Here’s the biggest understatement of the day: Starcraft is pretty popular in South Korea. And by “popular,” I mean there are televised competitions, gaming leagues, and people who literally live in compounds where they train all day just to play Starcraft. So what’s the next step for the Koreans’ relationship with Starcraft? How about using it to teach people English? A publisher in Korea has actually published a book titled, “Starcraft English,” which runs through every shred of language in the game to help students understand the English language a bit more. The book explains every phrase spoken by the in-game units, breaks down their names into different parts to explain other words, and even teaches the meaning behind the game’s copyright info.

I guess it makes sense in a way. Since Starcraft was only released in English in Korea, this might be how many people are exposed to the language. Some might argue that random choice phrases from a science fiction game may not provide enough for people to get by in an English-speaking society, but I disagree:

“Hey, man, you want to go grab something to eat?”

“Let’s move!”

“Alright. Oh, man, it’s cold in this car.”

“Wanna turn up the heat?”

“Good idea. What sort of music do you want to listen to?”

“Rock and roll!”

“Sounds good. Okay, do you know what you want to eat?”

“My path is set.”

Sadly, I could continue this sort of conversation for quite some time, but I’ll spare you all.

Via Siliconera

Blizzard has released a minor patch for StarCraft and StarCraft: BroodWar Windows users, updating it to v1.15.2. This patch no longer requires the CD while playing the game, but to be able to play without the CD, you need to adhere to the following:

• Make sure you have “Hide extensions for known types” unchecked under Explorer Folder Options.
• If you own only StarCraft, copy “INSTALL.EXE” from the StarCraft CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to “StarCraft.mpq”.
• If you own StarCraft: Brood War, copy “INSTALL.EXE” from the StarCraft: Brood War CD to your StarCraft folder and rename it to “BroodWar.mpq”.

You can get the patch by clicking on the badge below or by clicking here.

“The commander saw victory in his grasp, the greenskins had been pushed back and he knew the tactical elements of the Imperium would, Emperor willing, capture and rally with the help of the newly arrived Blood Angels. Five units. Five simple units of Cadian Imperial Guard had held against the green horde, the rampaging onslaught of Gretchin and Orks with their bloodlust flowing. Not even a regiment of defenders stood between them and the settlement of Cleric’s Hollow. The Cadian’s had held before the brunt of the overwhelming numbers. Today this bastion of the empire would not succumb. Today, the greenskins had been taught that even trying to take an insignificant clerical outpost would cost them dearly.”

How can you not enjoy a futuristic Gothic fantasy game? Littered with all the conceits of fantasy races, mystic forces and mankind corrupted by alien influences? Warhammer 40,000 (40k) is now a property well known in the PC gaming circles thanks to Relic Entertainment and THQ. A real-time strategy game where players build and command the forces of the Empire in a galactic future. A dark future in fact, where mankind faces constant war against all comers – from the green skin Orks to the mysterious Eldar. Years of backstory go into informing this rich and expansive universe with tomes and tomes of story enlightening gamers about each and every faction in the setting.

Warhammer 40k, and it’s partner series – Warhammer began life as simple fantasy miniature games. Tabletop titles where players purchased and built up massive armies of metal miniatures and simulated squad and even army scale combats using elaborate tables and charts and a couple of dice. While Warhammer might not be the 1st such game of this nature it is probably one of the most universally recognized tabletop wargames available today.

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World of Warcraft and Stratics has announced the winners of WoW Stratics Winter Veil Giveaway. Five forum posters have won entrance to future beta keys for a yet to be announced Blizzard MMO as well as the Blizzcon cards for Murloc suits.

Congrats go to:

• Kellogg
• Muhammed Abdul
• Sharten
• Niamb
• Bellymonster

There’s a lot of speculation as to just what MMO Blizzard is working on. It’s currently believed to be either a Diablo or Starcraft based MMORPG. Personally I don’t care either way, but do any of you have any opinions, guesses or preferences?

via Stratics

This is exactly how rumors get started, but… One sharp-eyed poster at the AltGN forums noticed an interesting question on a quiz at the Microsoft Retail Zone. The quizzes are meant for MS employees to brush up on their electronics retail knowledge, and one surrounding Universe at War included this question:

Which of the following are defining features of Universe at War?

1. The first ever Xbox 360/PC cross-platform RTS
2. Tactical dynamics create the best RTS until Starcraft 2.
3. Truly unique factions and customization
4. Free one-month Games for Windows LIVE Gold subscription
5. All of the above
6. None of the above

Could this be simply bad wording or does someone know something that the rest of us don’t? Guess we’ll have to wait and see, but for now let’s open things up for wild speculation.

Via AltGN

If you can’t wait for Blizzard to release Starcraft 2 and/or are sick and tired of playing the ol’ 2D Starcraft at a tiny 640×480 resolution, here’s something that might raise an eyebrow (or two). The team over at Snowflake Entertainment have been working (for three years) on a Starcraft total conversion using the Warcraft III engine. It seems (as of late) they have put together something they feel is worthy of public release:

Finally! After more than 3 years in development, Snowflake Entertainment (a modding community) has announced that Project Revolution demo is now downloadable. This demo allows you to play Starcraft Terran race in 3D using the Warcraft III Engine. You must have the Starcraft: Brood War and Warcraft III: Frozen Throne CDs installed and updated with the latest patches (All English-version) and load the CDs on your CD-Drive when asked by the installer in order to play this demo. Installation won’t work on non-English versions of the Game CDs. No Mac installer at this time. Windows Vista is not supported.

Project Revolution mod is meant only as a preview of what Snowflake Entertainment has done thus far. It’s not a complete or debugged demo. There are many bugs, and adjustments that will be fixed in the final version of the demo. In this demo, Terran race is around 90% done (lot of bug fixes not implemented). Zerg is very incomplete (60%). The demo offers you a taste of what has been done in the past 3 years, and to show the potential the full mod will have when it is released in the future.

So yeah, it’s an unfinished mod – albeit, a pretty good looking one. However, the chance to play Starcraft at a scalable resolution sounds mighty enticing. With Blizzard being a complete tease with Starcraft 2 media and Starcraft 2’s release date yet to be announced, this might satiate your hunger – at least for a while.

You can download the installer for the mod from the link below. You can also read a checklist of (important) requirements, install instructions, and a brief FAQ after the break. If reading isn’t your thing, here’s a link to an install tutorial as a nifty YouTube video.

Download Project Revolution Demo Installer @ FileFront [127 MB]

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The prestigious Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame has announced that it will be inducting Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime during the D.I.C.E. Summit. He joins the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Peter Molyneux and Will Wright as the 11th inductee.

Morhaime is being honored for his work on the MMO space via some game you might have heard of, World of Warcraft, in addition to the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo games.

“In particular, World of Warcraft has cemented Morhaime’s influence and impact on the multi-billion dollar interactive entertainment industry; it is the world’s largest online game, with more than 9.3 million subscribers.

“Morhaime and Blizzard Entertainment are recognized for creating an MMOG that expanded the traditionally hardcore audience of the genre to also include the broader casual-gaming audience,” the Academy said in a statement.

“This is a great honour, and I’m proud to receive it,” said Morhaime.

“The success that Blizzard Entertainment has had over the years would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of players around the world, and the passion and dedication of our employees, so I thank all of them for contributing to this achievement.”

The award will be presented on February 7, 2008 in Las Vegas.

It probably shouldn’t surprise you too much to find out that Blizzard is working on another MMO. But if you think it’s another World of Warcraft game of any sort, you’re wrong. In response to a thread on the official World of Warcraft forums regarding a fairly old job posting on Blizzard’s website, “Drysc” stated that the posting is separate from the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, and that it doesn’t have anything to do with WoW.

Of course, this isn’t the most official ways to confirm that something is in the works, but it’s not particularly far-fetched to guess that a Starcraft or Diablo MMO might be in the works. Either way, it’s a megaton waiting to happen.
And if it does turn out to be Diablo, I expect to turn into Cartman, leaving my desk only to find Ben-gay.

via Game|Life

Everyone else is talking about the Blizzard / Activision merger, so why not our old friend Adam Sessler? In this week’s edition of Sessler’s Soapbox, Adam takes a look at the recent news concerning the merger, and its possible implications on the the industry.

Personally, I agree with Adam that one really good thing to come of this merger is that there is finally a publisher large enough, strong enough, and funded enough to stand toe-to-toe with Electronic Arts. With this sort of competition, EA is bound to take notice, and hopefully refocus to improve the quality of their game offerings.

I have heard a few folks ’round the net say that they fear this merger threatens Blizzard and/or World of Warcraft. Don’t you believe it. With 9.3 million + subscribers, Vivendi isn’t going to do anything to interfere with the workings of its number one cash cow. You can fully expect Blizzard to continue as before, with only a name change to signify that anything happened. To make any more sweeping changes at this juncture would be bad business.

This move actually gives Vivendi a lot of leverage in the gaming market, as they now have some strong ties to every part of it. Activision provides solid, tested console IP’s, and a few PC games (Call of Duty, anyone?). Sierra is working on some new and different IP’s, and Blizzard is, well, Blizzard.

Thanks, G4 TV!

Unfortunately, new info on Starcraft II seems to be few and far between. But, we’ll take what we can get. So a new update on the Starcraft II site has revealed a new structure: the Terran Sensor Tower. It functions pretty much like a Missile Turret from the first game, except with a longer detection range and no defenses of its own. It will allow you to see approaching enemies, even cloaked ones, as small icons before they come into visual range. The drawback to this is you’ll only see how many units are coming, but not what type. So you could have a whole squad of carriers coming in, but all you’ll see are some small red circles. Still, they’re pretty essential for defense, and anyone attacking would want to take them out first. You can also check out some videos of the Sensor Tower in action on the Starcraft II site.

Via Starcraft 2