Looking for a way to get your Starcraft on? How about Diablo, or Warcraft III? If you don’t feel like rooting through the bottom of your closet to find your old games, head over to Best Buy.com.

Until closing time Saturday, June 16, you can pick up the Diablo Battle Chest (Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo II LoD) or the Warcraft III Battle Chest (Warcraft III, The Frozen Throne) for just $29.99. You can grab the Starcraft Battle Chest (Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood War) for $9.99! That’s right, for less than the cost of last night’s pizza, you can crank up the Zerg invasion again.

I’m not normally a huge Best Buy advocate, but Starcraft for ten bucks is good enough for anyone. Enjoy!

This edition of the Blizzard Insider features an interview with Nick Carpenter the company’s Cinematics Creative Director regarding the process of developing the Starcraft II Teaser. Carpenter mentions that his concept for the video – the evolution of a space marine – has been in his thoughts for awhile now.

Nick Carpenter: The idea of turning the creation of a marine into a cinematic has been on my mind ever since we started working on the cinematics for the original StarCraft. When you click on that button to build a marine, what does that mean? Actually showing the marine being built gives us an exciting opportunity to show that in the StarCraft universe, even something that’s normally very mundane can have a truly epic feeling to it.

Carpenter goes on to discuss the building of his team, the process of concept to execution and how technology and storytelling have evolved since the original Starcraft and Brood War cinematics.

Some fans really put some work into this one.

For a flash game, I’d have to say this is brilliant. It’s polished, and though it uses everything from Starcraft from the graphics to the music, it’s like listening to a really great remix of one of your favorite songs.

Except, this song lasts unusually long, and you find yourself wanting to listen to it over and over again until you get to the end. Speaking of which, did anyone else make it past wave 3?

It should be no surprise to anyone that in the wake of Blizzard’s recent announcement of Starcraft 2, the original Starcraft has reappeared on the charts. It’s like getting reacquainted with an old friend. You can’t just start talking about what you’re doing now. You have to spend an hour reminiscing first.

Of course, everyone’s snapping up the Starcraft Battle Chest, since they get the expansions, and since it’s selling for about ten bucks these days. At least it is at EB Games / Gamestop, whose website shows the battle chest at the top of the best seller list. Amazon.com lists the Battle Chest at #19 on their best seller list.

Of course, today’s news that Blizzcon attendees would receive a beta invite for an unnamed upcoming Blizzard game, everyone naturally assumes that game will be Starcraft 2. I almost dread what the line at Blizzcon will be like this year.

An interview recently showed up on the Starcraft 2 website with Nick Carpenter, cinematic creative director for Blizzard. In the interview, he discussed why the team decided to focus on a single marine for the teaser:

“When you click on that button to build a marine, what does that mean? Actually showing the marine being built gives us an exciting opportunity to show that in the StarCraft universe, even something that’s normally very mundane can have a truly epic feeling to it.” Read the full article »

And I thought I would be asking Santa Claus for Starcraft this Christmas. Looks like my wish-list is just going to be the standard pleas for crack again this year.

Yes, Starcraft 2 is not going to reach Korean nor American PCs this year, despite the screenshots showing hopeful progress of the game. Rob Pardo imparts saddened news in this 1-up.com news bit:

“Some people were hoping, because of how advanced the game looks, that we’d have it out by Christmas, but that’s definitely not happening,” Pardo said in the article. This, of course, caused all of us f4nb0yz out there to shed at least two tears.

When is it going to come out, then? “It’ll ship when it’s ready,” he says.

And the wait continues…

MSNBC recently sat down with Blizzard vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, to discuss Starcraft 2: why it took so long, how they kept it a secret, and when it might come out.

As Pardo explains, the reason for the nine-year gap between the first Starcraft’s release and the new one’s announcement was that the development team decided to revisit the Warcraft universe first. That project of course became Warcraft III. The team began work on the Starcraft sequel in 2003, but really didn’t start into full production until a year later. He admits his own surprise at being able to keep the project a secret for so long. They simply used code names for the project and generally kept outsiders away (although Penny Arcade has their own theories). The reason the game is taking so long is because the development team is relatively small, with only 40 people working on it. Also, Blizzard’s strategy tends to focus more on getting out a quality product than hitting a deadline. Read the full article »

Sure the word is out, the hype is beginning to die down and the news cycle is slowing as summer approaches, but for those not glued to the PR channels during the recent Starcraft 2 announcement, real-time strategy site RTSCommunity has gone and compiled all the available information regarding the upcoming Blizzard sequel for you in one place, including some video footage for your convenience. The article is well written and lacks a certain technical tone that has pervaded the other similar round-up’s I’ve read at other places. The analysis isn’t bad either.

Check it out here.

If you’re wondering why Blizzard took the Starcraft 2 announcement to Korea, here’s why. Starcraft is a religion there. This video shows you how serious they take their Starcraft. This is a recent televised match between Starcraft legend SlayerS_’BoxeR’ (real name Lim Yo-Hwan) and Nal_rA (real name Kang Min). Even if you don’t like Starcraft, you should watch some of this just to see what a professionally televised video game match looks like. Again, remember, Starcraft is huge in Korea, and the fans at this match reiterate that point.

If you want to learn how the pros play Starcraft, or if you just need a refresher for the upcoming sequel, this 30-minute vid delivers the goods. Anyone here think they can compete at this level?

Starcraft has some major fans out there (myself included), but this fan takes the cake. Now, there are those who make funny videos, fuzzy coolers, sweaters, dog collars, and the occasional outfit. Check out the origami homage to one of Blizzard’s masterpieces. I don’t even want to know how long this took him.