Starcraft II beta opens!

The long awaited closed beta phase for Wings of Liberty is upon us - but that's not all that BLizzard has up its plush sleeves...

Well, it's here - if you've been lucky enough, your invite to the closed beta phase of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty should have gone out to you. Even we're not immune to this sense of anticipation; we've been promised access, but the waiting is nearly killing us.

Urge to build... bunkers... RISING!

The closed beta is aimed at not only working on the mulitplayer balance of the game (which is likely to make SCII the most carefully refined game in history), but also to put some stress to the new Battle.net service. Here's the guff straight from Blizzard's mouth:

"Gathering concentrated feedback from our players is an important step for us as we head into the final stretch of development for StarCraft II and the new Battle.net service," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to having our players' help in polishing the overall experience and preparing for launch."

But Starcraft II isn't the only thing Blizzard's got to be proud of. They also like fluffy toys...

Daw... ain't they cute (my messy desk: not so cute)? These babies will be available in the Blizzard Store next Tuesday, and will be accompanied by ingame codes to get the pet in virtual as well as real life (or is that the other way around?).

Behind the scenes with Mass Effect 3! GTX 560 VGA round-up! Essential Skyrim tweaks to improve your game! Plus reviews, news, hardware, more games, and easy to following modding guides for PC builders. ON SALE NOW!

Ads by Google

20 Comments

orcone Feb 18, 2010 11:48 AM	comrand and conker invented starcrap
Hawkeye Feb 18, 2010 12:03 PM	What? No caps?
orcone Feb 18, 2010 12:11 PM	I must be losing touch :( What are you waiting on? The key to be internet mailed to you, or the painfully slow download?
Hawkeye Feb 18, 2010 12:34 PM	Invite just came in - I am happy. In my pants.
Ghost_Bear Feb 18, 2010 1:12 PM	slashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashslashwrists.
Ghost_Bear Feb 18, 2010 1:14 PM	Wrists. GB
Ashlar Feb 18, 2010 3:50 PM	Hmmm... maybe should have signed up to Battle.net before today. (No chance of remember my account details from playing SC1 online a decade ago.) Oh, well... maybe i'll get an invite in the next phase or some such. Or not. >_> -A-
Lorddalvidiii Feb 18, 2010 4:09 PM	you call THAT messy?!
Hawkeye Feb 18, 2010 4:15 PM	You can't see what's growing in the beer bottle...
rony24 Feb 18, 2010 4:18 PM	Send your good taste to celebration by delivering our mouthwatering cakes to Goa and exotic flowers to Goa and leave a cherished memory with them. Add zing to the special occasions of your acquaintances in Goa by sending our fantastic flowers and tasty cakes. Please visit: www.goafloristshop.com
Hawkeye Feb 18, 2010 4:51 PM	I HAVE NO ACQUAINTANCES IN GOA!!!
melkor Feb 18, 2010 10:08 PM	I am so tempted to give Blizzard the finger and abstain from StarCraft II. No beta invite (probably favours mac users since it's all the rage these days), rip off "let's split the game into 3 parts and make people pay 3 times" move, and no LAN support. Screw that. And Diablo 2 was crap, Diablo 3 looks even worse. I'll stick to Diablo and StarCraft: Broodwars methinks.
Ghost_Bear Feb 19, 2010 12:02 AM	Hahaha oh melkor, how I and millions of other people strongly disagree (about Diablo 2). GB
Metasynaptic Feb 19, 2010 10:00 AM	Diablo 2 was better than the first one on so many levels, but diablo 1 pretty much enshrined the hack n slash mouse masher into the PC rpg agme world. Melkor, I suggest you take a look at Torchlight. It's likely to be right up your alley.
swalden Feb 19, 2010 1:34 PM	Wish i got a beta key ;(
melkor Feb 19, 2010 3:09 PM	Diablo 2 was far too big for it's own good and really just didn't look great art wise imho. Plus, Blizzard have deliberately been tanking the game with patches for a few years now. Zod rune, how rare? Just ridiculous. Monster immunities? For a sorc. character it really sucks. The skill tree was not my favourite thing either, it forced you to specialise, making the game unnecessarily more difficult imho. Sorry, but as a long time Blizzard game fan, Diablo 2 was disappointing. And I had my hands on a beta of it well before most. B.net sucked by the time of D2 as well, nowhere near as good as the good 'ole days of Diablo. People are like sheep. I ain't no sheep.
swalden Feb 19, 2010 6:53 PM	Melkor why does being part of the beta before anyone else make a difference? most of the world disagree with you are welcome to your opinion
melkor Feb 19, 2010 8:48 PM	swalden - read my original post - I also cited splitting the game into 3 parts. You can believe the BS that Blizzard is saying, I don't. It's a pure driven attempt at greed. Nothing more, and nothing less. Furthermore, the removal of LAN play is a travesty. I've been considering not buying StarCraft II for a while now anyways. Plus, I dislike Blizzard for taking legal action against those that set up an open battle.net - see the mess that shyte creates now? A closed battle.net, no LAN. If ever there was a valid reason to reverse engineer battle.net, that's it. I find it funny that the copyright act explicity allows reverse engineering for compatibility purposes, but the new DMCA removes that right. Blizzard played on this and won in the courts, further proof that the US legal system is a mess, and large corporate companies own senators to such an extent that laws a made to favour business at the expense of the public. I've met enough players both in person and online that think Diablo 2 was both overrated, and inferior to the original Diablo.
swalden Feb 20, 2010 9:15 AM	I do dislike the three way splitting, but im only really in it for the multiplayer. you can't exactly blame blizzard for setting up a closed battle.net as the open ones allowed people to not have a valid cd key. If i was a company and put a ton of money into a game, I'd like some return :)
melkor Feb 20, 2010 7:50 PM	I can see that point, but in reality, I'm also for the consumer - us. open battle.net wasn't doing any harm, and Blizard did not prove that they were losing income as a result of it. They argued that the people who set it up contravened the DMCA. The act that removes copyright entitlements from consumers. The act that does not have the peoples best interests at heart. I try not to support companies with that sort of behaviour. As time has went on, more and more information released by Blizzard about Diablo III and StarCraft II has made me more and more disinterested. Dave

Comments have been disabled on this article.

Latest Competitions

Thermaltake kicks off your gaming year with a BANG
Thermaltake has started off the new year with a bang by giving away a Tt eSport Theron Laser mouse to not one or two, but TWENTY lucky Atomicans!

Atomic Magazine

Issue: 133 | February, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

What's in this issue?