I see a price for the standard edition, but how much is Amazone charging for the Collector's edition?

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at least so far :) Blizzard has done it again. Played the beta,and all I can say is this is the first time in years that I will be pre-ordering a game. It's been a long time between dances,but,mates, Starcraft 2 is "the real deal". See you on the

battlefield,Commanders. :)

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I pre-ordered the CE, so was able to get in on the beta. Everything that made the original great, only more of it with amazing graphics! What more could you ask for?

In response to the question of the CE pricing, it was selling from Amazon for 99, but there was limited availability. Now that those are all reserved, the gouging from other vendors has begun, ergo the inflated prices.

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Be warned that the game doesn't hit store shelves until July 27th, so this review cannot cover the actual game. Instead, for anyone out there that is on the fence, I will share my impressions of the game from my time as a beta player.

In summary, if you loved the original StarCraft, you will love this title. It is everything you liked about the first one and so much much more. In my opinion Blizzard has managed to produce a sequel that preserves everything that was so wonderful about the original and added great new features. And before you think that this is just a tweaked version with better graphics (which would have been enough for me, I'll admit that), it's a whole new game.

The new units are truly new (see [...] for details). During the beta, BattleNet Players generally seemed to favor one or two units initially, but soon enough weaknesses were revealed and then exploited. It will take time to master the collection of new pieces on the field of battle, so vastly different and subtle are their abilities. Sure, lots of the old tactics will still earn you some respect, but to really own your opponents, you're going to have to know how to deploy your old and new troops appropriately for the environment. The beta did not include all units and didn't include many of the single-player features that look to be a great leap forward as well, but it was so full of things to learn that I only gave it a passing concern.

Improved Graphics, Great New Units, Enjoyable Soundtrack, and all new snarky comments from units who are clicked too often (who hasn't killed hours listening to those?). This is as good as RTS gets.

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Starcraft 2 Beta has been going for the last couple months. So far, units have been changed, altered, removed, added and a whole bunch of things tweaked and balanced. The day i write this, is the final day of the beta.

I can honestly say i have been looking forward to the day of release for a solid 10 years, since i first loaded up the prequel missions as terran (showcasing the events leading up to the actual campaign). I have played starcraft for years, through the original campaign, brood war expansion and the 2 third party mission packs (crap quality btw). Everything from high adrenaline 4v4 multiplayer to FFA 8 player and UMS (use map settings, a trigger based fan created multiplayer map).

The single player is 100% off limits so there is little to no information about it available at the time of this review, besides the videos, screen shots and tid bits of information blizzard has decided to divulge. As for multiplayer, everything is still there. The massed hydralisks/mutalisks and zerglings. The siege mode siege tanks and battlecruiser yamato cannons of the terran. The build and forget entire build mechanic of the protoss race that includes the attack-all photon cannons. Saying all this does not mean this is a rehash of the original game by any means. Only half the units are from the original, the rest are completely new, but with the same feeling of the race they belong to.

The game looks very epic and iconic to the original. Drones, zealots and bunkers look almost exactly the same, but in real 3D. All the units come with a ton of polish, including witty one liners (for the absolute best one liners, check out the terran thor ROFL). Most units have special abilities that allow them to be more than ''create cannon fodder, attack-move to enemy base, create more'' spammed units of the original. (for the most interesting new units, check out the zerg queen) With the single player looking like a lot more than, 'watch cinematic, watch a few people talking/arguing, enter mission' to a full-on rpg elements such as doing missions for credits to buy single player only upgrades.

The only draw backs so far with the beta, have been the constant character resets (character portraits, achievements and player history), zero single player missions (being a multiplayer only beta) and the constant stream of bugs that beta testers are there to help iron out.

If you loved the original, and yearn for more, you will undoubtedly love the sequel. I preordered the collectors edition a day after it became possible.

The biggest let-downs in the entire beta, are the things blizzard KEPT hidden/locked away!

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