Blizzard has attended the E3 event, but unfortunately, unlike other developers, they haven’t released a lot of new information. Of course, other developers don’t have their own event in 3 weeks! Blizzcon is where we’ll be seeing more exciting StarCraft 2 news and information.

For now, we have some news from Gamespot’s E3 coverage. First, an interview with Rob Pardo, vice president of game design, which yields some interesting answers. Here are the important bits:

Pardo explains that the studio is in a “heavy design phase,” where different units are being designed, redesigned, and merged on a regular basis. The executive also suggests that not all of the units that have been shared with the public will make it into the final game–many will be scrapped or have their abilities combined with others to create final units.

Other units include the tempest, a flying troop transport with an underside energy shield that protects against ground-to-air fire, but leaves the unit vulnerable to air-to-air attacks, and the return of the dark templar (which still has stealth abilities) and the high templar (which still possesses the devastating psi-storm ability) units. As before, templars can be merged to form archons, known as twilight archons in Starcraft II, which act as exceptionally powerful infantry units. Note that while all these units sound promising and offer intriguing new strategies, none of them are final. A completely different set of units may end up in the final game.

A flying troop transport? That’s the first time we’ve heard this. Seems a bit counterintuitive to what we know about the Tempest so far, from the leaked PC Gamer video. I have a feeling the next StarCraft2.com update will feature the Tempest, so we’ll know better soon.

Lastly, 3 new screenshots have been released, showing heavy battles between the 3 factions.

1 Comment to “E3 News: Rob Pardo Interview, Screenshots”

1. TerranAmbassador — July 12, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
   

   Firstly, major kudos for this site. I get the majority of my SC2 gossip here!!!

   Anyone notice some really cool things about those screenies?

   First Shot (from the left):
   This one is definitely not as interesting, but notice the colors of the pylons, and energy fields? Now they are yellow…

   Second Shot:
   What is that building I keep seeing that looks like a Barracks at the top left corner? Also, it has that mysterious addon that has been talked about before. It looks like it may be a Factory from what I gather, since it has big ramps for what seem to be Vehicles.
   The Barracks ALSO has an addon!!! Maybe it replaces the Academy? We also get another shot at the gold minerals too.

   Third Shot:
   This one seems like the motherload!!!
   Notice the new Terran unit taking fire from a Protoss Soul Hunter??? There seems to be another one underneath the big spray of blood, by the tank in the middle. New Terran unit! Sweet!
   Also, what are those other types of Protoss that seem to be doing Melee damage to the Terrans? They look like they might just be Protoss / Zerg Hybrids!!! The energy blades look like claws! Maybe I’m wrong, but they don’t look like the other units though!!!
   Also, check out the new Protoss Buildings. I wonder that building is, that they need 2 of them?

   Again, thanks for the hard work on this site. Really great stuff!