn't be arsed! I used youtube to finish one of them in under 5 mins just to get the achievements without wasting my time....granted it took me 15 mins due to taking 4 tries!!!

BopNiblets

Would have preferred a bit earlier, maybe the end of 2011, but thems the breaks.
Also I wonder what the Zerg story will be and will it run in the same timeframe as the Liberty campaign or will it be set after.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i think it's going to be set after the events of wings of liberty

Spacedog

With kerigan psyonically incapacitated after her encounter with the xel naga artifct she quickly returns to normal, losing control of the swarn, she takes a job on the hyperion as navigator by relying on her old confederate training. She once again starts making kissy faces at Jimmy Ray.

Meanwhile the abandoned Zerg without a leader are mysteriously silent. When the overmind was killed they had rampaged across Aiur in their confusion, but this time they are restrained, controlled by the hybrid released by raynor.

With no sign of kerrigans psyonic eminations the hybrid assumes she's dead and leads the zerg army on a series of action packed diverse missions releasing new hybrids from stasis cells, terran dominion research labs, and tal derine shrines, further consolidating their power and laying waste to their enemies along the way.

meanwhile the protoss are consolidating their scattered forces as zeritul spreads word of the prophacy and the hybrids. the protoss numbers are dwindling, due to the influnce of the hybrids, they are turning to the tal derine and offering loylty to the fallen one. The remain true protoss warriors enbark on a series of varied and diverse missions to uncover the origins of hybrids and the secret of the xel naga prophacy. Zeritul re-discovers the insight of the great tassadar and trancends the universe to retreive the fallen hero.

The SC2 trilogy ends with a great battle, the terrans are scattered and broken, but the protoss gather their great fleets and heroes to make their final stand against the hybrid. as in the overminds vision, high templar preserve the knowledge of their civilisation for those who may come later, before fighting to the last protoss warrior, at the moment when all seems lost, the hyperion appears in a spectacular sheet of flame, (caused by warping directly into an atmosphere). Kerrigan having regained her psyonic insight with the help of the great Tassadar, re-asserts her control over the swarm and uses them to destroy the hybrids. as was fortold by the final missing peice of the proficy which zeritul had accidentally left in his other jacket.

As the smoke of battle subsides, kerrigan uses her powers to restore the zerg, reversing them to their pre-assimilated state of passive alien animals/critters, before meeting jim in the cantina for a beer... and maybe some sex.

The End... ?





...no way!

the xel naga return looking for their hybrids, The overmind is reformed and reincarnated as his being was merged with that of tassadar. and starts re-assiminating the animals back into zerg.

Duran shows up outta nowhere opens a fractal-temporal rift in spacetime using a mysterious device, merging all of the planets the kopauru sectors of the past SC1, SC1 BW, SC2 WoL, SC2 HaotS and SC LotV, into one dencely packed system of planets in diferent temporal states populated with muliple replicas of all the main characters at various stages of their lives, bald raynor teams up with rock star raynor, pre-zerg innocent kerrigan, in a PvP battle against the UED/Talderine/Spector allience on post 'Xel zergia' infested Aiur of the future.

'Worlds of Starcraft' is born and the SC universe is in a preputual state of money making pay to play horsesh1t.

The End... ?






...no way !

In the new Worlds of Starcraft - expansion, Raynors evil twin brother gets Diablo to re-form the universe with devil power and some plauged grain, introducing wizards, mana, magic, demons and undead necromancers. Happy Days!

The End






...?

Dustaz

rofl nice