Starcraft 2 - FINALLY ANNOUNCED!

YES! Blizzard has finally confirmed that Starcraft 2 will indeed be made. The official website, http://www.starcraft2.com/ has been launched. It will feature the 3 original races: the Protoss, the Terran, and the Zerg. There will be:

Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle
across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival,

with both single-player and multiplayer modes, as expected. Battle.net will return, but with "some exciting new changes and features."

One thing that will be very different is that the second Starcraft will be fully 3-D. Listed under upcoming new features are:

Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes.

This is both exciting and somewhat troubling. By 3-D, I hope they mean 3 actual axis, not just the occassional ledge that gives you some height advantage. I'd imagine that the terrain would be much more complicated to fully implement 3-D battles. I doubt air units will be able to fly at different altitudes, so the next best thing will be rolling hills and other landscape features. Hopefully, Blizzard will still focus primarily on gameplay and balance issues, not just graphics. It would be a shame if Starcraft 2 is unable to live up to its name.

From what I can gather from the FAQ, there will still be only the 3 original races. There has been no word of a new race, but the 3 existing ones will all receive new units as well as modifications to pre-existing units. So far, there have been 3 new Protoss units announced: the Immortal, Stalker, and Phase Prism.

The Immortals will be the new version of the Dragoon. It's unit description is:

The remaining dragoons have become the immortals, refitted with twin phase disruptors and hardened energy shields that can shrug off the most powerful weapon strikes - though at the cost of leaving them more vulnerable to the pinprick attacks of lesser foes. The heavily armed and shielded immortals give critical fire support to the ferocious legions of zealots by eliminating enemy artillery and ranged attackers, allowing the zealots to close in and complete their work of destruction.

In short, they are Dragoons with twice the firepower, and big shields. They're probably meant to counter the Terran Tank, since the Protoss lacked any real siege units in the first Starcraft. They only had Reavers, which were decent when used in conjuction with Shuttles, but were still no match for Tanks. The Immortals will have big shields to counter the Tank damage, but it appears that these shields will be ineffective against small melee units such as Zerglings and Zealots.

The Protoss will also get Stalkers, which look like mechanical Zerglings, but act more like mechanical Hydralisks. That can teleport. Stalkers will have

the ability to instantly teleport or 'blink' from one spot to another. ... The deadly particle disruptors mounted on the stalker's carapace are equally adept at crippling targets on the ground or in the air.

The only teleporting in the first Starcraft came in the form of Arbiters. This will make it interesting because Stalkers will be able to get around choke points, as well as attack a base from the back and go straight for the workers. I doubt they'd be too strong, or they might be very expensive to build; otherwise I'd see a lot of cheesing with these. It also depends on the range and speed of the teleporting.

The last unit revealed at this time is the Phase Prism. More teleporting! It seems that the function of the Phase Prism is to field units quickly. Units spawning from a gateway will appear at the location of the Phase Prism instead of outside the gateway. I can already see many sneaky tactics that can center around the Phase Prism. A Phase Prism can fly into the rear of a base just outside of the enemy players view, and slowly teleport units over until a good sized force is there. Or, they can be used to assault small islands that only have anti-air defenses. Missle turrets don't work very well against zealots. Phase Prisms can also serve as mobile pylons. They are able to deploy themselves and power cannons and buildings. I don't see this as being incredibly useful, but if Phase Prisms are relatively easy to be built, they may be used in photo cannon rushes, another cheesy tactic.

The big question on everyone's mind: When will Starcraft 2 be released? Unfortunately, they have not released a date, but rest assured, I will be first in line to buy it, not to mention beta test for it.

I'll leave you guys with a few screen shots from the game, which I'm sure most of you have seen.