Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that its highly anticipated real-time strategy game, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, will arrive in stores throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau starting on July 27, 2010. Players will also be able to purchase StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty directly from Blizzard Entertainment shortly after the retail launch.

"We've been looking forward to revisiting the StarCraft universe for many years, and we're excited that the time for that is almost here," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Thanks to our beta testers, we're making great progress on the final stages of development, and we'll be ready to welcome players all over the world to StarCraft II and the new Battle.net in just a few months."

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the sequel to Blizzard Entertainment's 1998 hit StarCraft, which has been hailed by players and critics worldwide as one of the top real-time strategy games of all time. Sporting a vibrant 3D-graphics engine, StarCraft II will once again center on the clash between the protoss, terrans, and zerg, with each side deploying legions of veteran, upgraded, and new unit types. Unparalleled online play for StarCraft II will be available through a new version of Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment's world-renowned gaming service. Battle.net has been redesigned from the ground up to be the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers, with several enhancements and new features, such as voice communication, cloud file storage, leagues and ladders, achievements, stat-tracking, and more.

The solo campaign for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will continue the epic saga where it left off in StarCraft: Brood War. The story line chronicles the exploits of marshal-turned-rebel-leader Jim Raynor and features both familiar faces and new heroes. Players will be able to tailor the experience, choosing their own mission path and selecting technology and research upgrades to suit their playing style throughout the 29-mission campaign. Several challenge-mode mini-games will also be included, with focused goals designed to ease players into the basics of multiplayer strategies.

• The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game
• An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War(R) expansion set
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director's commentary, and more
• The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks
• StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
• A World of Warcraft(R) mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account

• Banshee
  • The health has been increased from 130 to 140.

• Missile Turret
  • The damage has been changed from 7+7 armored to 12.

• Thor
  • Anti-Air damage has been decreased from 10+6 light to 8+4 light.
  • Anti-Air attack now deals splash damage in a 0.5 radius.

Protoss:

• High Templar
  • The Psi Storm radius has been decreased from 2 to 1.5.

• Photon Cannon
  • Life and Shield values have been increased from 125/125 to 150/150.

Zerg:

• Broodlord
  • Damage has been decreased from 25 to 20.

• Roach
  • Organic Carapace no longer grants bonus regeneration to unburrowed roaches.

• Spine Crawler
  • Damage has been increased from 20+10 armored to 25+5 armored.
  • Attack period decreased from 2.2 to 1.6.

• Spore Crawler
  • The cost has been decreased from 100 to 75.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue in which players would desync when matched against others with certain CPUs.

General

• You can now report misconduct or block communication with a player after completion of a game by right-clicking on the offending player's name in the score screen and choosing Report Abuse or Block Communication.
• You can now view any player's profile after completion of a game by right-clicking on their name in the score screen and choosing View Profile.
• Updated unit and ability tooltips to be accurate in all regions.
• Improved the visibility of units on zerg creep.
• Improved the visibility of team colors for protoss units using warp-in to help distinguish between multiple protoss players.
• Improved the system that handles promotion and relegation between Leagues.
• Improved the Favored functionality to more accurately portray Even matches and display properly in the score screen.
• Improved 2v2 arranged team matchmaking so games are found more quickly.
• Improved replay functionality so missing maps will be downloaded from Battle.net when you view a replay.
• Korea: Improved the logic for the age gate functionality.

• GENERAL
  • Pathing has been improved so units can now properly block ramps and choke points.
  • Made a change to how zerg creep affects doodads, such as trees, to prevent players from seeing the starting location of zerg players through the fog of war.
• TERRAN
  • Viking
    • Cost changed from 125 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 75 Vespene Gas.
  • Ghost
    • Cost changed from 100 Minerals and 200 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 150 Vespene Gas.
    • EMP Round radius decreased from 3 to 2.
  • Factory
    • Cost decreased from 200 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas to 150 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.
  • Tech Lab
    • Cost decreased from 50 Minerals and 50 Vespene Gas to 50 Minerals and 25 Vespene Gas.
  • Reactor
    • Build time increased from 25 seconds to 50 seconds.
  • SCV
    • Life decreased from 60 to 45.
  • Bunker
    • Build time decreased from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.
  • Marine
    • Build time increased from 20 seconds to 25 seconds.
• PROTOSS
  • Colossus
    • Thermal Lances damage decreased from 23 to 20.
  • Observer
    • Cost increased from 25 Minerals and 75 Vespene Gas to 50 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.
    • Build time increased from 33 seconds to 40 seconds.
  • Stalker
    • Particle Disruptors damage increased from 8 (+6 Armored) to 10 (+4 Armored).
    • Weapon upgrade damage decreased from +1 (+1 Armored) to +1 (+0 Armored).
  • Dark Templar
    • Armor type changed from Biological-Psionic to Biological-Psionic-Light.
  • High Templar
    • Armor type changed from Biological-Psionic to Biological-Psionic-Light.
  • Dark Shrine
    • Build time increased from 80 seconds to 100 seconds.
    • Cost increased from 100 Minerals and 200 Vespene Gas to 100 Minerals and 250 Vespene Gas.
• ZERG
  • Baneling
    • Volatile Burst damage increased from 15 (+20 Light) to 20 (+15 Light).
  • Roach
    • Burrowed regeneration rate decreased from 10 to 5.
    • Upgraded burrowed regeneration bonus decreased from +20 to +10.

Balance Changes:
Terran:

Engineering Bay:

• Infantry Armor: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
• Infantry Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.

Armory:

• Vehicle Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
• Vehicle Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
• Ship Plating: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.
• Ship Weapons: The time required for each upgrade has been reduced by 30 seconds, decreasing each upgrade time from 190/220/250 seconds to 160/190/220 seconds.

Protoss:

Zealot:
The maximum shield capacity of this unit has been decreased from 60 to 50.


Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where the Infestor's Neural Parasite ability could cause Reapers to lose the ability to move.
• Fixed an issue that could use an incorrect HDR format on some ATI cards.
• Fixed a crash that could happen on some ATI cards.

This battle report is a Zerg vs. Protoss. With Yeon-Ho Lee as the blue Zerg in the upper-left part of the map. Then we have David Kim as the Protoss to the mid-right part of the map. This is another awesome display of StarCraft 2.

We get to see brilliant use of Stalkers with there Blink capabilities. Also the Nullifiers use of Force Field is well played blocking many Zerg units on a lot of different occasions. Both of these units are Protoss units. For the Zerg we there is great use of Burrowed Infesters that can move freely underground. The Burrowed Infesters use Neural Parasite to turn enemy units on there own teammates units.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced a few weeks ago at the Activision Blizzard Conference Call during E3 that StarCraft II Beta would start this summer. Today, the Gaming Press Sites awakened fans with the news that Blizzard has contacted all of them by email to alert them to set up their Battle.net account by Friday, June 19th (deadline). Does this mean beta starts this weekend? A week later?

The answer is not that simple. No date was provided to the press, but it is exciting to know it is gonna frag everyone any second after June 19th. It is interesting how the news got leaked today, which marks the last day of school classes throughout United States. Something fans should know is that, around last month, the media was invited to visit Blizzard Headquarters this June 22nd.

Kulas Ravine:
The first battle report is Matt Cooper as red Protoss on the lower right. David Kim is on the top left as blue Terran. This map has narrow choke points at each base so it can be easily defended . There is also an expansion near by that has a high ground advantage for defense. There is also Xel'Naga watch towers which allow you to see what is going on in a large area around them if you capture them. There are also high yield mineral fields which have faster resource gathering. However they are not as easy to defend as other expansion spaces are.

If you would like to sign up all you need to do is log on to your Battle.net account. The requirements are simple all you need to do is have at least one blizzard game on your battle.net account(which requires the cd-key). Once logging in click on "Beta Profile Settings". Then download the beta opt-in application for windows or mac depending on which one you use. Run the program and send it to blizzard and be sure to select StarCraft universe. Here is Blizzards Beta Opt-in Instructions that about sums up how to sign up.

As for when the beta will start there is no official start date. However if you look at the past game release dates four have been released in late June early July. Another four were released in November. Perhaps the beta will begin soon and the game will be out in July? Let's hope so or else November is the next date I could foresee other then July. Just remember this is based on past games and there release dates.

The beta will be done in phases North America will be the first region. Then other regions will follow. So that makes me happy if I get selected(If so that would mean a lot more content for this site). The reasoning behind doing it in phases is that it takes time to set up and configure the testing infrastructure in each area. Once the North American region is up and running the other regions should come quickly after because Blizzard should be able to streamline it.

If you went to BlizzCon 2008 they gave out codes that you can use to gain access to StarCraft 2 Beta. Also if you have an unused beta code from WWI 2008, you will be able to use the code to gain entry to the European phase of the StarCraft II beta. One last thing is that if you made a Battle.net account awhile back and checked a box to indicate you wanted to participate in Blizzard betas. You still need to download the beta opt-in application and run it.

Writeup:

First of all, the development team had been planning for a long time that StarCraft II would include two expansion sets. So from that perspective, the answer is from the beginning, or near to it. From the sense of, “when was it decided that each campaign would focus entirely on a single race and telling one enormously epic story?” then that decision started coming together around the time that the first details of our single-player campaign design were announced at BlizzCon 2007.

Once the dev team started delving into what it would take to create a branching campaign, with meaningful choices in missions, technology upgrades, and all the story elements – the in-game and pre-rendered cutscenes, the interactive sets with dialogue, news reports, and all those aspects, it became clear that it was going to be a ton of stuff to try and cram into one product.

Rather than compromise on the massive vision that was coming together for all three races just to fit a short campaign for each of them into one product, it became clear that the right thing to do from a gameplay, story, and design perspective was to go *big* on all three races. We’re talking about 26-30 missions for –each- chapter of the trilogy, more cutscenes, more interactive elements, and campaign choices that become more meaningful. Each campaign has more room to breathe in this way, and the storywriters can be more creative in how they bring the plot along, and the designers can get really creative in the mission designs and objectives throughout each campaign.

This goes along with the whole "multiplayer is at the heart of Starcraft II thing. Being focused on multiplayer is no excuse to not give us top-tier AI for both movement and in the single-player campaign. Movement and pathing is obvious, of course. Nothing kills an RTS faster than a unit getting lost on the way to a battle. That being said, opponent AI is important too. Plenty of people will be playing StarCraft II for the single-player campaign and the skirmish mode (possibly more than will ever play multiplayer) and they deserve a decent opponent. Remember that "learn from others" tip? Check out what Stardock has been doing with game AI.

Yay! New screenshots! They're all unfortunately fairly low-res, but beggars can't be choosers, aye?

Here they are:

With BlizzCon approaching, the Sons of the Storm art website, made up of Blizzard artists, has added a couple new StarCraft 2 artworks to their website.

There's SCV concept art by Samwise, which you guys should have already seen, but they've also uploaded full high-res artworks for Zeratul as seen on the BlizzCon 2008 poster, as well as the cover for the final book in the Dark Templar trilogy - Twilight.

The poor Zerg player gets his butt handed to him very soundly by the Medium Terran AI.

In addition to the game's downright prettiness even in such a low-res video, we also get a tiny glimpse of the Zerg Changeling unit, which currently uses the Zergling portrait, from the looks of things.

If I recall correctly, the Changeling can assume the form of a tier-1 enemy infantry unit. It's basically just there to scout, as this fellow in the video correctly deduced. Seeing them running alongside all the real marines has got to be the cutest thing I've seen in StarCraft 2 :P.

Watch the whole video here, or click on the picture.

First up, the Warp Ray has undergone a name change and is currently known as the Void Ray. I'm guessing it's an extension of its Dark Templar alignment, in keeping with the by-now-familiar re-skin of the unit.

Karune also talked a little on a popular Void Ray strategy in the game's current build. Here's his post in full:

Warp Rays, also known as Void Rays now, are especially good against high hit point units, as well as buildings.

Often, the strategy that sees the most Void Ray use is against Zerg, using these units to do surprise attacks or joint attacks. Many Protoss players who scout Zerg players going mass ground units, will fast tech to Void Rays in hopes to catch them without anti-air capabilities. Void Rays are also great to do an attack on their base while you have a diversionary force distracting them in another place. 2-3 Warp Rays could take out a Hatchery much faster than say that equivalent in resources of Mutalisks.

Original thread here.

He's also talked about the armour system in StarCraft 2, which, as you guys may already know, is different from the original game.

Here's what he said in his two posts:

At the moment, there is 'light' and 'armored' armor classes. Buildings also fall under the 'armored' armor class.

Attacks on the other hand are a bit more varied. There is bonus damage towards, 'light, armored, biological, and massive.' Knowing a unit's damage bonuses will be very important in knowing what to use to counter certain units.

Biological units usually just mean they are not mechanical. Marines, Zerglings, and Zealots are biological. Non-biological units does not however mean they fall under the 'armored' class though and vice-versa.

For instance, Marauders are biological units but are armored. Nullifiers are mechanical units, but have light armor. Ultralisks, would fall under massive, biological, and armored. Though Battlecruisers would be massive, mechanical, and armored. These new categories also allow for many more soft counters in the game as well, giving slight bonuses to units against a certain type, but not have it as an overwhelming hard counter, where one unit wins the game easily.

Here's what the had to say:

The Hellion is faster than the Reaper side by side, but the cliff traversing talent often gets the Reaper to the place you want to go faster.

In raiding, it really depends. Hellions will be able to hit several workers at the same time, but Reapers have much more direct damage. Choosing what to use may also depend on what you are up against. Hellions are armored, whereas Reapers are light armor. Both are very useful for raiding and used in conjunction effectively could easily mean GG quite early, bleeding the enemy economy and tech.