Are the yellow minerals shown in the trailers harvestable?

Yes, they will be a harvestable high yield resource, meaning each harvest rotation will result in greater mineral quantities than the standard blue minerals. This gives players more strategic choices when trying to evaluate where they wish to expand. Expand to the high yield but risk easier discovery? Or expand to a safer area but earn fewer resources?

Read the rest here. Thanks ShaneVar!

The towering colossus is a protoss robot design dating back to the bloody conflicts of the Kalath Intercession. It strides across the battlefield on four tall, slender legs which give it an extremely high level of mobility. The great height of the machine allows it to step up and down cliffs and other steep elevations with little difficulty, and gives it a dominating field of fire.

Check out the rest here. Thanks Vipersniper!

Go to Battle.net and scroll to the very bottom of the front page. In the bottom center click directly above the Blizzard symbol. An image of Kerrigan will appear and in text it will say "Help me Jim Raynor...you're my only hope!"

A hint at the Starcraft 2 storyline perhaps?

Discuss

What is the role of heroes in StarCraft II? Will they be the same as in StarCraft?

StarCraft II campaign heroes will fulfill roles similar to what appeared in the original StarCraft single player experience, but they will have even more unique abilities from standard units, and will be more innovatively integrated into the story campaign. Heroes will not be buildable in multiplayer.

So... it looks like Hero Units will make it back in the campaign. This is good news, given that it means such units will also be available for players to use when designing maps like Starcraft Dota. Read the rest here. Kudos to ShaneVar for the news!

"Visitors to BlizzCon 2007 will be treated to the first-ever public hands-on with StarCraft II. Demo stations will be set up at the convention, and attendees can sample the new units and gameplay elements for themselves in multiplayer battles. We’re excited to offer this exclusive opportunity to our players, and look forward to seeing you at BlizzCon."

Maybe it's time to go check it out! Thanks ShanVar.

Discuss

Do you think Starcraft should feature Hero units like in Warcraft 3?
Yes	49	12%
No	177	42%
Only in Single Player	195	46%
TOTAL	421	100 %

Blizzard's decision not to include heroes in melee matches is definately popular. In fact, only one eighth of our viewers would say otherwise. What's more startling is that there's a signicant portion of people who don't want to see these units in the campaign either. Look's like Blizzard has certainly made the right design choice.

The official Legendary Pictures website is listing a Diablo movie as being in development along with such projects as World of Warcraft, Clash of the Titans and the Superman Returns sequel.

So... A Diablo Movie is in the works. Lets hope it exceeds previous gaming classics like... Doom! Thanks M13ky!

Discuss

For a long time the Donghua bosses, Fei and Bao (known even to employees as Little Bai and Brother Bao), could do no more than nurse their envy of the raiding guilds’ access to the end game. But Fan’s prowess pointed to another way of looking at it: raiding guilds weren’t the competition, they realized; they were the solution. Donghua would put together a team of 40 employees. They would train the team in all the hardest dungeons. And then, for a few hundred dollars, the team would escort any customer into the dungeon of his or her choice. And when the customer’s longed-for item dropped, the team would stand aside and let the customer take it, no questions asked. Thus would the supposedly unmarketable end-game treasures find their way into the R.M.T. market. And thus would gold farming, of a sort, find its way at last into the end game

Seriously, read it now.

• Life of a Chinese Gold Farmer

It'll give you insight on everything from the standard farmer, to the most elite virtual money organisations.... You'll look at gold farming in a whole new light.

• Protoss Tempest
• Protoss Star Relic
• Protoss Observer

Size	Large
HP/Shields:	~140/~320
Cost:	??
Attack:
Ground/Air Attack:	?
Cooldown:	?
Range	7

With the loss of Auir, the Protoss no longer had the material resources for constructing their massive carriers. Instead, they turned to the Dark Templar to similar technologies. The result is the Tempest, a modified schematic of the original Carrier that's tailored specifically for destroying tough enemy fortifications In order to be cheaper to produce, and yet still deadly against their intended targets, tempests had to make several trade-offs.

The desire for increased speed has forced the Dark Templar to go with a far less robust construction than original carrier. In addition, the interceptors have be simplified, so that they may slice the enemy with saw blades that require far less maintenance than energy weapons used previously. To compensate, tempests are armed with gravimetric shielding. While these shields offer phenomineal protection against ground targets, they cannot be activated against threats from above.

Strategic Properties:
Groups of tempests are used to destroy enemy fortifications and ground to air defenses. While their shields make them as formidable against ground opponents as the original carrier, it does not offer any protection against aerial foes. Without these shields, Tempests are flimsy at best, and this require considerable air superiority support.

Special Abilities:

Build 'Buzzers': Tempests build and house a group of tiny robotic fighters armed with buzz saws. In battle, these are launched against the enemy, much as interceptors in the original Starcraft. The tempest itself has no attack.

Special Properties:

Ground Only Shields: The Tempest's shield only activates against ground opponents. Attacks from enemy air units are ignored by the shield

So be sure to check out the page:

• Protoss Air Units
• Starcraft 2 Unit Archives

We'll have a detailed account of buildings next.

• PC Gamer Starcraft 2 Preview Scan

Be sure to take a look!

Star Relic:
When it comes to casting spells the star relic makes the high Templar look like an amature. It’ll be able to create a cloak field that will conceal even buildings, and fire a fusion beam that slowly damages a target until it dies-and when it dies it’ll expload ajd cause damage to everything around it. Remember the larger the target the bigger the boom.

It sounds like the Star Relic will take the place of the Arbiter, with a more useful attack. Thanks Int3rc3pt3d.

Discuss!

• Soul Hunter
• Dark Templar
• Reaver
• Twilight Archon

So here we go:

Size	Large
HP/Shields:	?
Cost:	??
Ground/Air Attack:
Damage:	?
Cooldowm:	?
Range

The Twilight Archon is the ultimate expression of unity that once separated the Templars who chose the way of the Khala and those who did not. Much as the powerful Tassadar, Twilight Archons embody the combined might of factions once split asunder. .

Strategic Properties:
The true abilities of the Twilight Archon is still shrouded in mystery, though it is clear that are more than capable of taking care of themselves and dishing out considerable damage to clumps of weaker units. Current it is unclear whether Dark Archons will have deadly abilities in addition to thier standard attack.

Special Properties:

	Hovering: This unit hovers, and is thus immune to terrain effects.
	AOE Attack: This unit deals splash damage to all units within a small radius of his attack.

Be sure to check out the rest:

• Protoss Ground Units
• Starcraft 2 Units Index

Discuss it

In addition, from the video footage below, we know know the following units are also featured:

• Protoss Tempest: The Renamed Carrier.
• Twilight Archon: The resultant merging of a Dark and a High Templar.
• Phase Cannon: The new photon cannon.
• Soul Hunter: Looks like a ground version of the warp ray.

Enjoy!

• Starcraft 2 Video Footage

Expect us to do an indepth analysis very soon.

If you're one of the eight-and-a-half million players worldwide to have dabbled in a little-known game called World of Warcraft, then chances are you've experienced Jason Hayes' work--perhaps even without knowing it. GameSpot AU caught up with the man behind WOW's music to discuss his career, the technical difficulties of game-soundtrack creation, and the legitimisation of games as an art form. Hayes' music from WOW is one of the pieces being played at PLAY! A Video Game Symphony, which hits Sydney, Australia, from June 19-23.

Read the rest over here.

• The code name for Starcraft 2 prior to its release is 'Medusa'

Or more interestingly, a nice excerpt on how popular Starcraft is in South Korea. My god, I'm writing an article about the Korea phenomena, and things like this still surprise me:

It’s pretty crazy.  Look, 6 or 7 years ago one of our guys came over here and he met with South Korea’s vice president.  They put on a show for him, in which people danced around in Zerg and Protoss costumes.  It was insane. - Chris Sigaty

Read the rest here.

• Starcraft 2 Units Index
• Zerg Air Units

Go check it out!

We'll be handing out plenty of Blizzard swag at BlizzCon for attendees to show off to their friends. However, we wanted to give out even more, so we'll also be providing a beta key for an upcoming Blizzard game. If you're not enticed yet, you should definitely check out the in-game murloc suit, an item that can be redeemed and given to your favorite World of Warcraft character. Love or hate the murlocs, you won't want to miss this opportunity to blend in with them!

Starcraft 2 Beta for $100? May not be so bad! Discuss.

Size	Small
HP	?
Cost:	??
Suicide Ground Attack:
Damage	40
Cooldown:	N/A
Range	Melee

Since their first encounter with the Terran, the Zerg have learned that sometimes, plain claws are just not enough. When assaulting confined and entrenched locations, the enemy is often capable of de playing their forces in such a way that surrounding them from all sides is just not possible. Under orders from the Queen of Blades, the genetic code for Infested Terrans was mixed with that of the Zergling. The result is the Baneling. In times of necessity, a Zergling can fill his body with explosive chemicals, rush into entrenched enemy forces, and sacrifice himself into a bloody explosion without thought.

Strategic Properties:

The Baneling is a ground version of the Zerg Scourge, and an epitome of the Zerg playstyle. While each individual Baneling does not do an atrocious amount of damage, this ability comes especially handy when assaulting enemy forces on bridges and ramps where a massive group of Zerglings would simply clump together and get destroyed by enemy artillery. The cost of sacrificing a Baneling is just cost efficient, and hence the use of Banelings should be restricted to times where a Zerg player has a resource advantage. Of course, in games between players of equal still, such situations are the norm.Spial Abilities:

Suicide Attack: The Baneling explodes on contact with the enemy, dealing 40 damage to the target.

Be sure to read it, and get your daily Starcraft 2 Dose:

• Zerg Ground Units
• Starcraft 2 Units Index
• Zerg Ground Discussion

Only one more section left!

For example, as we were coming up with the concept for the teaser cinematic and fleshing out the details for the marine portrayed in it, that marine evolved over time into a character, named Tychus Findlay, that features prominently in StarCraft II. Ultimately, the creative process involved with working Tychus into a certain role in the plot and fleshing him out helped us give him even more character depth in the cinematic.

Be sure to read it, and then discuss who is Tychus Findley, and what does he do.