Starcraft 2 news:

Last week, Blizzard Entertainment welcomed guests from the media and fansite community to take an in-depth look at the progress we've made on the coming StarCraft II expansion Heart of the Swarm.

Mass Destruction 2 is an appropriately named tank warfare game which pits up to 12 players against one another on a battlefield where the primary objective is to blast each other to smithereens with a variety of different weapons. As if that isn’t enough mayhem, the battlefield is also littered with power-ups to boost speed, amplify damage, or even teleport across the field of play.

Now that those of you with Heart of the Swarm beta access have had a couple days to sink your teeth into the new features that arrived with Beta Patch 2.0.3, we kindly request your assistance in testing the leveling system.

If you’re eager to find out how your StarCraft II playing experience will evolve in Heart of the Swarm, we’ve got some research that should appeal to your inner Stetmann. We’ve just unveiled a new page detailing most everything that’s coming your way in the second entry in the StarCraft II trilogy.

Whether you play from home or on a stage in front of thousands of people, StarCraft II replays are a powerful tool for improving your game. They’re so useful that we continue to expand and improve them as much as possible. In Heart of the Swarm, we’re introducing three new replay features.

This update to the beta test includes a number of new systems, polish updates, and a fix for Mac users.

In this, the final part of our Q&A with a Blizzard loremaster, Brian Kindregan, co-lead writer of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and lead writer of Heart of the Swarm, answers more of the community’s most burning lore questions.

We are pleased to present the opening cinematic for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm in full HD glory.

We challenged you to submit your comic creations to the Blizzard Comic Contest, and your entries never fail to amuse and amaze us. The following comic from Linxiao Sun was selected as an honorable mention in our ongoing contest.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty patch 1.5.4 is now live!

Be sure to check out the full patch notes to learn all about the latest changes.

In part twelve of our continuing series, Brian Kindregan, co-lead writer of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and lead writer of Heart of the Swarm, answers more of the community’s burning lore questions.

Last October, our good friend Mike “Husky” Lamond challenged the StarCraft II community to a dance-off, and the response was outstanding. To make things interesting, we said we’d consider including one of the dances submitted by the community in Heart of the Swarm. After mulling over each of the submissions, we didn’t find one we wanted to use . . . instead we found four! Additionally, we felt that one of the dances was so inspired that it would only be fair it was given to a unit for each race.

StarDodgeBall is a game that needs little explanation. Pick up a ball, hurl it at your opponent, and seize victory. Game maker “rut” has taken the schoolyard favorite and wrapped it tightly in the StarCraft II universe to make a game that is fast-paced and engaging.

We owe you an apology. Some time ago, we communicated a plan to make a paid name change service available to players. We want you to be able to change your name in-game more freely, and do so as often as you like.

Going forward, we’re going to make a few changes in our approach to the 1v1 ladder map pool.

We’re looking for passionate people to join our Customer Service team in our offices in Cork, Ireland and Versailles, France. We need talented individuals, with great knowledge of our games, who can speak English and either French, Russian, Spanish, or Portuguese.

You provided us with yet another inspirational, entertaining, and downright hilarious collection of Blizzard-themed holiday greeting cards and baked treats to cap off 2012.

In part eleven of our continuing series, Brian Kindregan, co-lead writer of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and lead writer of Heart of the Swarm, answers more of the community’s most burning lore questions.

In StarCraft II league play, our 2013 Season 1 season has begun! Bonus pools and standings have been reset, and 2012 Season 5 milestones have been awarded.

Happy New Year to you and yours! A lot of exciting StarCraft action took place in 2012, and we’re planning an even more epic 2013 for you, filled with heaps of furious vengeance and sprinkles of galactic domination.

Attention, StarCraft II ladder competitors! 2012 Season 5 is now locked.

We’d like to wish each and every StarCraft aficionado out there the happiest of holidays. We hope that every member of the StarCraft community around the world is able to close out 2012 and ring in 2013 safely and (S)warmly.

In part 10 of our continuing series, Brian Kindregan, co-lead writer of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and lead writer of Heart of the Swarm, answers more of the community’s most burning lore questions.

A holiday break usually means one thing for gamers: more time to play games! As always, we’re looking for ways to offer our community as much gaming action as possible. To that end, we’re now offering all of the games we’ve previously featured for the StarCraft II Arcade in the StarCraft II Starter Edition.

To prepare for the impending launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, we’re now expanding the ongoing beta test to include additional players. Any players who pre-purchased the expansion digitally on Battle.net prior to December 19 are now automatically flagged for beta access.