Cheat Codes
Type any of the following cheat codes while playing:

Code - Result

chfreebuild - Free Build
chnofire - Fire will not occur
chnoplague - Plague will not occur
chnoriots - Riots will not occur
chgivemeall - Get 1000 of everything
chstartfire - Start fire
chstopfire - Stop fire
chstartplague - Start plague
chcureall - Cure all
chnofood - Food is not produced
chnomaterials - Materials are not produces
chwin - Win scenario
challhistory - Unlock history timeline
chnobarbarian - Barbarians will not attack
chstartbarbarian - Start Barbarian attacks
chstopbarbarian - Stop Barbarian attacks
chnocrime - No crime
chstartriot - Start riot
chstopriot - Stop riot
chnomorale - Morale not produced

Originally from CheatHappens

Alien invasion stories usually involve one powerful alien race landing on the planet, only to be defeated by the plucky human defenders or, in some cases, by their germs. But what happens when three alien races suddenly appear on Earth, and humanity is caught in the middle of an intergalactic conflict? That’s the idea behind Universe at War: Earth Assault, a real-time strategy game from Sega and developer Petroglyph, of last year’s Star Wars: Empire at War fame. We’ll let Petroglyph creative director Adam Isgreen introduce the story for the game, which is due out later this year.

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New screenshots for one of the most forthcoming game StarCraft 2

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World in Conflict is a strategy game that delivers intense action and coordinated team play amidst a apocalyptic showdown between the Soviet Union and the US, with completely destructible 3D battlefields, aggressive team-based multiplayer action and a focus on fast, hard-hitting battles. The CE (PC only) will include an authentic piece of the Berlin Wall, bonus footage DVD and upgraded packaging.

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When Blizzard Entertainment unveiled Starcraft II earlier this month, the reaction among the original fans was apoplectic. Though the game’s official release date remains “when it’s ready,” there was some hope that it might arrive by the end of the year.

Such sentiments came in part from a GameSpot video interview with lead producer Chris Sigaty. In it, he said that Blizzard usually takes “three and a half or four years to finish a game” and that Starcraft II would enter alpha testing later in the year. Since the company has publicly said that Starcraft II had been in development since 2003, that led some to believe the game could come in 2007.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Speaking with MSNBC, Blizzard vice president of game design Rob Pardo ruled out any possibility that Starcraft II would join the crush of titles coming out this holiday season.

When asked about the game’s release date, Pardo said, “The only thing I can give you [that’s] concrete is it’s not going to be this year. Some people were hoping, because of how advanced the game looks, that we’d have it out by Christmas, but that’s definitely not happening.”

Pardo also dropped a hint at the scale of Blizzard’s future plans, saying that the 40 developers working on Starcraft II are “one of the smaller teams.” Job listings on the Blizzard site have indicated it is working on a “next-gen MMO”–which the company said will not be another World of Warcraft. Also, rumors persist that Diablo III is in development.

Originally from GameSpot

Ubi reveals more about the apocalyptic techno-thriller heading to next-generation consoles in February…

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Cheat Codes
Press [Enter] during game play, type one of the following codes, and press [Enter] again to activate the corresponding cheat function:

Originally from CheatHappens

A panel of the Irvine, CA-based studio’s top artists discusses the art design and environments in the newly announced Starcraft II.

SEOUL, South Korea–At the 2007 Worldwide Invitational event, Blizzard Entertainment is offering tournament play for its hardcore fans and open panel discussions for its inquisitive ones. The company’s senior artists, including senior 3D artist Dave Berggren, senior 3D artist Allen Dilling, senior 3D artist Trevor Jacobs, lead technical artist Rob McNaughton, and senior art director Samwise Didier, sit on a panel to discuss how the studio creates art “the Blizzard way.”

Didier explains that within the core philosophies of Blizzard art design, “nothing is subtle–every character is over the top; every environment is either beautiful or battle scarred.” According to the art director, Blizzard’s characters come to life by means of strong silhouettes, exaggerated proportions, distinctive animations, and “bold, saturated colors” so that they not only look memorable, but are easy to distinguish at a glance as well–an important quality for real-time strategy units that must often be viewed from a zoomed-out view. Didier adds that at Blizzard, art is something that “isn’t finished until the game is shipped”–artists typically work on continued passes right until games are complete.

Technical artist McNaughton then takes the stage and explains how the studio uses a handful of primary art tools to create its games; there is Adobe Photoshop for texture art, 3D Studio Max for its low-polygon models, and Mudbox for its high-polygon models, as well as its own proprietary toolsets, such as “Startools,” to create in-game objects such as trees and other “doodads,” and “Scumedit,” the updated map editor. McNaughton also points out that Startools and Scumedit will be part of the map- and mod-making tools that will ship with the game. McNaughton explains that Starcraft II’s graphics will be based off of the DirectX 9.0 API and fully support Pixel Shader 2.0, including support for conventional DirectX 9.0 effects such as normal mapping and high dynamic range lighting and bloom. While the game will be playable on both Windows XP and Vista, Starcraft II does not support DirectX 10 in its current state. The artist tempers his description of the advanced graphical effects by explaining that although the game will feature advanced graphical effects, it will scale, to some extent, downward to still allow players who don’t own cutting-edge PC hardware to play the game.

3D artist Jacobs then discussed the process of how Blizzard starts with 2D concept art and eventually arrives at finished models, using the Protoss Immortal tank as an example to go from hand drawing to rough modeling (adjusted to make sure the model looks good from the traditional RTS overhead view) to texturing to polishing, and 3D artist Dilling reiterates the importance of creating distinctive animations for units. As an example, Dilling shows the Starcraft II flying mutalisk and tiny, doglike zerglings in action, both alone and in large crowds.

Starcraft II’s units will have multiple “move cycle” animations so they don’t all move in unison with the exact same frames of animation; the crowd of zerglings looks especially creepy because none of them seem to be running in the same way or in the same direction, like a swarm of hyperactive fire ants. Dilling explains that because Starcraft II is being developed with professional competition in mind, the sequel’s special effects will be “tight, fast, and quick” such that they don’t obscure the action or slow down your computer. However, “landmark events” like the summoning of the top-level Protoss mothership unit will be accompanied by sufficient graphical fanfare to point out their importance.

The panel winds down with a brief presentation on environments from 3D artist Dave Berggren, who suggests that Starcraft II will take place both in new worlds and in worlds that had appeared in the original game. Berggren shows concepts for the Protoss world of Bel’Shir, a lush, jungle planet that had once served as a religious retreat for the race before it was sacked by the Zerg. The planet has since become covered in ruined temples. Berggren also introduces Braxis Alpha, the Terran settlement that appeared in  video presentation. Braxis Alpha will be a combination of industrial wasteland and mountainous regions, covered in craggy rock formations and factory-like debris, such as loose gears and turbines that jut out from mountain faces. Finally, Berggren shows concept art of the Zerg world of Char (where Kerrigan, the Terran-ghost-unit-turned-Zerg-commander holds court), which will, like in the previous games, be a craggy, volcanic planet covered in lava floes. Berggren points out that although Blizzard’s art team is taking advantage of modern texturing approaches to environments by mapping terrains and overlaying photorealistic textures, the art team will also make final passes to tweak environmental areas by hand.

Originally from GameSpot

Blizzard holds additional Q&A session after announcing its highly anticipated seqel and covers more key points about the game and its future.

SEOUL–After making the exciting announcement that a Starcraft sequel is in the works, Blizzard Entertainment held a follow-up press conference for reporters from Asia Pacific, American, and European territories. The conference included a panel of the studio’s heaviest hitters, including president Mike Morhaime, chief operating officer Paul Sams, vice president of creative development Chris Metzen, vice president of game design Rob Pardo, Blizzard Korea managing director Jungwon Han, lead game producer Chris Sigaty, and lead game designer Dustin Browder.

The panel answered questions on numerous topics, including Starcraft II’s development history, which Pardo expained “started shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne” back in 2003. According to Pardo, the game is “very far along,” and that the game is already playable in multiplayer will all three factions. When asked about the release date, Pardo gave the answer you may have come to expect from Blizzard: “The game will be released when it’s ready.”

According to the panel, the game is apparently being developed by a team of approximately 40, though on the matter of the budget and the schedule, Morhaime simply said, “We don’t really have a budget; we’ll spend as much time and resources as we need to make this game great.”

When asked about how Blizzard was approaching the challenge of how to make a game that would appeal both to hardcore and to casual players, the panel replied that the game will appeal to hardcore fans by being geared toward “highly competitive, skill-based gameplay,” as well as by efforts to “continue to drive new features onto Battle.net,” Blizzard’s in-house online game service, as well as encouraging players to watch match replays to get into the “drama” and emotion behind competition, similar to the way that close-in cameras helped popularize tournament poker.

To address concerns from hardcore fans, Blizzard commented on questions specific to gameplay and the competitive community, such as the play speed of the demonstration videos, which didn’t run as quickly as the original Starcraft. This is because, according to Pardo, the game played during the demonstration was set on a slower speed; Pardo suggested that Starcraft II will have multiple speed settings, similar to Warcraft III. The panel also confirmed that the sequel will have only the three factions of the protoss, terrans, and zerg–there will be no fourth faction. To address another question, the panel suggested that the resource management system in the sequel will feature “some enhancements, but it will still be very similar to the resource management in Starcraft, and just as important.” When asked about system requirements, the panel replied that the requirements haven’t been fully finalized, but that the game will support Pixel Shader 2.0 graphics and PCs with either Windows XP or Vista. Given that the trailers shown at this morning’s presentation featured cameo appearances from key Starcraft characters like Zeratul, Jim Raynor, and Kerrigan, when asked about the sequel’s story, creative development VP Chris Metzen replied that those three characters will definitely appear in the game, and that the sequel will definitely expand on the story from Starcraft and Brood War, but that the studio would otherwise have to stay “tight-lipped” on further details.

The panel also fielded broader questions pertaining to the sequel’s future and Blizzard’s future. When asked why Blizzard decided to develop Starcraft II rather than, for instance, another Diablo sequel or another massively multiplayer game, Morhaime replied that Starcraft II was a project that much of the company had wanted to work on for years, and that the current level of technology made the game seem like the right choice. Morhaime also pointed out that the new development proved that Blizzard “wasn’t just a massively multiplayer company” that would rest on the laurels of the highly successful World of Warcraft. The panel also fielded a thorny question on the creation of new intellectual property. Blizzard has become known for focusing on creating games only from a select few IPs it owns (Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo), and that although several team members “would like to explore the creation of new IPs, [they] are still very much in love with the three,” and that Blizzard’s approach to developing games–that is, developing very few games at a time–meant that the company often finds itself focusing only on these properties. Morhaime also fielded a question on Blizzard’s commitment to the PC as its primary game platform, citing the “indefinite hold” status of the studio’s canceled console game Starcraft: Ghost as an impetus that eventually drove the company to focus on the PC as its primary platform–a decision that Morhaime suggests, “paid off in spades,” given that the company’s new focus now lets it work on Starcraft II and World of Warcraft expansions. The executive also suggested that Microsoft’s new initiative to bring the Xbox Live experience to the PC in the form of Live Anywhere wouldn’t change Blizzard’s online strategy; the company will remain committed to supporting and developing Battle.net for online play.

Originally from GameSpot