Starcraft II closed beta begins this month

It's spelled waiting, and if you read correctly I stated rushing a "BAD PRODUCT" to blizzard if the product isn't ready then it's a bad product; so they're not going to RUSH to release it. It's not that nebulous a thing to understand.

Rushing?, are you for real, ive seen tournament matches being played with all factions from 2008, and incase if you didn't know smartass its been about 10 years in waiting for some of us so watch your mouth.

ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha the first line game on track lol, biggest load of bullsht I have every heard it was due 2008; adleast its almost done, but I swear to god if they mess around with the release date again and put it back to 2011.

@ Ladiesman17 yes, exclusives are a market strategy which sells their consoles. but whats bad about it? you pay less for a console over a PC and get better exclusives. its a win win situation for both console makers and gamers. plus exclusive games tend to be better since they are optimised for a certain system and theres nothing holding back the devs. since your on the topic of strategies, isnt it Nvidia and ATI who releases new graphics cards costing a fortune which people buy and after a year, their not worth half as much? consoles will hardly depreciate and your always certain the game will run......on PC you need to make tradeoffs between frame rate and graphics like AA and res. but ofcourse you dont see that as a bad marketing strategy do you?

Also in regards to SC2 being generic. Can you imagine the cries and screams if they changed up the formula very much? Personally, I'm tired of all of these new "no base building" RTS games where you don't really build much of anything, but just rush units out the door. I want old school RTS back. But have fun with your awesome C&C 4

Nice let's hope we will see soon Diablo 3 closed beta :D

Roland, you're full of it. Blizzard had already explained it. You only add a price to your map if you want to sell it. It doesn't HAVE to have a price. But if someone made a complete new game type or something major, they could charge for it. I'm not saying I LIKE that method, but to claim there won't be any free content is not accurate at all.

roland we will see that.

Exact date, please.

i hope everyone realizes that thanks to WOW and Activision's influence, blizzard has become about as money grubbing as EA is these days. there will be NO free content for SC2, not even user made maps. users will have to submit their maps to blizzard and then blizzard will turn around and sell them..... how ridiculous.

this is my honest opinion.... SC2 looks to be about as generic an RTS as you can make. i know they are trying to recreate the first game with better graphics, but with RTS games like Company of Heroes out there that are redefining the genre..... i dont think there is any place for a generic RTS like SC2. SC was great in its day, but blizzard seems to be doing nothing with SC2 (except nickeling and diming people with microtransactions) that advances gameplay.

Oh yeah! I need to get a new laptop then. My laptop I bought from 2007 won't run this game for sure. :(

I think it will be hilarious after all this time if SC2 blows, at this point I've given up and am more interested in chaos rising.... more dakka!!!!

At this rate it should be out some time in 2034. Blizzard makes great games, but they are lazy.

I simply cannot wait to finally try this game. It's been a long time coming, too!

@jshaas yes, it is announced that sc2 will be released for the mac also. source: wikipedia, wont c/p link.

@ fps_d0minat0r @ Daian Just like I've said before.. "exclusives" just Consoles-opportunity to make profit.. for their Consoles & PCs didn't controlled by (ANY) single-company... like Microsoft X360 & Sony PS3 did!!! so that's why..just very small number of developer make PCs exclusive.. who cares.... (PCs still great in my opinion with enhanced graphic) :) :) PC Gaming will not die (by any mean!), because you know what, PC user more "massive & traffic" than Console users. Why are you keep saying "exclusives this-exclusives that, why do you always say the same thing over & over again"... that was just market-strategy.. don't make that (BIG)

@star-stratus independently of the PC having exclusives, which is a console mentality, the PC always has the potential for better graphics than the console versions.

y cnc4 is totaly killed speacialy with units and command points its total crap i played beta and i was bored when i reached lvl 20 with both races i was hopeing before i was goin in beta that units will look kinda same but with better graphics but it sucks and starcraft was kinda rmked wht i apriciate and still more new nice units i think no point of beta just release that game now :D

omg the release is still on track... dont believe it. Q3 here it comes.

Rather have Diablo III.

Will there be a Mac version?

Huh, thought they allready had done the beta testing ...

I've been crossing my fingers for a release date since this game was announced some years ago, at least this beta thing remembers me that there's still hope and that I will play this game eventually

@ Ladiesman17 i never cared about sales and never will but if there was someone to make exclusives for PC like SCE, they would do a great job of it and maybe more people would have gaming PC's problem with PC gamers is that their so defensive and get easily pissed off so no wonder companies have reduced their efforts. @ Daian no wonder you think pc has better exclusives, your research methods are poor. the "top 20" doesnt exactly mean their awesome games. look at it this way....PC exclusives rated over 9.0 in past 12 months: sims 3 - 9.0 thats it...... PS3 exclusives rated over 9.0 in past 12 months: uncharted 2 - 9.5 demons souls - 9.0 infamous - 9.0 comet crash - 9.0 MLB 09 - 9.0 killzone 2 - 9.0 ill ask you again.......try again but make a reasonable attempt this time.

who cares? whens the next wow expansion coming out plzzz

@ fps_d0minat0r PS3 Exclusives = Published by SCEA (SONY) ONLY X360 Exclusives = Published by Microsoft ONLY other than that = Multi-platform games.. (just check bro!) They make a lot of exclusives, with expensive production,, because they're afraid their consoles didn't sell well... PCs don't need that crap..

My most anticipated game this year!

Argh, they haven't even started beta testing yet :(

@ Abberon don't forget supreme commander2 that's gonna keep me nice and busy till SC2 is out DoW2 wasn't that bad if you could ignore the fact they had removed the base building.....which I managed for about a week then had to go back to DoW1 @ Waldkrieger lol your such a noob having your opinion and thoughts that differ from everyone else how dare you lol if you don't like rts games that's your decision and yeah halo 2 and 3 are overated (but I did enjoy the multiplayer in 3 for a good few months)

@fps_d0minat0r U say it's about quality and consoles have the better exclusives since not many exclusives on the PC get great reviews. Look carefully at each of the top 20 games list from the past 12 months on the PS3 , 360 and the PC right here on Gamespot.Let me quickly point out a few things. 360 has 2 strictly 360 exclusives in their top 20. PS3 has 6 strictly PS3 exclusives in their top 20. PC has 8 strictly PC exclusives in their top 20. PC and 360 share 2 massive hits in Mass Effect 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.PC also shares Dawn of Discovery with the Wii although they're totally different. 360 and PS3 share 3 games. The rest are on all 3 platforms with the PC having the highest rated version of Dragon Age. The conclusion? The 360 has a low number of really high quality exclusives while the PS3 doesn't exactly lead in that department either. It also shows that the PC has plenty of high quality exclusives and on top of that share many multi platform hits. I don't mean to brag but by simply analyzing the real situation your arguments are pretty much pawned.

Nice, hopefully it actually comes out this year.

@ Ladiesman17 I have very little doubt that Starcraft II will win RTS of the year. There hasn't been a really good RTS since Company of Heroes IMO. As for story-telling, Mass Effect II didn't impress most people. The BioWare forums are full of people complaining about how crappy the story was. I agree with them. Regardless, after so many RTS disappointments over the last couple of years (particularly Empire: Total War and Dawn of War II), I'm more excited about SC2 than any game out there. It's been my most anticipated game for probably the last 4 years. SC1 was the best RTS ever.

- If StarCraft II uses a new mechanical system, then they have possibility of becoming "Game Of The Year 2010" by GameSpot. :D - StarCraft II would be the "Best Strategy" game this year (I'm sure to come by, although this title not yet officially released). :) :) - And will most likely get a nomination for Epic "Story-Telling" besides Mass Effect II / Heavy Rain / Final Fantasy XIII.

@ pudgexd No, I am not a "noob" as I have been playing video games since Pong in the 70's. Since when is someone a "noob" simply because they don't like a genre of games? Am I a "noob" because I don't play Brintey's Dance Beat too? Or maybe the fact I dislike the Wii makes me a "noob"? It seems having an opinion makes one a "noob". That word should be stricken from the planet as it is ridiculous in itself. @k0r3aN_pR1d3 RTS games are not my thing, I have a right to my opinion. I also don't care about Halo much. Its very over-rated.

Its a real good thing they are not releasing this till mid 2010. I would fail my math even worse! But now that it will probably be released in the summer, I think I'll be living in moms basement! 0_0

OH MY GOD custom games!! YES! that means you can maybe make maps like in war3 Im so happy!

I think that video games in the West are getting very lackluster with a couple of gems here and there.... ...Which makes me glad I'm Korean. Get to play free Tetris multiplayer (Korean) and compete against our Japanese rivals. :D Along with plenty of other zany multiplayer games.

@ fps_d0minat0r actually dragon age is a lot better on pc The UI and the general controls are much better also graphicly it looks better (and my PCs 3yrs old) i traded my ps3 copy in and got the pc version (not that the ps3 version is bad my friends got it on xbox looks by far the worst) but you are right PCs lack exclusives nowadays I mean EAs destroyed CnC to make awful console ports. It's not like the good old battlefield2 days (awesome game even now) but there's still a few nice games coming

ok, this battle.net i think it will be the best awesome online gaming services of all. thanks Blizzard you're the best. (Like always)

@ fps_d0minat0r Lol most of the games df mentioned eat most console games alive and no just becuase a game doesint get a 9 doesint mean its not a quality game it just means the reviewers wherent paid enough to give it a good score. If you look at the ps 3 exclusives they are either 1 Weaboo games ( lol rpgs) 2 Movies (press x to jasssssonnnnn) Theres only like 3 worthy exclusives worth mentioning. If you think console games are better you can kindly pick 1 console and make a better exclusive list.

Waldkrieger, not for the hundreds of thousands who still play Starcraft to this very day. The online community for Starcraft rivals in size to Halo 3's at its peak, something to think about.

should be fun

Good thing this won't make it to store shelves before I'm done exams in may... My academic careeer would be over.

@Waldkrieger - lol noob RTS doesnt get old , since there's always new strategies of playing. Starcraft II gonna be Epic. Getting it after my major exams.

@ df-1 you know pc doesnt have the best exclusives so why do you try? decent attempt but like everyone who ends up making a list, you dont realise its no good compared to the exclusives consoles are getting. plus dragon age wasnt significantly better.......like fifa is significantly better on consoles. @ star-stratus thanks, you exactly proved my point........just look how hardly any of them have 9's or higher. i could make a longer list for consoles but whats the point if hardly any of them are getting 9's? the debate is about quality, not quantity so try again.

For any idiot who doesn't think the PC has it's fair share of exclusives: << LINK REMOVED >>

Bah, RTS games get old fast. Not my thing.

Will Gamespot hand over some keys?