StarCraft II

Another indication that StarCraft II is still some way off: there is a lot about the game that's still under wraps. The game's basis - the units, the races, the unmistakeable multiplayer - has now been laid bare, and there is nothing in it to shock or perturb fans, or even surprise them much. On the face of it, StarCraft II seems to be preaching to the converted and ignoring the rest. But to think that would be to underestimate Blizzard, and to ignore the huge gaps in what's been said and shown.

Firstly, the single-player campaign, of which there was a tantalising glimpse at BlizzCon last year, but which is still shrouded in mystery. An elaborate and gorgeous front-end was demonstrated, showing Terran characters aboard their flagship, and we were promised a non-linear storyline, dialogue trees, and flexible tech development. It seemed a fascinating introduction of elements from the likes of Bioware RPGs and even point-and-click adventures to this otherwise straight-down-the-line action RTS, but there's no word on how the non-linear storytelling will work, or how the Protoss and Zerg races will factor into it. Sigaty is tight-lipped, but says it's intended to satisfy those who are disappointed by the lack of change in the game's core mechanics.

"It's definitely a departure and it was a conscious decision to make single-player very different from what we'd done before. Really the main reason is, because of what we're deciding to do with the core multiplayer game, let's innovate and be different in the single-player campaign."

Yet more significant, and more secret, are the plans for the revamped Battle.net multiplayer portal that will launch alongside StarCraft II. Blizzard has been hinting from the start that it has big plans for this, centred on a push to bring the game's tremendous pro-gaming success in Korea to a wider, worldwide audience.

"We're not really prepared to talk about the specifics of Battle.net right now," stonewalls Sigaty - but then he relents a little. "Three things - the core multiplayer game and Battle.net ultimately being the glue of that, combined with our interest in the multiplayer community and general, and then eSports - those are the things that we'll be focusing on in Battle.net. In a few months you'll have specific information on what that means, but certainly you can start to draw conclusions about how we're going to bring eSports to people that aren't even aware that it exists." He specifically mentions "the new level of gamer" - the Guitar Hero-loving, semi-casual player.

StarCraft is in many ways the ultimate hardcore RTS, so the idea of bringing it - and not just the game itself, but the bewildering, physically staggering world of high-end professional StarCraft II competition - to the masses seems far-fetched. Or does it? StarCraft is a nationally popular sport with TV coverage in South Korea, after all. Would a slick gaming social network, loaded with stats analysis, news, player profiles, a good spectator mode and broadcasts of high-level matches change things for the rest of the world? It might. Only time will tell if that's what Blizzard has in store, but it's worth remembering that this company doesn't do things by halves - and thanks to World of Warcraft, it now has more experience in social gaming than practically anyone.

Blizzard fully intends to have and eat its cake with StarCraft II. It's already clear from our hands-on session that it's making a finely-tuned, exciting, but fundamentally conservative new version of an established classic, playing firmly into the hands of its rabid fanbase. But it also has sweeping, strategically interesting plans for the single-player campaign and Battle.net portal that mean this staunchly traditional game could still shake things up. Without knowing those plans in detail, it's impossible to say whether it will achieve that, but going by Blizzard's track record, only a fool would bet against it.