Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm closed beta is under way

[Shawn Knight]

Blizzard has announced that Starcraft II expansion pack Heart of the Swarm has now entered close beta status. The developer says the first round of lucky participants will include pro gamers, members of the press, shoutcasters and Arcade contest winners but there are plans to open the multi-player only test up to more players soon.

Gamers interested in participating are advised to opt in by clicking on the ‘Beta Profile Settings’ under the account management section in your Battle.net account. Of course, opting in doesn’t guarantee you will get beta access but you can better your odds by actively playing StarCraft II using the same account.

Blizzard points out they are also working with several fan sites and community personalities to provide additional opportunities to gain beta access. We suspect participating sites will be listed on the StarCraft II fan site so be sure to keep an eye out there as well. They didn’t say exactly how many beta invites will be handed out; only that they would add more players as required for their testing.

The company looks at a number of different metrics when traditionally selecting beta testers including system specifications (and a bit of luck) and whether or not you are actively playing the game in question. Participation for the beta is open to both Windows and Mac users simultaneously in all regions although supported languages are limited to English, German, French and Korean.

Last but not least, participants aren't binded by a non-disclosure agreement so we'll most certainly be seeing a lot of content from the beta.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/50071-starcraft-ii-heart-of-the-swarm-closed-beta-is-under-way.html

 

[Raswan]

Participants aren't BOUND.

 

[TomSEA]

Wonder how much additional content we're talking about. They want $40 for the pre-order which is almost as much as the original game was.

Of course they'll sell a bazillion copies no matter what the cost - just to the Koreans if no one else.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Wonder how much additional content we're talking about. They want $40 for the pre-order which is almost as much as the original game was.

Of course they'll sell a bazillion copies no matter what the cost - just to the Koreans if no one else.

My understanding is that the expansion is a single player campaign from the point of view of the Zerg race instead of humans. Although I don't know if it is chronologically after the orginal or if it's the same time frame. So it is as big as the original game, except it probably doesn't add much (or anything) to the multiplayer since you could already play all three races in multiplayer. Also, the original had other extras like challenges that I doubt will be expanded upon.

As far as expansions go, an extra 100% of single player content is pretty good.

 

[joshieboy]

Wonder how much additional content we're talking about. They want $40 for the pre-order which is almost as much as the original game was.

Of course they'll sell a bazillion copies no matter what the cost - just to the Koreans if no one else.

My understanding is that the expansion is a single player campaign from the point of view of the Zerg race instead of humans. Although I don't know if it is chronologically after the orginal or if it's the same time frame. So it is as big as the original game, except it probably doesn't add much (or anything) to the multiplayer since you could already play all three races in multiplayer. Also, the original had other extras like challenges that I doubt will be expanded upon.

As far as expansions go, an extra 100% of single player content is pretty good.

Mmm yeah but is that really worth the $40? In terms of multiplier content, it is quite limited and other than a new campaign, there really isn't much more they're adding. Also they could easily just add whatever else they claim to be adding through a patch release which they actually have recently released a pretty big patch that completely changed the format of the menu as well as a number of other changes and this was completely free (as it should have been). Most importantly, the visual aspects of the game aren't changing in any way so that to me would be worth a sum of the price if it existed.

Blizz is asking for the same $40 for the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria. To me, that is a respectable price because for the amount of content being added is worth the amount of money. However, I'm just not convinced the price is justified for Heart of the Swarm because the amount of content is just not there. Although I can comply with $40 much easier than $60, I would have enjoyed a lighter price of perhaps $25-30.

There is definitely an argument for both sides. I guess I'm just a little bias because I haven't been digging the actions of Blizz on some of their recent games/updates/expansions.

 

[Littleczr]

Let's face it, aside from the cinematics the single player campaign is boring . The real value is the multi player and even that got old. Now they will add 6 at units at most roflmao 30 to 20 dollar's is fair. Forty is overpriced.

Gone are the days when value was had for games.. Wc3 oozed replay value. Heck look at how many gamers still play dota. I will hold off on this one to see if it will be worth it.

 

[Steve]

I can't wait to hand over my $40 for the expansion, not sure what all the whining is about. If you are an SC2 fan like me you will appreciate how much time and effort Blizzard must be putting in to make the game so great. If you look at how the game has been improved since initially paying for it a few years ago it is hard to say you are not getting your money's worth.

Without having to pay a single dollar more the game has been patched countless times and often it is to accommodate the gamers by adding balance changes and new maps. The game interface has also just had a complete overhaul to include new game modes as well as just making the game itself more efficient.

Personally I don't care for the single player but if I am honest the SC2 single player was great fun, again the attention to detail is unrivaled.

So with the first expansion we get a new single player campaign (for those that enjoy that) but more importantly we get new multiplier units which will change the dynamic of the game, new maps and other inclusions such as the new destructible rocks which is pretty cool.

 

[Renrew]

I will not spend another penny on SC2 until Blizzard fixes the lag issue they created with their latest patch. Some versions of the modded games are now unplayable especially in the latter stages, as are some 1vs1 games.

There are numerous posts on the Battlenet site asking Blizzard to address this issue. Their silence however, has been deafening.

Another company that believes customer support is completely unecessary until their sales drop.

 

[Steve]

Really I have not noticed any lag since the latest patch and I play on the SEA/US and EU servers, usually 4v4's as well.

 

[riogma]

Really I have not noticed any lag since the latest patch and I play on the SEA/US and EU servers, usually 4v4's as well.

I think it is hardware specific. My trusty old iMac played fine on medium graphics until the 1.5 update. I have to set all my settings to low now if I want to do multiplayer.

 

[Renrew]

I'm glad for you that you have no problems. For the rest of us, it's frustrating to say the least.

I doubt wether it's a hardware problem as all the other games I play have no such difficulty. Blizzard acknowledged there is a problem and also acknowledged they have no idea how to fix it. That was 3 months ago, since then, nothing.

Not good customer support at all.

 

[Matt12345170]

I'm glad for you that you have no problems. For the rest of us, it's frustrating to say the least.

I doubt wether it's a hardware problem as all the other games I play have no such difficulty. Blizzard acknowledged there is a problem and also acknowledged they have no idea how to fix it. That was 3 months ago, since then, nothing.

Not good customer support at all.

Not that I have had any problems either, but I would like to point out that 1.5 has only been officially out for 41 days as of today.

On a side note, I cant wait for HOTS

 

[Steve]

I'm glad for you that you have no problems. For the rest of us, it's frustrating to say the least.

I doubt wether it's a hardware problem as all the other games I play have no such difficulty. Blizzard acknowledged there is a problem and also acknowledged they have no idea how to fix it. That was 3 months ago, since then, nothing.

Not good customer support at all.

I would really appreciate it if you could link me to where Blizzard are admitting they have a lag problem and that they do not know how to fix it.

 

[dennis777]

I wonder if you are required to have the original sc2 to play in the closed beta? will it installed itself to the directory of the SC2?