starcraft-heavens-devils posts

Last week we reported that Valve has been thinking of making a Half-Life movie by themselves after dealing with crappy movie pitches from Hollywood. One developer that likely has the resources and talent to make its own movies is Blizzard. Their CGI unit makes perhaps the best cut scenes of any game developer.

However it looks like Blizzard is looking to Hollywood to make movies based on its game franchisese. It's already teamed up with Legendary Pictures for its long-in-development World of Warcraft movie. But what about another big game franchise, StarCraft? Blizzard VP Rob Pardo told MTV Multiplayer that's its all up to finding the right people who are excited about bring their game properties to movies. He stated, "I think if Jim Cameron came to us tomorrow and said, 'You want to make a 'StarCraft' movie?' we'd probably sign that." We certainly think that the director behind some of the best sci-fi films of all time (The Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss) would be a perfect choice for a movie based on Blizzard's RTS series.

We took a one day break from our StarCraft II giveaway week on Wednesday but today we are back with the third of four planned giveaways based on Blizzard's just released sci-fi RTS sequel. Today we got two copies of StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, the recent hardcover novel written by WilliamC Dietz, to give out to two of our readers. The novel tells of the early history of StarCraft character Jim Raynor and serves as a prequel to the events in StarCraft II (you can check out an interview we did with Dietz right here). We will even throw in a copy of World of Warcraft Stormrage, the recent hardcover novel from author Richard A. Knaak, to the winners of StarCraft: Heaven's Devils.

How do you win? It's pretty easy

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, August 1
• You may enter only once.
• Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a hardcover copy of the novel StarCraft Heaven's Devils (valued at approximately $25) and a copy of the hardcover novel World of Warcraft Stormrage (valued at approximately $25)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to publisher Gallery Books for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck. And stay tuned on Friday for our final and very special StarCraft II-related giveaway

With the release later tonight of StarCraft II, the fans of Blizzard's sci-fi RTS game will soon have a new part of the vast StarCraft lore to chew on. However fans of the game series have already had a number of expansions of the back story via a series of novels published by Simon and Schuster. The latest such novel is StarCraft Heaven's Devils by veteran sci-fi author William C. Dietz. It's not only the first hardcover StarCraft novel ever released but it also serves as a kind of introduced to some of the new characters in StarCraft II.

Big Download got a chance to ask Dietz some questions about the novel along with other topics (including, as we first reported last week, his future plans to write a Mass Effect novel).

As part of an upcoming interview with science fiction author William C Dietz, Big Download has learned that the writer has been hired to write a new novel set in BioWare's Mass Effect game universe. In the interview when we ask if he plays games regularly he answered, "I do play games regularly, and was busy working my way through the latest Call Of Duty game, when I was hired to write a Mass Effect tie-in. So I had to switch and play all of the ME games. Full time. For a week. It's tough to be me:) " While he offered no details on the novel itself he did say the Mass Effect novel was "... due to the publisher in early 2011."

Two Mass Effect prose novels have already been released and the third, Mass Effect: Retribution, is set for release on July 27. All three novels have been written by BioWare script writer Drew Karpyshyn.

Dietz is no stranger to game-based novels, having written books based on Star Wars: Dark Forces/Jedi Knight, the Resistance series, the Halo series and Hitman. His latest novel is StarCraft: Heaven's Devils which serves as a prequel of sorts to StarCraft II. Look for the full interview with Dietz on Big Download, where he talks more about Starcraft Heaven's Devils, next week.

It's been a busy week for StarCraft II fans as some previews of the game's single player campaign hit the interwebs. But there's been some other related news for Blizzard's sci-fi RTS sequel. One is that the newly released map editor includes a feature that lets folks import and convert maps from the original StarCraft and WarCraft III and make them work for StarCraft II. StarCraftwire.net has a brief tutorial on how it works.

Also the game's official web site has been posting up excerpts from the recently released hardcover novel StarCraft: Heaven's Devils by author William C Dietz that serves as a prequel to the plot for StarCraft II. Finally Wildstorm Comics has released the hardcover collection of the seven issue StarCraft comic book series. While Wildstorm canceled the monthly series unexpectedly, the StarCraft II Collector's Edition will include an exclusive 0 issue of the StarCraft comic.

We've reported in the past on the plans to release StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, the hardcover novel from author William C. Dietz that serves as a prequel to the story events in Blizzard's upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II. Now Premiere Collectibles has announced they will be selling a limited collector's version of the novel.

Due to be released on April 6 (the same time as the regular edition comes out) the collector's edition will set you back $32. Only 5,000 copies of the limited edition version will be released, each individually numbered and contained in a leather gift box. Each copy of the novel will be signed by Dietz and will also come with a certificate of authenticity.

[Via Starcraftwire.net]

Several months ago, back when Blizzard was still targeting a release of StarCraft II by the end of 2009, Pocket Books announced plans to release a prequel novel, StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, by author William C. Dietz, in December. Now that Blizzard is targeting a first half 2010 release date for the long awaited sci-fi RTS game, Pocket Books has delayed the release of the novel as well.

According to Amazon.com, the new release date for the novel is April 6, 2010 which certainly is in that broad time period that Blizzard has stated publicly for the game's release. It's possible that Pocket Books may know something about Blizzard's tentative specific release date for the game and adjusted the novel's release date accordingly . . . or they could just be guessing.

During out BlizzCon 2009 coverage last week we checked out the Pocket Books booth where they were showing off their previous and upcoming novels based on Blizzard's games. Among the books featured was StarCraft: Heaven's Devils, an upcoming hardcover prose novel from author William C Dietz.

Now Pocket Books has posted up an except from that novel on its web site. Designed to be a prequel to StarCraft II, the novel will be tell the story of the first meeting between Jim Raynor (hero of the first StarCraft game) and Tychus Findlay (the space marine that's the subject of the first StarCraft II CGI trailer). The novel is due in stores in mid-December.

Pocket Books has had the license to publish novels set in Blizzard's Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo universes for some time and that will apparently continue for Blizzard's upcoming RTS sequel StarCraft II. Starcraftwire.net reports that Pocket Books will release StarCraft: Heaven's Devils in December.

This will apparently be the first hardcover StarCraft novel released by the publisher and will "reveal the origins of the enduring friendship between young upstart Jim Raynor and streetwise soldier Tychus Findlay." Raynor is one of the main characters in the original StarCraft game while Findlay is set to be a major part of StarCraft II. The novel is being written by William C. Dietz who has been a prolific author of many other game-to-novel tie-ins.