Starcraft 2: Q&A, Unit Preview

[source: insidemacgames.com]

Gamespot and IGN recently released new articles focusing on Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming StarCraft 2. The Gamespot feature covers a Q&A with some of the Blizzard team, while the IGN article offers a run down of the currently known units.

From Gamespot:

Other questions involved the status of Battle.net, Blizzard's proprietary multiplayer service. While the Blizzard representatives said that yes, the venerable system is due for a needed upgrade, they declined to get into specifics. According to Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of the company, Blizzard is planning a massive upgrade to the system to support the release of StarCraft II, as the game was designed primarily as a multiplayer title. In fact, the single-player game has not had much beyond theoretical work completed on it. They also declined to answer whether this upgraded Battle.net service would start charging a subscription fee.
In response to a question about the game's storyline, Chris Metzen said that while the company is certainly invested in the storyline and wants to push it forward, the team's initial focus on multiplayer precludes much work being done on the single-player experience until the last year or two of development. He also said, however, that players should expect to see the next chapters of many of their favorite characters such as Jim Raynor, Kerrigan and Zeratul.
One burning question that Rob Pardo was eager to squelch concerned the long-rumored fourth race (the Xel'Naga or the Zerg/Protoss hybrids hinted at in the first game). He stated in no uncertain terms that there will be no fourth race in StarCraft II. The game will contain the Human, Zerg and Protoss factions and the team is completely focused on getting them as asymmetric yet balanced as possible. The game will also ship with a powerful map editor and should be even more moddable than the first.

From IGN:

Immortal: This unit activates a near impenetrable shield when under heavy arms fire. During the demonstration at WWI, Blizzard showed how Terran siege tanks were nearly powerless against Immortals, since their heavy tank blasts activated the shields. As a contrast, Terran Reapers' small arms fire made quick work of these guys.
Colossus: Think of the recent film War of the Worlds and you'll have a good idea of how this new unit looks. Their long legs allow them to easily traverse tiers of land. Equipped are a set of dual lasers that can make quick work of smaller, poorly armored units such as Zerglings.