Then again, I guess the original StarCraft was released about 10 years ago, but what makes the leap from that game to StarCraft II so jarring is that people still play StarCraft 1 today. I’m still playing through the Brood Wars campaign right now, so when I see the above opening cinematic, I still have those late nineties full motion videos fresh in my mind. It’s pretty amazing how far technology and Blizzard have come. Not only is everything much more detailed, the action is much more exciting to watch. We can’t wait for this game. Yes, you and me and everyone else.

Speaking of which, a few more Starcraft II details were revealed in an interview with Wired’s Game|Life blog. Beyond my own enthusiasm, there are a lot of people out there who feel that splitting the game into three parts is just a blatant scheme for Blizzard to sell more games. While that might be, lead designer Dustin Browder revealed that from a design perspective,

Why make just one game, when you can make three? Seeing as trilogies are all the rage these days, it was announced at Blizzcon 2008 this past weekend that the StarCraft II’s single player campaign will be spread across three separate games, the appropriately named StarCraft II Trilogy. The first game will focus on the Terran story, the second the Zerg, and the third will focus on the Protoss.

"Effectively, each game in the [trilogy] will be an expansion," StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty told Kotaku during a brief interview following the StarCraft II panel. Much like in the case of all of Blizzard’s other franchises, each expansion will include changes and additions to the StarCraft multiplayer as well, except that instead of getting just a few more missions for the same old single player game, StarCraft II’s expansions will be much greater in scope.

Apparently because of the differences among the races, there will be gameplay differences among the three titles as well. For example, as was revealed last year, the Terran’s technological evolution is user controlled through winning encounters and choosing which technologies to research for the next battle. While it would make sense to include this type of gameplay for the other two races as well, Sigaty explained that the Zerg campaign would involve some sort of diplomatic gameplay. Unique aspects of the Protoss campaign were not revealed.

Sounds interesting enough, but I think the best implication of this decision to split the game into three parts is that it’ll probably be that much sooner when we finally get our hands on at least part of the StarCraft II. Namely, the multiplayer, which has been Blizzard’s focus from the start, and is arguably the part most people are most looking forward to anyways. Once we have that, the wait for the Zerg and Protoss parts will be that much less painful.

BlizzCon 2008: StarCraft II Single Player is a Trilogy! [Kotaku]
BlizzCon 2008: StarCraft II Lead Producer On The Split Single Player Campaign [Kotaku]

News! Tuesday, July 10th (Last Update 4:20 PM):

1. USAToday has the first ever in-game screenshots of Killzone 2! Looking pretty good. The background textures seem a bit simplistic and flat, but it might have been done so they could cram in all the effects goodness. The unveiling’s tonight!
2. Square Enix has opened a US branch for their store. Yay for swag!
3. Kotaku’s got highlights from an interview with Jack Tretton talking about a video and other media download service that’s being worked on for the PS3. The news was almost an aside to the announcement of the 80GB PS3, so it kind of got lost yesterday. Other sites guess that the service will probably be mentioned at E3, but not shown.
4. [UPDATE] Trama Center: New Blood is revealed for the Nintendo Wii. Looks about the same, but now there’s two player co-op. All right! When do we get a brow mop attachment for four player action? The new game follows two new characters and features a brand new story. In additon, it’ll also be fully voiced and run at 480p in 16:9 widescreen. Look for this one before year’s end.
5. The Playstation Network was down a little while ago [update: for routine maintenance, says the official blog]. While it has been restored, the Playstation Store is still undergoing some work. Massive updates coming? [UPDATE] Well, the Playstation Store is back up with a little bit more user feedback, ie. the tabs have rollover effects now, and a bit easier navigation with L1 and R1 enabled as back and forward, respectively. Hopefully to allow us to better browse the massive updates tomorrow. Yeah.
6. New units are being featured on the Starcraft II website: the Colossus and the Warp Ray. The site really needs to be seen by oneself, so I’m not going to describe it. While Starcraft II won’t be playable at E3, it will be shown. It’ll be playable for the first time at Blizzcon in August.
7. The news isn’t coming as rapidly yet today, so… news from Smash Bros. Dojo. A new stage from Twilight Princess was revealed this week, in addition to a new supporting character, Dr. Wright, from the Sim City game on SNES. Screenshots of the new stage and Dr. Wright’s supporting attack are below.
8. According to Playstation Universe and confirmed on the Playstation Underground boards, there will be a lot more Killzone 2 screens released in the coming days. What’s more interesting is that there’ll be a Killzone 2 gameplay trailer on the Playstation Store. No word on when, but exciting news nonetheless.
9. A link has emerged via Threespeech to a slightly higher quality version of the Gamer.tv Heavenly Sword feature. It’s the same as the one I have embed at Storpi.com on the right, so it’s worth checking out. Internet Explorer required.
10. IGN’s got a hands-on report on Assassin’s Creed. Click here to read it for yourself.First of all, Assassin’s Creed is an action game that has stealth elements. You character is almost always on the move, and it seems that quick reflexes will be a must. However, there’s no platforming as movement throughout, whether it be climbing walls or bounding across rooftops, is automatic as long you’re holding down the right buttons and tilting the analog stick in a direction that Altair can move in. So if there’s a place to step or a ledge to grab onto, just point the analog stick, hold the buttons and off you go.Fleeing from guards involves only breaking line of sight, either by hiding or blending in with the crowd. The guards are smart though, so once they know you’re around, they’ll be more suspicious of any situations you might precipitate. Animations are fluid and natural looking. In fact, the whole world seems that way as IGN didn’t run into any situations in which they felt limited by the game world. Everywhere they wanted to go, they could go (except indoors). There’s some bugs, but come November, hopefully they’ll be fixed. Watch for this one.
11. New details on GTAIV from Destructoid.com
    

    - The cell you saw in the trailer appears to be a big part of the game. Instead of buying weapons at Ammu-Nation you can call “Little Jakob”, a Caribbean weapons dealer, who will provide you with guns.
    - There is a men’s wear store called “Perseus”
    - The “Tw@ Café” internet Café from GTA III is back. You can surf the Internet from every computer in the game.
    - You will be able to use taxis to get around. You can watch the drive from the ego-perspective or you can skip the whole thing by pressing the proper button.
    - Every crime committed increases the wanted level. As soon as you reach a certain level a search area appears on the radar. If you escape from such an area without being spotted by pedestrians/cops, the wanted level falls back. If you are spotted by a witness, the area changes to the place where you were last spotted.

12. Like Lego Star Wars? Lego Indiana Jones might get announced.
13. The brand new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer will be up on the Playstation Store immediately after the Sony press conference tomorrow morning. Sweet! I think I’ll be using Remote Play tomorrow.

Check back for more updates throughout the day.