14 DAY TRIAL // A new beta patch has been offered by Blizzard for those who are registered in the Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty beta stage, which probably means players will shortly be able to again play the real-time strategy title in multiplayer with others.
The company previously announced that a second period of beta play would start towards the beginning of July, allowing players to see what changes had been made to the multiplayer section of the sequel ahead of the worldwide launch date of July 27.
Blizzard has not yet posted the full patch notes, which means that, at the moment, the changes made are unknown but most of them are probably related to balance. There are changes made to a lot of the units and the Rally point is now a move command and not an attack move one. The list of Achievements has also been updated, while the Artificial Intelligence is able to play on all difficulty levels and not just on Easy as in the previous beta stage.
The patch is quite big at 500 MB and reports from players on the official forums are saying that the download is going slow and that after the patch is applied, a lot of issues related to connecting to Battle.net and other players will persist.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is the sequel to one of the best known real-time strategy titles of all time. The new video game does not aim to change the foundations of the experience but to refine the mechanics of the first title while also introducing new units and challenges for players. The single player campaign will focus on Jim Raynor, the Terran commander, and his band of brothers as they navigate the treacherous political climate of the in-game universe. Blizzard is also promising a more balanced multiplayer experience and better matchmaking.