When the sequel was first announced, many players of the original met the news with excited apprehension – would their beloved StarCraft have the same magic as the first? Would there be too many changes as to render the sequel unidentifiable from the first? Where would they take one of the most amazing Real Time Strategy games in history?

The good news for the purists: StarCraft II is an updated version with new units, graphics, maps, and buildings. It’s a bit confusing at first – you recognize some of the buildings and the names, but many things have been upgraded! You can now queue multiple units (finally!) and certain annoying things have been remedied (different waypoints for your drones versus your units as a zerg – seriously, who liked seeing zerglings among their drones?).

Graphics are a HUGE upgrade and very noticeable from the first time you log in. The updated interface is still being worked on, but it is pretty, accessible, and will offer a variety of information. But the best part is what’s in game. While the terran are still mostly the same and the Protoss definitely received an upgrade, it is by FAR the Zerg who received the biggest changes… and it’s a bit creepy and disgusting. If you like a bit of horror movie with your bugs, go Zerg. You won’t be disappointed! I spent at least a couple of minutes just watching my buildings “grow”.

As much as StarCraft II is similar and in many ways comfortingly like the original, it can also be a bit jarring for those who have spent many years playing the original. Build orders, buildings, and units have changed drastically and have to be relearned (thankfully there’s this neat flow chart that shows you how to tech to specific buildings and units). So if you don’t want to tarnish your battle.net reputation too soon you might want to play against an easy computer.

As always, Blizzard has delivered a solid strong RTS and is continually working on balancing and refining the game for a huge release. And for many gamers who have been looking forward to new battles fought between the three races – this is your game to play!

Just one last question for Blizzard – when do we get to see the Xel’Naga?

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It’s official! Okay, no, it’s not. Blizzard has been teasing the gaming world with its evolving homepage ice picture, and after this latest update, the planets certainly appear to be aligning for the announcement of World of StarCraft, or whatever they decide to call the new Massively Multiplayer Online game set in the StarCraft universe.

The StarCraft MMO has been rumored for a long time. It was reported as a sure thing for a brief moment in time back in May 2007 that it would be unveiled in South Korea at a Blizzard event, but that didn’t happen. Now with the upcoming release of StarCraft 2, what better time to release the StarCraft MMO than when they already got StarCraft on the brain?

Back to the picture, however, we’ve pretty much all decided there was a face there. It was originally suspected to be a Diablo head, indicating Blizzard’s new game was Diablo 3. Now the face, with glowing blue energy eyeballs, most likely is the face of a Protoss.

You can even see the faint glowing diamond between the eyes. Now let’s superimpose these two pictures:

Looks pretty clear to me. If that’s not good enough, take a gander at this:

The rune to the bottom left of the “face” is quite clearly the exact same as the Protoss symbol. Blizzard has already stated that they will be announcing a new game at their Worldwide Invitational, so it’s not just indicating StarCraft II again. They’ve also had job openings listed for “Next-Gen MMO” on their site for a while now. This all seems to point very rigidly in the StarCraft MMO direction, don’tcha think?

UPDATE: Turns out, no. While the flash image turned out to be completely unrelated to StarCraft (or an MMO), Blizzard confirmed that there is a fourth project in the works that is not yet announced, but is apparently the “next-gen MMO”.  I think you can guess what my prediction on that is.

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