The beta will probably end already in early June, then Blizzard will fine-tune all the details to finally get the game ready for release!

Fans are still waiting for Blizzard to announce any new release date news for the most anticipated game in the universe: Starcraft 2. Tensions are running high as fans hit back against the recent (and somewhat predicted) delay of the new Starcraft game.

Comments are littering Starcraft 2 fan sites all over the internet as the news-well has run dry and frustrations reach boiling point. We have been loyal fans for decades now, patiently waiting the arrival of Wings of Liberty, but we are not even treated to a projected date in 2010.

Fans are not happy at this absence of release news. There have been calls to ‘fight back’ against the emotional tyranny that Blizzard holds against us. We sit day after day and still no news comes of anything – not the release date, not the beta release date.

The Starcraft 2 community is becoming disillusioned with the whole situation. We want the game and we want it now – even if it is only the beta version. All that we can do now here at Starcraft2Mania is wait, and hope that one day soon we will hear some good news!

As if Blizzcon wasn’t enough of a tease!

StarCraft 2 was voted “Best of gamescon 2009” this August in Cologne, Germany. It premiered its new single player mode StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty and it proved to be a great success with fans – as if there was any doubt.

The largest European fair for interactive games and entertainment was a bigger sensation than usual this year. From the Thursday the 20th to the Sunday the 23rd of August, 245 000 people from 31 countries visited gamescon. It broke all previous records.

The blizzard booth was packed on all four days as fans enjoyed the StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 demos. For many people this was their first crack at the games and it gave those following the progress a chance to see how the game had developed. The convention was exciting as predicted and gave thrilled fans numerous chances to win coveted prizes.

American die-hard StarCraft fans that couldn’t make it to Germany for gamescon attended BlizzCon 2009 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. It was a weekend full of gaming, tournaments, discussion panels, competitions and much more.

Further still, Blizzard enthusiasts who weren’t lucky enough to make it to the sold-out event could also catch the action through live internet stream with the purchase of a Virtual Ticket.

The event was successfully distributed to over 100 countries. BlizzCon 2009 opened of Friday the 21st and concluded on Saturday with none other than the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne.

Gamescon and BlizzCon 2009 proved to be unforgettable events for all those that attended. For those that didn’t, I don’t need to tell you that you missed out on the gaming community’s highlight of the year.

The recent Blizzcon Gaming Convention in Anaheim, California drew crowds from all over the world, with one of the biggest highlights being the superb array of costumes that fans wore to the event.

The Starcraft gaming fraternity made waves in the costume display, while a number of dedicated fans made it into the preliminary rounds of the grand costume contest. The evening featured a mix of style and playfulness as comedian Jay Mohr hosted the costume, dance, and sound-alike contests.

Costume contestants wandered around all day allowing the crowds to get a glimpse of their over-the-top attire. When the time came for the jam-packed costume contest to begin, the dozens of entries were narrowed down to determine the overall winners.

In the final stages, Sartharion, Kel’Thuzad, and Mistress of Pain imitators took to the stage to parade their theatrical garb. Representing the Starcraft franchise were appearances made by Jim Raynor and a group of Terran marines – all of whom made an impressive effort in the costume department.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to claim the top spots, which were ultimately usurped by World of Warcraft and Diablo contenders. The top three finalists included the towering Kel’Thuzad, a human paladin – both from World of Warcraft fame – and an uncanny Mistress of Pain impersonator, whose spidery costume ensemble won her the winning position.

The effort made by all costume contestants is commendable, especially with regards to the heavier costumes that were lugged around for hours on end. It all demonstrates the utter dedication these fans have to their gaming pastime and their favourite virtual characters.

Even though not every costume enthusiast could claim first prize in the contest, the 25 000 convention attendees were still enthralled by the life-size Blizzard Entertainment characters traipsing around.

The event that took place on the 21st and 22nd August 2009 marked the 4th Blizzcon convention of its kind, and the costume contest was generously sponsored by Alienware and Intel. The occasion also served as an enjoyable gathering for Starcraft fans who are anxiously awaiting the imminent release of the game’s sequel, Starcraft 2, later this year.

This years epic mention goes to the WoW dragon:

What a Legend!

Blizzcon is the gaming event of the year, attracting Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft 2 fans by the thousands. Compared to last year, Blizzard was sufficiently prepared to deal with the surge of fans competing for tickets on their servers. An additional 5 000 tickets were released in comparison to the 15 000 allotted for last year’s event, and a queue was set up to prevent the servers from crashing. The tickets were sold out in less than a minute, reaffirming the enormous popularity of Blizzcon within the gaming community.

True to form, Blizzard’s gaming presentations and the array of interesting costumes worn by fans made for an exciting weekend. Interviews with Blizzard staff stimulated some interesting points of discussion amongst Starcraft 2 fans, especially the comments that addressed Blizzard’s controversial decision not to include offline local area network play in the sequel.

Blizzard’s decision not to include LAN in Starcraft 2 has been the cause of mutinous outcry and numerous petitions within the gaming community. Executive Vice President of game design Rob Pardo addressed questions concerning the lack of LAN. Pardo insists it’s not a big deal, stating that he believes people won’t really notice that the LAN feature is missing when the game comes out.

Battle.net is being presented as the answer to multiplayer concerns. The Blizzard staff members have said that this will prevent piracy and give gamers a better quality multiplayer experience. At Blizzcon, Pardo brushed off the uncertainties of some who claim they won’t have access to the internet, saying that these cases are very rare. He also made mention of the fact that a few legitimate cases for LAN were being considered, like location-based tournaments.

We still believe that the decision to not include LAN in Starcraft 2 is a bad one. It would’ve been great if Blizzard could have found another way to address piracy concerns. Hopefully Battle.net will include features that are able to replicate or emulate the LAN-option.

One great piece of Starcraft 2 news to come out of Blizzcon is the fact that it will let modders create and sell their custom maps. Rob Pardo said that mod-makers will be given the opportunity to sell their maps via an official marketplace which is under active development at Blizzard. This has come after the measurable impact that mods like Defense of the Ancients have had on the game industry.

As yet, there is no indication of when the paid marketplace will come into being. The release date of Starcraft 2 has recently been pushed back again to sometime in 2010, but Pardo said that Blizzard wants to give prospective designers a heads-up so that they can prepare to create some awesome maps.

In addition to the comments made concerning LAN and the prospects for modders, some cool new screenshots were revealed. Blizzcon also saw the Blizzard CEO provide confirmation that the beta will happen sometime this year, giving us some hands on time to look forward to – if we are lucky.

The weekend of August 21st and 22nd is almost upon us, and this means that there will be a lot of happy Starcraft 2 fans filing into Blizzcon 2009 looking for their gaming fix.

After the disappointing delay of Wings of Liberty recently the sneaks peaks, previews and tournaments are a welcome pick me up for any attending fan. For the rest of us, well at least a flood of extra information will be available after the weekend!

Blizzcon this year concentrates on Blizzards new masterpieces: World of Warcraft 3, Diablo 3 and of course Starcraft 2. The days will be packed with gaming discussion, artistic displays, vicious tournament battles and contests.

Starcraft 2 in particular will be discussed in detail, everything from lore, gameplay and battle.net to new cinematic releases. The lucky fans who attend Blizzcon 2009 will get to see Ozzy Osbourne live as well as collect their limited edition goody bags filled with awesome Blizzard merchandise.

See the official Blizzcon website for more details.

Hell it’s STILL about time

It happened as many online gamers predicted – Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty has been delayed until early 2010 next year. We knew the beta would take months, and that the game wouldn’t be released at all before Blizzard was 100% sure it was ready. Now the hard truth comes to light – it’s old faithful Battle.net that is causing the delay.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of gaming giant Activision has confirmed that Starcraft 2 will be out early next year, but until then fans are just going to have to bite the bullet and prepare for another half a year or so of waiting.

Waiting…waiting…waiting…waiting…

This is a blow to the gaming community who have been calling for the release date since early 2008. The fact that we still don’t have a concrete date is disappointing; if we had one at least then we could look forward to something. Not knowing if we’ll even see the game next year again is maddening!

Considering the fact that the Starcraft 2 beta tests will run for at least 6 months and that Battle.net requires apparent tweaks and fixes in order to effectively run the new game on their servers – we are looking, optimistically, at a release date of April if everything goes to plan. If things go well it could be sooner but not by much.

I am ashamed to admit it but, I am not a good little game geek. You see, I really wanted to attend Blizzcon 2009 and mingle with all the other gaming fans. I wanted to stay awake all night ingesting alcohol, mountain dew, or maybe even coffee and playing, discussing, or otherwise immerse myself in the Blizzard games. I wanted to see who had the absolute worst taste in clothing, games, or hairstyles, as well as who was the most socially inept of the big names in Blizz gaming. I also really wanted any goodies that Blizzard would be giving out.

Oh yeah and I had harbored secret hope that if we haven’t gotten any news on the Starcraft 2 beta by August 21st that the convention would be the perfect opportunity for them to give it up, not to mention (super secret hope) maybe some random Starcraft 2 beta keys might drop for those of us not lucky enough to be assured a place in beta testing, right? Well, that’s what I hoped for and maybe what I planned, but what happened was way different.

For instance, I had to have my car repaired, my dog got sick, my computer needed a new hard drive and so I put off registering for the convention for a while. Not good. As you fellow Starcraft 2 gamer fans probably already know, the first batch of tickets went faster than a plateful of cookies at a weight watchers convention. No worries, the gnomes or maybe its Zerg drones they use at Blizzard were whipping up a second batch of these tickets for those who missed the first. The second batch sold out even faster than the first. So that left me out of luck along with many other gamers whose deepest desire of the moment was attending Blizzcon 2009.

Oh, no worries they had more up their sleeves. Though the gnomes and drones had gone on strike and refused to put out more tickets for the Blizzcon 2009, Blizzard offered another option for the convention deprived among us. I mean after all, who wants to go in person, mingle with other gamers and look over the shoulders of people lucky enough to be playing Starcraft 2? Yeah, well maybe us, but they offered the first ever live internet stream and a Direct TV stream of the convention.

So that is where I will be on August 21st and 22nd, watching the live internet stream and drooling over the Blizzard goodies. Then I will blogging my little heart out about anything they let drop about Starcraft 2! I even have two computers for that purpose, the laptop for taking notes, and yeah baby, the main pc for watching that puppy. Now, those of you who have attended these conventions before know they always unveil something special. It’s an orgy of visual spectacles, interviews, and always some sort of special news too.

Not to be too gloomy about missing Blizzcon 2009 in person, I have found a few bright spots about watching it from my computer. For instance, my feet will thank me because those lines are ferociously long and the floor is really hard, as so many fans line up and then wait and wait and wait some more for this attraction or that. Yeah my feet will be happy and I will be at the front of any line and with a great view too! You can be sure I will be glued to my computer screen through every moment of the Starcraft 2 development, lore, and game play discussions planned, and we viewers of the live internet stream are also promised some exclusive interviews and discussions. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us. For us watching via the live internet stream it will be an 8 hour gamer orgy without the hangover and noise.

My secret hope there is that the special news will be the Starcraft 2 beta release date, and maybe even the Starcraft 2 release date. However, I would be even happier if they firmed up the Starcraft 2 release date prior to Blizzcon 2009 and started the Starcraft 2 beta (and of course gave me a key). Come on Blizzard, every beta test needs a control group (substitute the term; hopelessly mediocre strategy gamer who still likes to play, for the term control group).

Oh yeah, did I mention that with the live internet stream we also will be getting a murloc? Right, well let’s hope the news makes up for that murloc mmmghl factor – well at least he is a marine. I am sure this Warcraft in-game pet will effectively fend off any spaceship attacking the player by firing his tiny gun into the air.

News regarding the Starcraft 2 release date has been pretty thin lately, as if I were telling you something you didn’t know. So, I spent a few hours here, and a few hours there on the internet watching/reading people arguing with each other about the silliest details of the Starcraft game.

For instance a serious pair of fans were arguing about the Nydus worm, and since they have teeth whether or not they should be allowed combat unit status. I can only assume that they were saying that it should be allowed to bite passersby. You know, that’s a visual I did not need. I can only hope that Blizzard wasn’t listening.

Oh yes, there was the lovely conversation I stumbled upon as to what Kerrigan and Jim Raynor’s babies might look like given her current state. Again, this was a visual I did not need. Sarah Louise Kerrigan is my heroine, and she is ranked as one of the 50 greatest female videogame characters of all time, even if she is infested by Zerg DNA and intent upon becoming leader of the swarm.

Oh wait, it gets even better. Some guy was proposing that the little fish swimming around with the Protoss unit could actually be critical to its survival. My bet is that it just took a wrong turn. One can only hope he was not serious.

Now, I’m not saying that there’s any real big hurry – wait, oh yes I am. I am saying that if this current drought in news about the Starcraft 2 release date continues we may be subjected to discussions as to “The secret powers of the goldfish swimming around in the Protoss tank that is a love child of a Protoss and Sara Louise Kerrigan”. I’m not sure I could survive that.

One of the perks of writing about a game you enjoy, or hope to enjoy, like Starcraft 2 is when you find something incredibly funny you can share it. Well I did, and here it is. Now remember, this is completely not serious, though I suspect the person that posted the question might have been.

Now, I won’t post the whole “supposed” conversation or instant message from this unknown person, however, they were supposed to be visiting blizzard headquarters and being wooed by them. In the process this unknown person was supposedly given a beta key for Starcraft 2. As well as being let in on the secret that certain press and of course friends and family, bowling buddies, the neighborhood block watch, and an entire class of 6th graders, had been given keys already for the Starcraft 2 Beta. Yeah, right.

Now I know the good game developers, artists, and story writers are in high demand everywhere including at Blizzard, but I have a hard time swallowing the idea that any would be employee would be let in on anything top secret.

Okay, let me say it again, before you go rushing off trying to find somebody with the top super secret ultra hidden “Friends and Family beta key for Starcraft 2.” I’m sorry it’s just not happening folks. I knew this even before I read the official Blizzard response to this newest rumor.

It’s not that I doubt that certain people will be guaranteed keys to the Starcraft 2 Beta when it does indeed come. Blizzard will want media, there will be a core group of pro-gamers, and perhaps a short list of other persons. However, a secret “Friends and Family” beta just doesn’t fit in with the corporate image, or even the moneygrubbing corporation image people have been trying to foster since the plans for Starcraft 2 trilogy announcement. It doesn’t make economic sense.

Friends and family are all well and good, but if you ask me the game developer’s friends and family are probably going to be like the old story of the shoemaker’s kids – shoeless. Or in this case gameless. There are no doubt perks for working for a game company, but when it’s a corporation centered upon efficiency, quality and story line, as well as keeping a secret as well as blizzard seems to – well, special status is probably not in the cards for even developer’s families, golfing buddies, or the annoying media who keep asking –“When!”

So I urge you when the next rumor comes out where perhaps an unnamed, freckle faced, sixth grader is quoted as saying that his dad was a game developer and he had just gotten done playing the entire trilogy for Starcraft 2, don’t believe it.

It’s a pity really; that there is no super secret “Friends and Family Starcraft 2 beta”, because I was considering traveling to Blizzard HQ and claiming to be Kerrigan’s second cousin three times removed by marriage. With a couple of banelings in tow I would have calmly threatened to explode if someone did not give me a key. Oh well.