Blizzard launches closed beta of StarCraft II

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Matthew DeCarlo

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Blizzard has launched the long overdue and highly anticipated StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta, though only a handful of lucky gamers will initially get their hands on a copy. Thousands have been invited to participate in the first phase (closed beta), and there's no word on when it might open to the public. It's great news nevertheless, and brings us all one step closer to the finished product.

Those fortunate enough to test drive the game will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the multiplayer balance. They'll also get a first look at the revamped Battle.net, which supposedly brings a competitive ladder and marketplace, and will debut alongside StarCraft II. If you weren't chosen for the first wave of testing, it might cheer you up to know that the game should run fine on relatively old hardware.


The beta's official minimum requirements are listed as Windows XP SP3 or higher, a 2.2GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD processor, 1GB to 1.5GB of RAM depending on your OS, a 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6600GT or ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, a minimum display resolution of 1024x768, 4GB of free storage, and broadband Internet.

Regardless of whether you've been graced with an invitation, we would love to hear your thoughts on both StarCraft II and the new Battle.net.

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Wow, a beta for a game that's likely been complete for over a year. Well at least we might see it in 2010, well 1/3 of it anyways.
 
Whew...those are some low system requirements. Sounds like it really has been in development for 10 years.
 
Since I switched my accounts over to Battle.net, I've been very pleased. I haven't played Starcraft yet, but I play Diablo 2 and WoW like a crack addict. I'll definitely give it a shot though.
 
I got my invitation. Pretty pumped. It's taking 3 hours to download though. Not a ton of peers, it must be a pretty small field at this point
 
Damn, I'm signed up for the beta lottery but have not received an invite yet. Starcraft has been my favorite game since it came out, when I was seven or eight. I remember the day SC2 was announced. I logged on WoW and EVERYONE in trade was talking about it. I alt tabbed, went to blizzard's website, and sure enough - over a large roman numeral 2 were the words 'it's about damn time' in a font any SC junkie would recognize.
 
Yah I sign up for blizzards beta testing lottery when I switch my WoW account over to a battle.net account (right before they made you do it....)

Sadly no beta key for me. Did see a guy on WoW last night trying to sell a SC2 Beta key for 35k gold. Made me laugh.
 
Been in the beta a few days now and it's pretty polished. There are balance issues here and there and some other odd bugs but overall the whole experience feels really solid. Matchmaking is a snap, and it feels like it's doing a good job. It will notify you at the loading of a match the favored party, or if you're equal etc.

As you play more games it accounts for your tier of play. So in 1v1 after 10 games of varying test opponents (real players) it will plce you in a bracket of players - bronze, silver, gold and platinum relevant to your skill.

Overall it's pretty awesome, I wouldn't be surprised to see it ship by end of the year easy. As it stands right now lag is good, play is smooth and it's an enjoyable experience with few "exploits". Its almost like a finished game they want feedback, not a beta. Beta implies broken and needs serious gameplay mechanic fixes, this is more like a pre-release candidate they want real gamers opinions on. IMO.
 
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