StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Message Board

If you ever watched livestreams of any eSports event, you might have noticed that the camera sometimes stays too long on one person in the crowd, and it can get really uncomfortable. Or it could be so terrifying and shocking that you flee immediately, like the ladies above.Read more...

A lot of people still miss the way the first StarCraft handles features like unit control and economy. Three years later, fans are still debating whether or not StarCraft II's new units are overpowered. Enter Starbow, an unofficial fan-made mod that aims to recreate the best aspects of Brood War in StarCraft II. It's not Brood War copied into the StarCraft II engine. It's more like a combination of the two.Read more...

Esports and StarCraft II in particular had a pretty cool and eventful year. Here's a clip, edited by YouTuber Soohyung Kim, with all the memorable matches and moments from this year's streams from MLG, the World Championship Series and other tournaments.Read more...

A StarCraft II mod, based on the popular Carbot Animation series? Yes please. That's something many of us would put on their Christmas wishlist. And I'm pretty sure no one could resist picking Zerg and massing those cute zerglings in the pic above.Read more...

In August, the U.S. government, for the first time ever, gave a professional gamer the kind of special visa it issues to professional athletes. It was largely thanks to lobbying by Riot Games, makers of League of Legends. Now the first visa has gone to a professional StarCraft player, and it gets him out of military service.Read more...

Beating the world's best StarCraft II player at this weekends Dreamhack tournament? No problem! Doing a proper traditional champagne celebration after the finals? Nope! It presented some difficulties and awkward moments for Korean terran player Liquid Taeja and Dreamhack boss Robert Ohlén—who came to help out—to open the giant champagne. It's not an easy task!Read more...

For those who haven't been keeping up with it, it might be hard to wrap your brain around StarCraft Universe. It's a StarCraft MMO that's actually a mod of StarCraft 2. Oh, and it's not being made by Blizzard ... but it has been sanctioned by Blizzard. And it just raked in almost $85,000 on Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter, started by Upheaval Arts last month, concluded yesterday, pulling in $84,918 from 1,753 backers - putting it just over its $80,000 goal. Now that funding has been achieved, the plan is to release the game through Battle.net as a series of custom games for StarCraft 2. The open beta for the first chapter is slated to begin in late 2013 or early 2014. StarCraft Universe will be playable using the free StarCraft 2: Starter Edition, meaning you won't have to harvest any minerals to try it out.

Earlier today, a new multiplayer map was introduced for StarCraft II during the GSTL tournament in South Korea. The map is called Fruitland, and it's a little bit different from other maps. Perhaps it's a tribute to Fruitdealer, one of the earliest StarCraft II pros?Read more...

Episode 16, season 2 of StarCrafts, the animated YouTube series that turns everything and anything StarCraft into something adorable, deals with the problem of locusts.Read more...

This must be one of the funniest e-Sports stream hijacks I've seen so far. During a League of Legends event at this year's Gamescom, someone in a classic creepy horse mask continuously kept distracting viewers from the commentators. So good.Read more...

A StarCraft 2 mod that turns the much-beloved sci-fi RTS into a World of Warcraft-like MMORPG has launched on Kickstarter. StarCraft Universe, previously known as World of StarCraft, will allow players to create a character and log in to an alternate-history StarCraft universe, where dark forces and Zerg/Protoss hybrids run amok. The project seeks $80,000 in funding.

This amount will allow mod creator Ryan Winzen and his team to not only construct additional pylons, but focus solely on creating the game, and subsequently release an open beta in early 2014. As expected, there are plenty of stretchgoals and nifty rewards, including a Zerg character class at $100,000 funding, which just sounds like all kinds of fun.

The game's Kickstarter page has more info and your opportunity to toss some minerals and vespene gas that way if you believe in it.

StarCraft II balance update: Blizzard is considering an Overseer speed buff and making Vipers start with full energy, among other changes.Read more...

If you're settling in to watch the Starcraft 2 World Championships from today's menu of live gaming, Blizzard has released the free Blizzard WCS app to help iOS users follow every aspect of the tournament.

Blizzard WCS acts as a central hub for all eSports news pertaining to Starcraft 2. The app allows users to stream live matches, view recordings of previous battles and set reminders for upcoming games. Updates on individual players and teams as well as eSports news can be accessed through the app as well.

Blizzard WCS is optimized for iPhone 5 and requires iOS 6.0 or later, but it does support models as far back as the iPhone 3 and 3rd generation iPod touch.

Got a StarCraft II account? Don't like your handle? You get one free name change!

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm has been out there for a while now. And while we've reported on quite a few hilarious easter eggs from the game, this one is particularly well-hidden. Found and shared recently by YouTube user StarNet420, it's just way too funny to ignore. Absolutely worth the wait in the video. It is right in the beginning of the first mission in the campaign, and hidden in a way that no one would really expect it. Heart of the Swarm - "Left-click the drone to select it" (easter egg) [YouTube] To contact the author of the post, write to gergovas@kotaku.com

Blizzard has instituted a spawning system in StarCraft 2, granting free access to gameplay features when moochers party up with players who have purchased the game.

When you jump into multiplayer, you play the most current version of the game owned by at least one person in the party. If you have the Starter Edition and you're playing with someone who has purchased StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, for instance, you'll both play Heart of the Swarm. The same goes for parties greater than two.

Spawning is being rolled out globally today. Not all regions have access to it yet, but Blizzard assures us it's in progress.

Spawning is back in StarCraft II: in other words, if you don't have Blizzard's real-time strategy game but you still want to play it, you can now mooch off a friend online. More info on battle.net (and in the video).

Greg "IdrA" Fields, a professional StarCraft player well-known in the community for getting way too angry when he loses games, was booted from his team Evil Geniuses yesterday. Evil Geniuses, one of the biggest and most successful groups in the world of competitive video gaming, gave IdrA the boot for a comment he made on an Internet forum earlier this week. In response to a question, the longtime StarCraft veteran had cursed out a fan. (Screengrab via PCGamesN) "Nope you're all a bunch of *crag*s," he wrote on Wednesday night. "It just so happens I get paid to treat you like it. It's *crag*ing awesome." For quite some time now, many have criticized IdrA for having a negative attitude toward other players and fans within the StarCraft community, but he has always been a fixture of the competitive scene surrounding Blizzard's popular strategy game, which has become a multi-million dollar industry across the world. But for Evil Geniuses, this was one nasty comment too many. "After having him on our roster for nearly three years, we have decided to release IdrA from the Evil Geniuses StarCraft 2 team," wrote Evil Geniuses CEO Alexander Garfield on the team's website yesterday. "We have strict guidelines that regulate certain kinds of more extreme speech, and we take disciplinary action when those guidelines aren’t followed, but for the most part, we stay out of the way... This is why it was never really an issue for us that Greg can be rude to his opponents in games, or that he usually speaks his mind very bluntly and directly. But, to us, there’s a very big difference between a player being disrespectful to an opponent in a ladder match, and a player being disrespectful to the entire community of people who, via their own enthusiasm and passion for the entertainment product he creates, actually make his profession possible. "The eSports industry, and companies like Evil Geniuses, would not be possible without the passion and support of our community. We, as a company, cannot and will not be supportive of anyone who does not show due respect and appreciation for the community that makes everything we do possible." This is major news in the world of StarCraft. Teams like Evil Geniuses are the lifeblood for professional eSports players: they pay out salaries, help players train, and generally keep everything organized for veterans' day-to-day life. While some fans can't stand IdrA's bad manners and perpetually negative attitude, others have defended him over the years. Many of his friends and fellow players reacted emotionally to the news last night: Evil Geniuses teammate Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson was particularly affected. Longtime StarCraft personality Sean "Day9" Plott took to his YouTube channel to react to the news: IdrA has yet to announce his next move. Photo: Team Liquid

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, the second salvo in Blizzard Entertainment's three-pronged sequel to the beloved RTS, has managed to entice 1.1 million gamers in its first 48 hours. The 1.1 million figure accounts for sales across both retail and digital.

Predecessor StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty managed to sell 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first 48 hours. Both can't match Blizzard's launch of Diablo 3 last year, which moved 3.5 million copies in its first 24 hours and helped Activision Blizzard enjoy historical profits in 2012.

In music theory, there's a series of notes called a tritone interval. (I'm a writer and a Rock Band player, not a musician, so bear with me, band members.) The tritone consists of three different whole tones: The first sets the stage, marks the spot on the musical scale that our ear can attune itself to. The second note is actually dissonant - it throws off the harmony, and introduces new elements so distasteful that the chord used to be called "The Devil in Music."

The third tone, however, finishes off the chord in exactly the right way, and brings resolution to all of the dissonance. Leonard Bernstein famously put the tritone to great use in the song "Maria" from West Side Story: "Ma-" is the beginning tone, "-ri-" shakes things up with some disharmony, and "-a" resolves the melody, justifying the lead couple's forbidden love.

Now, using that theory to talk about Blizzard's StarCraft 2 trilogy is a little unfair. The second campaign, Heart of the Swarm, isn't anywhere near "distasteful." But it does introduce plenty of new elements to the series, spinning off the RTS classic into places that Wings of Liberty never dared to go. And like that second note of a tritone, it makes sure to leave plenty of ambiguity and promise out there, making sure we're all ready for the big finale in Legacy of the Void.

#starcraft More »

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm launches tomorrow, and in the interest of its international fanbase Blizzard has provided a handy list of server activation times (i.e. when you can connect and start playing), broken down by region. You'll find the list after the break.

If you're playing StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty in preparation for the new expansion, you'll have to restart your game once Heart of the Swarm officially launches in your area, ensuring you'll have the very latest patch data upon starting. Changes in Heart of the Swarm includes a revamped replay system and ability to recover dropped games when playing online.

#starcraft Last night, after years and years of putting it off, I finally played the final couple of missions in Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. (Yeah, I know. Hey, I like the game and everything, but I got sidetracked!) More »

While Blizzard dropped the price of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty to $20 on Battle.net until March 12, Newegg managed to top that price with a deal of its own. By entering the code STW311 at checkout, players can snag the game for $17.99 on the retailer's site.

The extra $2 could be put toward the second part of the three-part RTS, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, which is scheduled to launch March 12.

Blizzard is selling the first part of its three-pronged assault of a sequel, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, for half-off until March 12. You can get the game through Battle.net right now for $20.

Wings of Liberty focuses on the Terran faction (see: future humans) on the single-player campaign, saddled on the back of the series' popular multiplayer component. The second wave of the three-part RTS sequel is due on March 12, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. A recent multiplayer beta for Heart of the Swarm concluded on March 1, allowing those who pre-ordered and opted in a taste of the new multiplayer changes.

If you've been enjoying the StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm public beta, then we're afraid we've got some bad news - it all comes to an end on March 1. Blizzard has announced the end of the open beta, which concludes just under two weeks prior to the launch of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm on March 12.

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is the second volley in Blizzard's planned three-game delivery for the sequel to its highly-regarded real-time strategy series. We were able to spend some time with Heart of the Swarm last month, feel free to read our impressions - or, if you just want something pretty to look at, check out the game's introductory cinematic.

#showus Controlling a cockroach or an entire ant colony is pretty unusual, even for a video game. So we can say games featuring these ideas resulted in rather unique and underrated titles—and that's absolutely not a problem. More »

Blizzard Entertainment registered a site called ProjectBlackstone.com late last year, and fans wondered if maybe it might be related to the mysterious upcoming Blizzard project code-named Titan. But no such luck, it seems: The domain went live this week and, soon after that, some crafty Redditors found the password. (It's "Y7_$0>0k_3<$m," if you want to try it yourself). The whole campaign has been revealed as a Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm tie-in.

Opening the site up reveals emails between various Terran characters talking about experimenting on Zerg lifeforms and presumably we'll see updates in the future that will fill out the story heading into the new game. Heart of the Swarm, the second part of the trilogy that Blizzard's Starcraft 2 has become, is due out on March 12.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Blizzard does like to put on a big show with its opening cinematics, and this one for StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is no exception. The expansion arrives on March 12, but in the meantime you can check out Mike Schramm's recent hands-on preview.

#gaminggifs After a 5 month hiatus, the Blizzard Cinematics Team finally struck lightning again, sweeping the Internet earlier today with this stunning opening cinematic for Starcraft II's upcoming expansion pack Heart Of The Swarm. More »