Blizzard Unleashes Final, Jaw-Dropping StarCraft II Launch Trailer

[Keava]

The script was horrible and cheesy but not in a purposely done way like Command and Conquer.

'Bout time we kicked this revolution into overdrive"
"The assets you seek lie within"
"I can offer you what you've always wanted"

I mean really?

You judge the whole script by 3 lines in the trailer? Leet skills there mon.

Story wise it is not really amazing. Look at how the plot it tales looks like.

You have Jim Raynor, rebellious, abusing alcohol, ex marine major that got shafted after trying to do the right thing. After being treated as a traitor by confederation he joined with Mengsk and then got exploited once more, when he was forced to leave Kerrigan, his love, for the army of space bugs called Zerg.
We see him, years later. pondering the past with a glass of booze, frustrated at everything that happened, lost all the hope, and gladly would get his revenge by killing both Mengsk and the Zerg, no matter which of that comes first. He blames himself for what happened with his love. He blames himself for not standing up against Mengsk.

Suddenly a guy shows up, and tells him that his vengeance would be pointless and ask him to join the fight for freedom. To overthrow Mengsk Dominion while same time protecting Terran colonies from Zerg. He leaves him the badge, and leaves with a cheesy, i mean deep one liner.
Jim of course joins the ragtag Rebel forces, because he is a good guy after all, unruly, but good, the likable bastard.

Soon he is antagonized by the Dominion as a threat and terrorist, meanwhile apparently discovering some prophecy left by an ancient race with Protoss to the mix.

During dramatic and epic battle between Terran forces and Zerg he gets aboard one of the Dominon ships and meets with the son of evil Mengsk, the son, obviously ambitious, wants to overthrow his dad, and offers his help to Jim, wanting to abuse our cuddly rebel for his own agenda.

Whole thing ends with a ground battle, involving the rebels landing on the Zerg infested world of Char, where Kerrigan was fully transformed into what she became. And so the battle of freedom begins.


If that is not cliche story than i don't know what else might be cliche. It has high trope density for such a short trailer...

 

[findler]

Ugh, can't watch this since I'm at work... must wait. I wanna hear more about Tychus Findlay. Him and I have the same last name, so I'm going to pretend he's my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson.

Shayne? Is that you?

Haha no, but that is my brothers name.

Is your brother a pudgy ginger who scored a chick way more attractive than him just because he`s witty?

You DO know Shayne! Are you his trinity buddy who is insanely good at SC? I've heard about you...

 

[Tehlanna TPX]

It's a trailer made to appeal to those who've stuck with the game over the decade. Those of you shitting all over it for it's lack of marketable appeal to new players are doing nothing but playing your DERP card.

I swear, there is always rotten apples in the bunch that have to play the negative nancy card. But boy does it get old.

OT: Loved it. It was great to see Raynor in the trailer, and his grief for Kerrigan. I'm a sucker for that shit.

 

[Tehlanna TPX]

The script was horrible and cheesy but not in a purposely done way like Command and Conquer.

'Bout time we kicked this revolution into overdrive"
"The assets you seek lie within"
"I can offer you what you've always wanted"

I mean really?

You judge the whole script by 3 lines in the trailer? Leet skills there mon.

Story wise it is not really amazing. Look at how the plot it tales looks like.

You have Jim Raynor, rebellious, abusing alcohol, ex marine major that got shafted after trying to do the right thing. After being treated as a traitor by confederation he joined with Mengsk and then got exploited once more, when he was forced to leave Kerrigan, his love, for the army of space bugs called Zerg.
We see him, years later. pondering the past with a glass of booze, frustrated at everything that happened, lost all the hope, and gladly would get his revenge by killing both Mengsk and the Zerg, no matter which of that comes first. He blames himself for what happened with his love. He blames himself for not standing up against Mengsk.

Suddenly a guy shows up, and tells him that his vengeance would be pointless and ask him to join the fight for freedom. To overthrow Mengsk Dominion while same time protecting Terran colonies from Zerg. He leaves him the badge, and leaves with a cheesy, i mean deep one liner.
Jim of course joins the ragtag Rebel forces, because he is a good guy after all, unruly, but good, the likable bastard.

Soon he is antagonized by the Dominion as a threat and terrorist, meanwhile apparently discovering some prophecy left by an ancient race with Protoss to the mix.

During dramatic and epic battle between Terran forces and Zerg he gets aboard one of the Dominon ships and meets with the son of evil Mengsk, the son, obviously ambitious, wants to overthrow his dad, and offers his help to Jim, wanting to abuse our cuddly rebel for his own agenda.

Whole thing ends with a ground battle, involving the rebels landing on the Zerg infested world of Char, where Kerrigan was fully transformed into what she became. And so the battle of freedom begins.


If that is not cliche story than i don't know what else might be cliche. It has high trope density for such a short trailer...

No offense... but do you ever get tired of over-analyzing every little piece of entertainment you come across. Honestly, I'm just curious. I do the same thing, occasionally, but I find it to be a real kill joy when it comes to something that is meant to entertain. If high brow, intellectual fodder is all that gets your rocks off, then perhaps gaming really isn't your thing.. Unless they come out with another Myst...

Apologies if that was rude, or anything. It just kind of sets off my boggle meter to see so much 'poo pooing' going on over a fan directed game trailer .

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I think many would find such movie tiresome to watch however. It's different thing when you watch Pixars production, which are highly cartoonish in looks and pretty simplistic in design, and using such style for WoW movie would produce more of a comedy/mock up film rather than blockbuster action/fantasy.

Certainly entitled to that opinion. I think there's little evidence out there to support that line of thinking, though; CGI films aimed at adult audiences have always tried to appear as realistic as possible. Seems like a fool's errand to me. Or a race with the devil. Take your pick. Point is, a stylized approach tends to create its own reality as opposed to poorly mimicking our own. If the models and animations fit with the specific aesthetic created by the designers, they won't appear "odd" or "unnatural".

CGI works great for short, dynamic scenes but in a full length movies you have to include several dragged out parts and those are just too much trouble do do properly without use of actors. Most notably with highly emotional scenes, where all the little details of human face enhance the reception.

For sure, but that's where clever cinematography comes into play. Greater use of shadow and light to obscure faces - more contrast and exaggeration. Best example I can think of would be Sin City relative to traditional live action film. The effects aren't particularly strong in that movie, but they're almost completely masked or even hidden by the encompassing wholeness of the aesthetic. It all fits within the overarching visual design. Once you're on the ride, you don't pay much attention to the bumps.

And hyper-realistic eyes.. i don't think i've seen any CGI achieving those. There is something in the eyes that is very hard to catch in digital rendering, it's a little bit easier in static works, but when you add motions, they will either move oddly or the reflection will just be very unnatural. Human eye has sick level of detail, from texture of the eyelid, through eye-lashes to the iris itself and you would have to make it very responsive to light sources, re-rendering with every slightest shift because of how the eyeball reflects environment.
There is a reason why people believed that you can see into others soul through eyes.

Hyper-realistic meaning exta realistic or beyond real aka stylized. Rather than trying to capture the exact appearance of the real human eye, they should start with what they want the eyes to represent and work on creating an impression to that end. Aim for something more exaggerated or seemingly superhuman. It doesn't have to hold up next actual video of human eyes. It just needs to maintain whatever aesthetic has been established for the presentation of that particular story.

Essentially, I'm advocating more impressionism in CGI.

This is by far the most impressive image from your link:

I don't think it's mere coincidence that it's also the most compromised or impressionistic of the group. Blurry lines, heavy shadow and contrast, greater focus on imperfections - this is easily the most interesting image from a purely artistic standpoint. Others were sharper, more detailed, better proportioned - and it didn't matter. The above image simply created the most accurate *impression* of the subject. I believe that's how CGI artists will escape the Uncanny Valley.

 

[Soushi]

Wow, you certainly have changed my mind Blizzard, holy s*it on a f*cking sandwhich!
Gaurdians at the Gate, a good choice of song there, very good.
Still, a trailer is no representation of gameplay, but if blizzard has been doing with starcraft two what i think they have been doing with it, making it awesome, then i don't think there is anything to worry about.

 

[Keava]

No offense... but do you ever get tired of over-analyzing every little piece of entertainment you come across. Honestly, I'm just curious. I do the same thing, occasionally, but I find it to be a real kill joy when it comes to something that is meant to entertain. If high brow, intellectual fodder is all that gets your rocks off, then perhaps gaming really isn't your thing.. Unless they come out with another Myst...

Apologies if that was rude, or anything. It just kind of sets off my boggle meter to see so much 'poo pooing' going on over a fan directed game trailer .

Sorry. Job deviation. I started as music/cultural event freelancer for zines and ended up in opinion journalism and politics. I just look at everything through those 10 years of my work. So yeah, i get slightly annoyed when companies that spend 100 million bucks on a game make an overly cliche story for it. Plus, i get tired of fanboism easily.I firmly believe that if you do like something a lot, you should be able to see it's flaws. That way you can show those big bad companies that you wont be satisfied with every scooby-snack they throw your way.

Sadly i lack Yahtzee's talent to be as entertaining at expressing my thoughts, but i do consider myself a critic first and foremost when looking at works of widely described art. Even when playing games i love i always look at bits that could be done better.

I don't think it's mere coincidence that it's also the most compromised or impressionistic of the group. Blurry lines, heavy shadow and contrast, greater focus on imperfections - this is easily the most interesting image from a purely artistic standpoint. Others were sharper, more detailed, better proportioned - and it didn't matter. The above image simply created the most accurate *impression* of the subject. I believe that's how CGI artists will escape the Uncanny Valley.

Yes i agree. However the problem is this one static frame render with post production in photoshop took apparently 6 hours of work, and that is a lot in 3d design. When rendering a movie or even animated scene you don't really have the luxury of manually brushing every little adjustment to distort the overall image to the right point. 100 minutes movie, 26 frames per second on average... loads of work to upkeep just the right level of unreality.

And the yes still come off as odd, the white eyeballs especially, it's how the eye is constructed with that protective transparent jelly layer surrounding the ball part. It's really hard to do that properly.

 

[Odoylerules360]

So it's gonna be, like, a knock-off of Warhammer 40K?

And it's real-time strategy, so that trailer is essentially meaningless.

wow, quoted 11 times...

The reason I can't play starcraft (aside from the fact that it's RTS)
is that whoever copied whom, I always feel like my choices are between:

NOT Space Marines,
NOT Eldar, and
NOT Tyranids.

Same thing with Warcraft.

 

[Nick Holmgren]

So it's gonna be, like, a knock-off of Warhammer 40K?

And it's real-time strategy, so that trailer is essentially meaningless.

They are actually independent properties believe it or not. Tye both are basically ripping off dune from what I have heard, just like everyone else. Also if you want to know what starcraft gameplay is like go hit up youtube. It is nothing like 40k in that department. Also there is actual hope in the SC universe, unlike the metric ton of horrifying darkness that surrounds 40k.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Yes i agree. However the problem is this one static frame render with post production in photoshop took apparently 6 hours of work, and that is a lot in 3d design. When rendering a movie or even animated scene you don't really have the luxury of manually brushing every little adjustment to distort the overall image to the right point. 100 minutes movie, 26 frames per second on average... loads of work to upkeep just the right level of unreality.

Eh, I think you do have that luxury if you're willing to pay for it. Seems a painfully obvious statement, but it's no less true. It's all about how much you're willing to spend on the film. The FF movie certainly spent no less on production, and that ended up something of an unconvincing mess. They purportedly spent some ridiculous amount of the total budget rendering one character's hair. I think that same money could have gone towards a more stylized aesthetic - and to better effect. Cost is always an issue, but the real money in film comes from taking that first chance on something new.

In other words: if James Cameron felt like doing this, it'd get done.

And the yes still come off as odd, the white eyeballs especially, it's how the eye is constructed with that protective transparent jelly layer surrounding the ball part. It's really hard to do that properly.

For sure. Someone will figure out a reasonable facsimile at some point, and that will represent another big step along the road to convincing CGI representations of actual human beings. Until we reach that point, artists should accept the limitations of existing techniques and strive for alternate routes to their desired aesthetic.

I really do believe it's all perfectly analogous to impressionist painting. When attempts to reproduce flawless realism failed to provide the desired effect, painters sought out alternative techniques for representing the visual world. The results are some of our most cherished works of art. I think CGI will remain a cold and distant medium until it moves more fervently in that impressionist direction.

 

[Dupeo]

Ugh, can't watch this since I'm at work... must wait. I wanna hear more about Tychus Findlay. Him and I have the same last name, so I'm going to pretend he's my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson.

Shayne? Is that you?

Haha no, but that is my brothers name.

Is your brother a pudgy ginger who scored a chick way more attractive than him just because he`s witty?

You DO know Shayne! Are you his trinity buddy who is insanely good at SC? I've heard about you...

I do know him from Trinity but I don't think Shayne's ever seen me play. Well, I better issue a challenge. Give him this message: SHAYNE FINDLAY! I challenge you to play me in Starcraft 2 online on the day of release shrink wrapped! That means fresh out of the box. No practice time, no tutorial, no single player, and no knowledge other than what is available before release or tips shown during the slow installation screen. Will you puss out or take it like a man?

 

[Dommyboy]

Nah, this game looks completely horrible. Dunno why you like this, John.

 

[Carnagath]

The script was horrible and cheesy but not in a purposely done way like Command and Conquer.

'Bout time we kicked this revolution into overdrive"
"The assets you seek lie within"
"I can offer you what you've always wanted"

I mean really?

Wow, so many of you fine folks never actually played the first Starcraft, or haven't played it for so long that you've idolized it in your minds and expect SC2 to be Citizen Kane. Starcraft ALWAYS had a B-movie feel and dialogue and corny yet entertaining humour. I don't have the time to write a huge essay on the (loveable) mess of Starcraft's one-liners, but maybe you should replay it before expecting the impossible. "Another computer. Press any key. Which one's the any key?" and "Sir, we just got a ton of whoopass comin' our way" are prime examples of SC1 dialogue. If you expect Shakespeare in an RTS, well, good luck.

 

[Redratson]

Though this has been said a hundred times, I will say it again. ahem, MAKE MOVIE NOWZZZZ!

 

[Chunko]

I accidentally opened an extra window of this in youtube without realizing it, and I thought the video was supposed to echo. lol

 

[findler]

Ugh, can't watch this since I'm at work... must wait. I wanna hear more about Tychus Findlay. Him and I have the same last name, so I'm going to pretend he's my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson.

Shayne? Is that you?

Haha no, but that is my brothers name.

Is your brother a pudgy ginger who scored a chick way more attractive than him just because he`s witty?

You DO know Shayne! Are you his trinity buddy who is insanely good at SC? I've heard about you...

I do know him from Trinity but I don't think Shayne's ever seen me play. Well, I better issue a challenge. Give him this message: SHAYNE FINDLAY! I challenge you to play me in Starcraft 2 online on the day of release shrink wrapped! That means fresh out of the box. No practice time, no tutorial, no single player, and no knowledge other than what is available before release or tips shown during the slow installation screen. Will you puss out or take it like a man?

Well I'll tell him, but he's currently living out in the woods working with a shoddy internet connection. But I'll see what I can do haha.

 

[TheBaron87]

So it's gonna be, like, a knock-off of Warhammer 40K?

And it's real-time strategy, so that trailer is essentially meaningless.

wow, quoted 11 times...

The reason I can't play starcraft (aside from the fact that it's RTS)
is that whoever copied whom, I always feel like my choices are between:

NOT Space Marines,
NOT Eldar, and
NOT Tyranids.

Same thing with Warcraft.

Well that's how it's supposed to be. I'm not reading all 10 pages of comments, but you know the history between Games Workshop and Blizzard right?

 

[ArmorArmadillo]

I'm going to exercise my powers of clairvoyance:
The story will involve Raynor trying to overthrow the dominion whilst trying to stem the zerg. A cast of support characters sharing one personality (Soldier from TF2) will help him, but he is forced to ally with a very suspicious character of some sort, his main support character will be suspicious of him, but he will ignore those suspicions and eventually be betrayed by him. The Protoss will be elsewhere, talking about crystals and being vague.

Blizzard really really likes that story device...a little too much actually.

 

[mechanixis]

As someone who's not competitive enough to go for the multiplayer, this was great to see. This trailer definitely bumped me up from "Eh, maybe I'll get it for the campaign" to "I want it". It's definitely movie-quality trailer, in terms of splicing and music.

I predict Wings of Liberty is going to be about Raynor reversing Kerrigan's zerghood, leaving Duran as the Big-Bad for the next two games. As lame as that would be plotwise, I wouldn't care if they made the whole ride this thrilling.

I think under any other circumstances that dialogue would have made me die inside though. "Because I know...that some things...are just worth fighting for."