This year, we attended both the US and EURO press conferences for StarCraft 2 at Blizzcon. This post includes HD footage from the US conference, as well as other juicy details.

Chris Sigaty rockin

In this video, we sit down, among with other SC2 fansites, with Chris Sigaty to get some insight on some of the latest SC 2 topics. While some questions were better than others, overall it was a great Q&A session. Here is our wrap-up of the US press conference:

StarCraft 2 Replays:

A new feature called Bookmarkswill be implemented into the replay functionality of StarCraft 2. There will be both standard and user customizable bookmark functionalities.

For example, there may be automatic bookmarks set at every 5 or 10 minute mark. This would allow the user to quick jump throughout the replay without have to spend time fast forwarding. Very similiar to the difference between DVD and Tapes.

With user customizable bookmarks, the replay author could set bookmarks at particular battles and other points of interest.

Technical Aspects:

There will be true support for multi-core processors. This will allow the game to take advantage of the extra processing power from new generation multi-core processes, like the duel and quad core processors.

Truesupport for 64-bit systems will not be available for Wings of Libery. However, you will still be able to play StarCraft 2 on your 64-bit system, it just will not be true 64-bit gameplay. Wings of Libery is being coded ontop of a 32-bit engine. Later releases may offer true 64-bit support.

StarCraft Trilogy’s Impact on Online Play:

Additional Trilogy games will “enhance” and add-to the multiplay environment. The way it was described was very similiar to an expansion pack. So expect additional units, abilities, maps, etc to be added into the mulitplayer environment. However, details are sparse on how three seperate StarCraft 2 games will interact online. For example, will you be able to choose between all three as with StarCraft and Broodwar?

Race Gameplay Tutorials:

Outside of the campaign, there will be resources for players to learn on the gameplay aspect of each race. Details are skim, but we expect some sort of custom map training mission pack with each race.

New Map Editor:

There will be online resources available to map authors in order to easily get up and running with the new editor. In addition, there will be a beta process for the map editor, to ensure that it is just as ready as the main game at launch.

A scripting language will be available for the new SC2 Map Editor. In addition, XML will be supported.

Battle.net 2.0:

Updated match making system similiar to WarCraft III. Geo-location will be a factor in order to help reduce latency. While details are scarce, “community” and “social” improvements will be implemented to help gamers find like-minded players to game with.

eSport:

Easy capability for eSport management companies to host games and tournaments. A focus on additional awareness of eSport games, with possible audience modes for official eSport matches.