Get a look at the single player campaign in one of the most anticipated games out there, StarCraft 2, Wings of Liberty.

If you haven’t heard yet, Rob Pardo, Senior VP of Game Design at Blizzard, has confirmed that Starcraft II will not support LAN play. Yeah, you heard that right. Even though LAN play has been the pillar upon which Starcraft stood for years, it won’t be included in the sequel.

In an interview with Inc Gamers, Pardo said, “we don’t have any plans to support LAN.” When asked directly for clarification, he said, “We will not support it.” Furthermore, in a follow up with Blizzard, they were told that the exclusion of LAN play, “is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into Battle.net,” a topic they will reveal more about at a later date.

As you can well imagine, the Starcraft community isn’t happy. Starcraft II has already received its share of attention, once it was revealed that it would be released in three parts. Blizzard has assured gamers that each parts of the release will be a full-fledged game, and the furor has died down. Unfortunately, Blizzard is now in the center of a storm again, and this time it’s LAN gamers stirring things up.

UPDATE: A new statement from Blizzard appears after the break.

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Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym confirmed that the company’s unannounced MMO project is based on a new IP  which has nothing to do with World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, or Diablo III.

Zarhym’s comment is part of an answer to a thread on the WoW forums that accuses Blizzard of laying aside future expansions for the popular MMO. He answers the challenge and gives an explanation of how the development process works in response to the thread “Blizzard going the way of SOE?”

Quote:
“I’ve heard that they are focusing on other projects. If this is true you can expect more of this, and less customer service/content. At this point they can just sit back and add some new arena/pvp gear every4-6 months and that’s it.”

Zarhym:
“This a common misconception. Such a misconception requires nothing but assumptions and misinformation to hold water. We have completely independent art and development teams for each project on which Blizzard Entertainment is working. Sure, people switch positions and may move to other projects from time to time. This is common practice in any company, whether or not the company develops games. But if a position is vacated, it is filled. You may have seen earlier this year that Jeff Kaplan, former game director for World of Warcraft, announced he would be leaving his position to begin work on the new, unannounced MMO. Tom Chilton stepped up to fill his role on the World of Warcraft development team. We’re never short on talent and our teams are constantly growing. There’s absolutely no reason or evidence to support the theory that we’ve shifted focus away from the Warcraft franchise. I’m surrounded by employees in this building working hard every day that can attest to this, were they not too busy working on a prioritized list of new content for this game to speak directly. ”

The Poster goes on to insinuate that there can’t be a new MMO because it hasn’t been advertised yet.
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WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne is debuting as the official game for World Cyber Games 2009. Gamers will battle one-on-one for the world of Azeroth in this real time strategy. WCG has announced the official tournament rules and regulations including changes for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Starcraft: Brood War, TrackMania Nations Forever, and FIFA ‘09. This year’s Grand Final is scheduled for November 11-15, in Chengdu, China.
This year’s full lineup is listed in official press release following the break.

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PC gamers have a chance to try out the new sci-fi city builder and simulator Light of Altair with a free demo. This offering from SaintXi gives players the chance to create an empire as they explore space, building colonies to expand their territory and power base. Light of Altair also offers a rich backstory for those who want more from their sims.

The custom 3D engine and advanced shader technology allow for richly detailed graphics and lighting as you zoom from your galactic view to individual colonies. The UI reminds me a little of SimCity Societies, although looks can be deceiving.

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Without question, one of the most anticipated games of 2009 is Starcraft 2. Blizzard’s popular RTS series caused quite a stir late last year when it was announced that the game would be released in three installments, one for each of the three player factions.

Whether you found that news annoying, exciting, or neither, you have to admit that you are stoked about the chance to play Starcraft 2. Well, now you may get a chance to earlier than you think.

Blizzard has opened up beta testing signups for Starcraft 2. If you’re interested in joining in, you’ll need to head over to Battle.net’s beta profile page and get your sign up on. You know you want to.

I would like to remind everyone of the point of a beta test. It’s to find bugs, report them to the developer, and help make the retail release a better product. It’s not simply a chance to demo the game early. So please, don’t look at this as a demo. Look at it as your chance to improve a game that millions of people will be playing.

Regardless, this isn’t an opportunity to pass up. Go sign up today!

If you need a little refresher, you can find a couple of trailers right after the break.

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I talk weekly about the convergence of pen-and-paper gaming with the digital game space of video games but today I get to announce a convergence going in the opposite direction.. Green Ronin, publishers of the popular Mutants & Masterminds, True 20 and the current publisher of The Song of Ice and Fire RPG just announced that they will be taking the world of BioWare’s forthcoming Dragon Age: Origins and converting it into a traditional RPG.

Dragon Age, often referred to in hype releases as “the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate” (BioWare’s original Fantasy RPG based upon the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms settings), will be getting a “box set” release in the summer meant to introduce both the world of Thedas (Dragon Age’s setting) and the concepts of traditional role playing to video game fans.

“We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age’s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way—a perfect complement to the landmark game we’re launching on PC, Xbox 360, and PLAYSTATION 3 this fall,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, General Manager and CEO, BioWare and General Manager and Vice President, EA. “Our development teams craft rich, deep worlds, and this is an excellent way to expand the franchise.”

This is not the first RPG setting to make the transition from video game to paper – previously Everquest, Diablo, Starcraft and World of Warcraft have gotten a conversion to traditional RPG products at Wizards of the Coast and with White-Wolf’s Sword and Sorcery imprint. While none of those settings are still in active development this is the first time I can recall that an in-development video game property is getting a tabletop treatment before its even been released.

Who knows, maybe if Dragon Age grabs its audience Green Ronin and BioWare can negotiate to bring Mass Effect to pen-and-paper RPGs as well. I’d be first in line for a game based on that setting. Dragon Age feel like more of the same Tolkien derivative fantasy at this point unfortunately. You can read the full details of the press release after the jump.

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Over in the U.S., we’re more used to hearing stories of the government trying to censor video games. So hearing a story about Korea planning to pump billions of dollars into the industry seems like quite a feat, but that’s exactly what they’re planning. In a recent meeting, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minster, Yu In-chon, stated that the game industry had proved itself effectively as a future growth engine by reaching it’s export goal two years in advance. Therefore, the Minister has proposed a US$200 billion fund through 2012 for the games industry in order establish Korea as one of the world’s top video gaming countries, alongside the U.S. and Japan. Korea also hopes to expand its exports in that area to around 5 trillion won (about US$3.3 trillion) per year.

I’m actually surprised it took them this long to see video games were a good market for them to invest in. When your country starts televising Starcraft competitions and literally setting up compounds for gamers to train, that’s probably a sign that you should be paying attention to something.

Blizzard has sent us an update for StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War. Want the patch details? Well, look no further because here they are:

StarCraft Patch 1.16

Feature Changes: In-game chat is now saved in replays. Note: whispers are not saved. Hitting the Escape key while in the chat room will clear your typed text. “/reply” (or just “/r”) will send a whisper to person who most recently whispered you.

Bug Fixes: Fixed localization issues with “from” and “to” in whispers. Starcraft now only uses as much CPU as it needs to run smoothly.

Exploits

• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to gain minerals through mutations.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to recycle an upgrading building.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to extend their creep with a drone.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Zerg players to move Drones over impassable terrain.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed Terran players to drop a nuke anywhere on the map.
• Fixed an exploit which allowed players to pause the game while in the pre-game lobby.

StarCraft: Brood War Patch 1.16 notes are exactly the same. Hit whichever badge that you need to update your game.

Gamers were outraged when they heard that StarCraft 2 would be coming in three different parts. Blizzard had claimed it wouldn’t let the merger between Activision and Blizzard parent company Vivendi impact the way it did business. But the move reeked of the type of thingthat would fit right in with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent comments that the company want their games to be exploitable. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Blizzard COO Paul Sams vehemently denies that StarCraft 2 is being milked.

Speaking with VideoGamer.com today before a midnight launch of Wrath of the Lich King in London today, he said:

The fact of the matter is, it’s absolutely, positively untrue about us trying to stretch it out and milk it. People think that it was a monetary driven decision. I can absolutely, positively tell you, with 100 per cent certainty, that that was not part of the conversation. I guarantee it. I give my word. There was never, ever a conversation where we said, ‘let’s do this because we’re going to make more money’. I guarantee it. As a matter of fact the sole reason we did it was because we thought it was going to be a better experience. Anybody that says otherwise is not correct. It is absolutely not what we did it for.

Sims’ denial is more passionate than the usual corporate line we get, so maybe it’ll be enough to convince fans that Blizzard truly is doing this to deliver the best game is possible.

But we doubt it.