The new Battle.net that had launched with StarCraft 2 might have taken many users by surprise – if they did not keep up with SC news during development – with its permanent character names and the lack of chatrooms.

Blizzard has promised to bring chat rooms back within a few patches, and now, gamers not happy with their handles will be offered a name change for free soon as well. Why bother writing “free“? Well, because Blizzard will be charging for Battle.net name changes in the future.

The recent 1.0.3 patch continued the tradition of providing a minor bug fix while leaving gameplay balance intact.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue preventing some players from accessing offline play from the login screen

Our Nvidia-sponsored GeForce GTX 460 StarCraft 2 flipbook contest came to an end this weekend, bringing multiple interesting submissions. As promised, the winner of the contest will be awarded with a EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB and the runner up will receive a SteelSeries limited edition professional grade StarCraft 2 mousepad.

The second place, along with the mousepad, goes to Stephen Barnes for submitting this animated battle, called “Death From Above”.

The winner of the contest is Nadya Emmyl from Stary Oskol, Russia, who submitted this excellent animated reenactment of Kerrigan’s last stand on New Gettysburg.

With StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty experiencing phenomenal growth numbers after going live just ten days ago, Blizzard’s ability to keep the servers live and available worldwide for each of the localized versions and various licensing plans is nothing short of a phenomenal achievement.

That being said, Blizzard has already released two StarCraft 2 patches and is keeping an updated list of known issues here. Up until now, none of the documented issues, fixes and patches have affected unit abilities or multiplayer gameplay. However, playing a 2v2 with a flickering screen and scrambled voice communication is clearly not the optimal gaming experience.

StarCraft 2 patches so far:

PATCH 1.0.1

Bug Fixes

*     Campaign saves have been optimized.

*     Fixed an issue with sound not playing on some 7.1 systems.

PATCH 1.0.2

Bug Fixes

*     Fixed an issue where campaign mission victories would not always trigger properly.

*     Fixed an issue where some players were unable to access single player features.

The list of technical issues acknowledged by Blizzard at this point, however, is significantly longer:

1. Graphical issues

Issue:

You may experience random corrupted graphical issues affecting units, structures, terrain and transmission.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

You may experience corrupted graphical issues when the Paged Pool Memory is running low.

Solution:

Quit unnecessary background applications and processes then restart the game client. For additional information please read the following article:

Issue:

You may see missing buttons to create previously unlocked units, characters become white spheres or only able to start older missions on the Starmap.

This is due to save game corruptions and connectivity issues when saving.

Solution:

This is being patched shortly to prevent further occurrences but for now you should attempt to load an older save game that is not corrupt.

If this is unsuccessful you will need to restart the campaign.

2. Sound and Voice Chat issues

Issue:

In-game sound might not play properly on some hardware devices set to 7.1 Surround on Windows Vista / Windows 7.

Solution:

Set sound output speaker options to 5.1 Surround or lower.

Issue:

Players are able to send but not receive in-game voice on Windows 7 computers equipped with the Realtek HD Audio sound card when the Output Device in the Sounds Menu option is set to Speakers.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

Changing the OS speaker mode on Windows Vista and Windows 7 whilst the game is running causes all in-game sounds to stop.

Solution:

None at the moment. Temporary solution: Change the OS speaker mode prior to launching the game.

3. Galaxy Editor issues

Issue:

The Terrain editor may lag or stutter when dragging the mouse around the map.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

Changing certain values in the Galaxy Editor is causing a crash while in detail view.

Solution:

None at the moment.

4. Mac issues

Issue:

The game may occasionally crash on OS X 10.6 with Nvidia drivers.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

Playing with an USB headset will drastically lower in-game performance (FPS).

Solution:

None at the moment.

5. Miscellaneous

Issue:

A language pack error may occur under certain conditions.

Solution:

Ensuring your system clock is correct can help resolve the error.

Issue:

Players will be unable to download or use the digital installer when attempting to download or install the game to a hard drive formatted in FAT32.

Solution:

Download or install the digital client to a NTFS formatted hard drive.

Issue:

Error Message: „The Battle.net Account does not include an associated copy of Starcraft 2.” after registration of the CD-Key.

Solution:

Please change the password at the battle.net website. Make sure you use the correct game client EU game client for the EU StarCraft II Account or US/US

Blizzard is not the only company facing pressure over StarCraft 2′s performance, as hardware manufacturers scramble to update their drivers to be compatible with the game. ATI stands out after releasing the Catalyst 10.7a Beta Driver virtually solely for the purpose of supporting anti-aliasing in StarCraft 2 – a feature we had no problem with when reviewing Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 460 and GTX 470 graphics cards using a standard set of drivers.

Blizzard has released what will probably end up being the last StarCraft 2 Beta Patch ever  - patch 18. With no drastic adjustments, containing only minor bug fixes, it seems the development team is content with StarCraft 2′s current gameplay state and race balance.

General

-The Mac StarCraft II Editor is now available!

Bug Fixes

– Burrowed Ultralisks now have the correct 500 hit points while burrowed.
- Fixed an issue where custom maps utilizing custom loading screens could cause players to lag or be dropped from Battle.net.
- Fixed an issue during replays when rewinding could cause the replay to desync.
- Fixed an issue with in-game menus causing performance issues.

An official announcement regarding the beta ending time has been released: it’s due to shut down today, July 19.

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!

Enjoy the last hours of beta play, and brace for the full release on July 27!

After one long month of hiatus, the StarCraft 2 beta returns in full force. This phase will last for 11 days, until the 19th of July. Here’s the official word:

The second phase of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test is now underway. We’re delighted to invite you back to the battlefield and hope that you will join us through July 19 for more terran, protoss, and zerg action.

As stated previously, all data from beta phase one has been reset. This includes characters, match history, ladder rankings, and achievements. Beta participants will therefore need to recreate their characters and, if joining matchmaking games, complete a new series of placement matches.

We thank you for all the feedback you provided during phase one and are excited to hear about more of your experiences in phase two. Welcome back to beta, and we’ll see you on Battle.net!

Patch 16 was released along with the restarting of the beta, bringing with it a few relatively minor changes and some more undocumented ones.

GENERAL

Rally points now behave as a move command, instead of an attack move command.
Enabled the ability to manually add a StarCraft II character friend using the player’s character code. Character code is a server-assigned numerical code that is displayed within the Add Friend panel.
Battle.net Achievements & Rewards have been updated.
All Quick Match modes are now available: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and Free For All.
All A.I. difficulties are now available for play.
Cooperative matchmaking versus A.I. players is now available as a play mode.
Enabled cross-game social features between World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.

The rally point change is the big news of this section. Previously, units rallied out of production buildings would automatically attack all enemy units in their way, often nullifying themselves immediately because they would meet with larger forces. This would frequently make rallying useless, since each new unit had to be handled anyway. Instead, units will now move to where they’re told to go, ignoring enemy units.

ZERG

Infestor

Frenzy spell removed.
Infested Terran spell added.

Overseer

Infested Terran spell removed.

Ultralisk

Now immune to stuns and mind control.

Continuing the trend from the recent patches, the Ultralisk has received another buff. Along with the speed upgrade and the ability to ignore the Protoss Sentry’s Force Fields, Blizzard is certainly gearing the Ultralisk to be an unstoppable juggernaut – just like its design implies. It will be interesting to see if this latest buff will be enough for this purpose.

A few other undocumented changes have already been spotted in the new phase of the beta, both for the interface and the game itself. We’ve gathered a list of changes:

GENERAL

• All menu sound effects changed
• Many changes to all races sound effects
• Changed graphics settings, removed highest level of shaders
• Engine performenace optimized (not confirmed)
• “Beta” removed from title screen
• New music added
• StarCraft installation directory drops from 10gb to 3.5gb as the patch deletes all previous versions
• Only 2 placement matches are required (down from 5 before and 10 at the start of the beta) A display bug incorrectly shows that only 2 placement matches are required while 5 are needed in effect
• Xel’naga towers now look like eyes on the minimap

GAMEPLAY

• Tabbed browsing through production buildings has been removed. Instead, units are assigned to the most efficient building. Early reports inform about many issues with this.
• Neural Parasite is no longer unlimited, lasts about 12 seconds
• Infested Terrans last 30 seconds (from 20)
• Infested Terran can be cast while the Infestor is burrowed
• Roaches can no longer move under Force Fields while burrowed
• Stalkers can no longer blink over “unpathable” terrain, meaning no more blinks across islands

Time to hit the servers!