Blizzard Releases First StarCraft 2 Custom Map

By Marcus Yam
published

Some added value, free from Blizzard.

StarCraft 2 has been the biggest PC game of the year so far, and there's still plenty of freshness to be enjoyed in multiplayer. But Blizzard has released a little something new in the form of a 3v3 map called "Burning Tide".

Featuring timed lava surges and collectable mineral caches, Burning Tide is a 3v3 map that combines several thematic elements from the epic single-player campaign mission "The Devil's Playground." Like the campaign mission, the goal of this game is greed, and the first team to reach the specified resource total wins! Players hoping to achieve victory on this map will need to work together, carefully managing their team's unit production and safeguarding their vulnerable workers as they defend against enemy forces.

Check out Burning Tide now in the custom games list in the game client.

Since this map has been out for a few days already, sound off in the comments if you've already had a chance to check it out!

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
37 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Efrayim
    Wow that map looks pretty intense.
    Reply
  • jordan009
    it is pree intense ;D
    i tried it a day ago
    Reply
  • duk3
    That looks pretty awesome.
    Reply
  • BulkZerker
    Free maps? Are you insane blizzard? Wheres the proffit in that? I mean seriously. People will pay $15 on top of full retail for a few maps. The mw series proved that already.

    Blizzard sometimes I wonder if you guys aren't junking out on hat magazines like valve
    Reply
  • lugalbanda
    I think the Blizzard model is to wait for the expansion pack to make its extra money. I mean, really, how much would people pay for this map? It seems smart to keep your base happy with a bit of new content every once in a while. Besides, WOW is their insane revenue stream.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    BulkZerkerFree maps? Are you insane blizzard? Wheres the proffit in that? I mean seriously. People will pay $15 on top of full retail for a few maps. The mw series proved that already. Blizzard sometimes I wonder if you guys aren't junking out on hat magazines like valveThe amount of work to make this map, vs the amount of work (code, art, models) to produce the map packs for MW are night and day. Heck, everything they had to build this map was already present in the Campaign and the Editor. One man could make it in a relatively short period of time.

    With that said, I certainly appreciate the custom map. I am hoping the community will step forward and produce some killer maps like we saw in SC1 - and not just a million flavors of tower defense. I've only seen a few good ones. I really would like a proper remake of the Art of Defense maps. Someone put together a new "Art of Defense" map but its completely different and mostly junk. The beauty of the old AoD was its simplicity, I think we went too far on adding extra paths, lots of empty space, expansion points, etc in the new one.
    Reply
  • adonn78
    It adds a nice challenge as the players must break off their attacks to avoid the lava sflow from killing their army. It prevents rushing and allows players to spend time building up. And the way to win would be to have a sizable fast army that can attack quick, run away and attack again. Thanks so much Blizzard!
    Reply
  • Moores Law
    that map looks great, wish I could try it.
    Reply
  • rrockman
    A news very fitting of Tom's Hardware, which has become my first Starcraft 2 resource on the net.
    Reply
  • hihiman1
    This map is pretty fun. I think Terran has the advantage here because they can use MULEs and I think they can place their CC closer to the minerals and just lift off, but its still fun.
    Reply