In our 14th BlizzCast episode, we are joined by Production Director Chris Sigaty and Game Director Dustin Browder to discuss the StarCraft II beta experience and to recap some of the custom maps and creative strategies adopted by beta testers. The developers also delve into several other exciting topics including the upcoming achievement system and what players can expect to find in both the StarCraft II single-player campaign and challenge modes once the game is released.

Check out BlizzCast 14 now!

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is almost here, and we want to make sure players of all skill levels know their way around the game. We’ve put together a comprehensive game guide which we'll continue to expand in the coming weeks. In this guide you’ll find a plethora of helpful information, including instructional videos featuring guidance from familiar voices.

If you’re new to the StarCraft universe and familiarizing yourself with the new Battle.net, imagine the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters across your copy of the game. You’ll want to start by delving into our Beginner’s Guide, and then jump into our Battle.net Overview, where you'll learn about how to create a new StarCraft II character, what information can be found on your Player Profile, and instructions for navigating and using the Battle.net interface within StarCraft II. Those aching to leap into the single-player campaign should make a quick pit stop at the Campaign Overview to discover just what’s in store for you along the way. While you’re at it, whet your appetite with a quick, yet comprehensive look at the Story So Far. There you’ll find three videos that'll get you primed for the terran campaign. Story buffs can delve even further in the StarCraft Lore section.

If you’re looking for a detailed list of each race’s units – including their costs, how to build them, and their basic stats – check out our Units section. For an overview of the major players in StarCraft II, check out our Cast of Characters. If you want to get a sense of the big picture – space is big, really big – have a look at our guide to the Koprulu Sector Systems. This will give you some perspective as you travel between planets, tackle new perils, and seek greater riches.

With these guides you'll be well prepared to ship off with Jim Raynor and his crew, or to become a force to be reckoned with in multiplayer. Stay tuned, as we’ll continue to add new features to the Beginner’s Guide section, like a StarCraft II Editor Guide, the latest patch notes, and much, much more.

During the final stages of the beta test of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the Blizzard Insider sat down with Lead Designer Dustin Browder to discuss the balance and design philosophies behind StarCraft II’s intricate multiplayer matches -- and get some insight into the evolution of StarCraft II’s intense strategic gameplay.

Challenge missions bring a new and exciting flavor to the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player experience by pitting players against a set of missions designed to help them test, improve, and ultimately master abilities beyond the scope of what the tutorial has to offer.

Over its 12-year lifespan, the StarCraft community has developed its own culture, etiquette, and even its own language. As result, if you've never played StarCraft before, you might stumble across unfamiliar acronyms or phrases as you read through various blogs, announcements, forum posts, and comments available throughout the web. This vocabulary can be confusing if you're trying to learn more about the game, so in an effort to help you become fluent in the language of the StarCraft community, we've prepared a series of blogs that highlight and define some of the more popular terms for units, structures, tactics, and greetings.

In this first installment, we cover terminology for common units and structures. Like with any language, these terms can evolve and change, but we hope this will help get you started.

Outstanding work, recruits! With your contributions to the Dominion war effort, our supremacy in the sector is assured. The empire's citizenry can breathe a sigh of relief, thanks to your courageous sacrifices. The final reward has been unlocked, and along with the lore bridge videos, it should help tide you over until the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty on July 27. Congratulations on your achievement. Dismissed!

Watch the extended StarCraft II "Ghosts of the Past" trailer at the Join the Dominion! site.

Welcome to the Reconnaissance Report, your official look into the maps of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. To kick off the series, this week's featured map is Lost Temple, an original StarCraft favorite recently revamped and ready for action.

We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test. You've done an admirable job of testing, and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback you provided during this critical phase of development. It's been a lot of fun; however, all good things must come to an end.

In preparation for the launch of the game on Tuesday, July 27, the beta servers will be brought offline by Monday, July 19. At that time, all beta accounts and character information will be reset and the ability to create forum posts and comments on the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty website will be unavailable until launch. In the meantime, we still encourage everyone to stay tuned to the website for exciting news and updates regarding the upcoming release.

Thank you again for your participation, and we'll see you soon on Battle.net!

In the distant future, in the darkest reaches of space, the ghosts of the past whisper your name. You are Jim Raynor, a marshal-turned-rebel on a vigilante crusade to bring down the Dominion and its nefarious leader, Arcturus Mengsk. Haunted by betrayal and remorse, some believe you may have given up the fight. But you have promises to keep…and a need for vengeance that’s long overdue.

PC (Required)

Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 (Updated with the latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT or ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better
12 GB available HD space
1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 users)
DVD-ROM drive
Broadband Internet connection
1024X720 minimum display resolution

PC (Recommended)

Windows Vista®/Windows® 7
Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
2 GB RAM
512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

Mac (Required)

Mac® OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer
Intel® Processor
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon® X1600 or better
12 GB available HD space
2 GB Ram
DVD-ROM drive
Broadband Internet connection
1024X720 minimum display resolution

Mac (Recommended)

Intel® Core 2 Duo processor
4 GB system RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better

Lead the charge. Join us for the launch of StarCraft II at midnight on July 26/27, 2010

StarCraft II Midnight openings across Europe

Reports of zerg activity have been coming in from all across the world, and we need you to fend off the swarm that’s set to arrive this summer with the launch of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Retailers across Europe are hosting special midnight store openings to celebrate the release, and will start selling the game at midnight on July 26/27. Be among the first to get your hands on the Collector’s Edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty!

StarCraft II Beta – Patch 17 (version 0.20.0.16036)

BUG FIXES

Many of the following bug fixes were intended for internal testing only, and are now being reverted.

250mm Strike Cannons can no longer deal damage to hidden targets.
Barracks build time decreased from 65 to 60 seconds.
Bunker build time decreased from 40 to 30 seconds.
Canceling morphing Banelings now returns 75% of the cost like other morphing Zerg units.
Hellion range reverted from 6 to 5.
Reaper build time decreased from 45 to 40 seconds.
Zealot build time decreased from 38 to 33 seconds.

During key points in the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, various characters will grant you access to purchasable units and upgrades. These unique enhancements can be found within the Armory, Cantina, and Laboratory aboard the Hyperion. Each of these locations provides its own unique set of gameplay options, such as hiring specialized mercenaries and purchasing tech, building, and unit upgrades.

The Dominion fights for the perseverance of our way of life; the survival of our species. Citizens like you can bolster humanity’s strength by enlisting in the unwavering forces of the Dominion war machine. Join our ranks by taking the entrance exam. Recruit your friends and family to our cause. Contribute to our propaganda campaign. Earn your place in history!

Become a hero. Join the Dominion.

The Join the Dominion war efforts are paying off and the progress bar has reached 50%! Your hard work has released the first of two videos recapping the story of the original StarCraft. Every 5% gain unlocks new unique content, and the second half of the video series will be unlocked when the progress bar reaches 75%, so keep contributing! Read the FAQ to learn how you can help advance the progress bar.

Go to the Join the Dominion site to view the new lore bridge video as well as all the previously unlocked content. Don't forget to also check out the submissions gallery and keep those posters coming!

Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums

Recently, we introduced our new Real ID feature - http://www.battle.net/realid/ , a new way to stay connected with your friends on the new Battle.net. Today, we wanted to give you a heads up about our plans for Real ID on our official forums, discuss the design philosophy behind the changes we’re making, and give you a first look at some of the new features we’re adding to the forums to help improve the quality of conversations and make the forums an even more enjoyable place for players to visit.

The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name -- with the option to also display the name of their primary in-game character alongside it. These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game, with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting.

The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players -- however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well.

We also plan to add a number of other features designed to make reading the forums more enjoyable and to empower players with tools to improve the quality of forum discussions. Players will have the ability to rate up or rate down posts so that great topics and replies stand out from the not-so-great; low-rated posts will appear dimmer to show that the community feels that they don’t contribute effectively to the conversation, and Blizzard’s community team will be able to quickly and easily locate highly rated posts to participate in or to highlight discussions that players find worthwhile.

In addition, individual topics will be threaded by context, meaning replies to specific posts will be grouped together, making it easier for players to keep track of multiple conversations within a thread. We’re also adding a way for Blizzard posters to “broadcast” important messages forums-wide , to help communicate breaking news to the community in a clear and timely fashion. Beyond that, we’re improving our forum search function to make locating interesting topics easier and help lower the number of redundant threads, and we have more planned as well.

With the launch of the new Battle.net, it’s important to us to create a new and different kind of online gaming environment -- one that’s highly social, and which provides an ideal place for gamers to form long-lasting, meaningful relationships. All of our design decisions surrounding Real ID -- including these forum changes -- have been made with this goal in mind.

We’ve given a great deal of consideration to the design of Real ID as a company, as gamers, and as enthusiastic users of the various online-gaming, communication, and social-networking services that have become available in recent years. As these services have become more and more popular, gamers have become part of an increasingly connected and intimate global community – friendships are much more easily forged across long distances, and at conventions like PAX or our own BlizzCon, we’ve seen first-hand how gamers who may have never actually met in person have formed meaningful real-life relationships across borders and oceans. As the way gamers interact with one another continues to evolve, our goal is to ensure Battle.net is equipped to handle the ever-changing social-gaming experience for years to come.

For more info on Real ID, check out our Real ID page and FAQ located at http://www.battle.net/realid/ . We look forward to answering your questions about these upcoming forum changes in the thread below.

Update - Text updated to include more current and correct information regarding legacy forums and their use of Real ID. "The classic Battle.net forums, including those for Diablo II and Warcraft III, will be moving to a new legacy forum section with the release of the StarCraft II community site and at that time will also transition to using Real ID for posting."