StarCraft 2 Gets Three Official Mods

After being launched last year, StarCraft II has just received three official mods from its developer, Blizzard, which aim at introducing brand new gameplay mechanics into the real-time strategy game.

Blizzard has been trying to fine tune the StarCraft II experience since its release, with the company pushing multiple patches that balanced out some of the problems found by players, fixed exploits that allowed unfair advantages and banned those who used cheats or special programs to win in multiplayer matches.

Now, in order to diversify the StarCraft 2 experience, Blizzard has released three new mods for the game, called Starjeweled, Aiur Chef, and Left 2 Die.

Basically, if you didn't figure it out from their names, the mods add gameplay mechanics from other types of games, including Puzzle Quest or Bejeweled, in the case of StarJeweled, Cooking Mama or other collection-based simulators, in the case of Aiur Chef, and Left 4 Dead, in the case of Left 2 Die.

Check out the official descriptions of the mods below.

Starjeweled
Pit your puzzle-solving talents against your opponent's. Match jewels to generate resources - and spend them to attack with StarCraft II units, countering your adversary's forces and destroying their base.

Aiur Chef
Gather and mix exotic ingredients in a cooking race against your opponents. Choose your recipes carefully to achieve culinary dominance and be counted among the most hallowed chefs of Aiur!

Left 2 Die
Working together with a partner, defend your base from onrushing zerg infested. Protect yourself from the relentless hordes during the night, and build up your forces to strike back during the daytime. Cooperate, or measure your survival in seconds.

The new mods are available for download from within StarCraft II.

Blizzard did promise that a more user-friendly StarCraft II marketplace would be launched in the future, but declined to say just when it might appear.