Starcraft 2 is by far one of the most anticipated game releases of this year. Already having its release date pushed back twice, it has only made gamers even more thirsty for its forthcoming. Christmas 2009 has been officially booked as its antagonizing release date. Many gamers can remember the release of the original StarCraft which instantly became a popular game across the internet. While the campaign mode was intriguing and fun, the popularity of battling online against friends and random foes allowed the game to last well until present day. With the revival of StarCraft, Blizzard has sought to ensure that heavy online play will continue, while significantly adding to the storyline, features and gameplay tactics.

Of all the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games that have yet to hit the PC, it is evident that no other games have reached the longevity and popularity of StarCraft. Although Command and Conquer and WarCraft have remained resonant in the RTS community, StarCraft has been viewed as a cut above the rest. Some may attribute this to the added ‘geekyness’ of battling it out in space, using new technologies, and adding more emphasized gameplay tactics and graphics – all things that would make us gamers happier.

With its release set before the end of this year, we will just have to wait and see how this game and series will play out. Some things we can count on is for sure is StarCraft’s arrival to spur huge sales for Blizzard, increase web-traffic for StarCraft based gaming communities, an emergence of StarCraft LAN parties, and maybe even a Protoss Halloween costume or two!

Check out some of these high-res screen-shots below. These were taken directly from Blizzard’s website. We have to say that the game looks pretty impressive thus far, and definitely displays a much bigger improvment over the original StarCraft when it comes to graphics, gameplay, and content.