I still don’t have access to the Starcraft 2 beta, and I’m too dehydrated from constantly checking my email to keep crying, so I decided to post a list of Starcraft 2 beta content from around the net.
These Starcraft 2 beta streams, videos, and podcasts won’t do much to fill that hole left by your father that you were hoping to drop a Starcraft 2 beta key down, but the stuff is pretty entertaining. Recently, I’ve found that entertaining things use up the precious minutes and seconds between Starcraft 2 beta waves.
Streams
Starcraft Legacy’s Stream – When Gifted is playing on this stream, the video quality is above average and the live commentary can’t be beat. Unfortunately, a bunch of people from Starcraft Legacy also use the stream, and most lack Gifted’s charm and accessible easygoing attitude about the Starcraft 2 beta.
Team Liquid Streams – The staff over at Team Liquid have a variety of streams for your consideration. Team Liquid is known for their quality of Starcraft play, so many of the users are already quite skilled at Starcraft 2.
Final Flight’s Nightly Stream in HD — A beta user named Final Flight is streaming nightly in HD quality. He also commentates on live and recorded matches.
Starcraft Method Stream — This stream has the best video quality I’ve seen. Unfortunately, the commentary leaves a lot to be desired. A few nights ago, the stream’s owner was talking on the phone with some girl. A night or two before that, he was muting the Starcraft 2 music and playing what he was calling “metal”. But, again, the video quality can’t be beat.
Videos
HD Starcraft on YouTube – I like this guy a lot. He uploads HD quality Starcraft 2 beta videos complete with commentary. His commentary is joyful and intelligent, so you might not like it very much if you enjoy reading this blog.
BlizShouter on YouTube – This guy is an aspiring Starcraft 2 pro gamer. His commentary is also a bit more on the serious side compared to HD Starcraft’s. For example, BlizShouter wrote an article on mice usage in Starcraft. The video quality isn’t as good as HD Starcraft’s channel, but it is pretty clear.
HuskyStarcraft on Youtube – Husky is a decent player who does commentaries much like HD Starcraft. There are even a few games of them playing each other. I’m told that if you put the two rival commentaries from these games on at the same time, the result is something that eerily resembles that dueling banjos song.
Hegemon54 on YouTube — Another YouTube user who’s uploading HD quality videos.
EggsNBaconBreakfast on Youtube — This Neogaf.com member has a few amusing videos up on his YouTube stream.
KHB’s mothership rush — Surprised? You’re not nearly as surprised as the poor bastard was who he was playing.
KHB defeats David Kim — David Kim is a Blizzard employee who used to be a pro-gamer. Blizzard hired him, and now he’s in charge of unit balance for Starcraft 2. He almost never loses.
David Kim wins another game – This is usually what happens when someone goes up against David Kim (Dayvie) in the Starcraft 2 beta.
The benefit of Shift Commands in Starcraft II — By holding shift while issuing orders, it’s possible to queue a chain of automatic actions in Starcraft 2.
Replays
It’s possible to watch Starcraft 2 beta replays by downloading the Starcraft 2 beta client and replacing a few folders. The legality of this is a little sketchy, and Blizzard hasn’t made an official comment on the issue, so mod the Starcraft 2 beta at your own risk.
How to watch Starcraft 2 beta replays
Now that you’ve blindly thrown caution to the wind in a mad attempt to gobble up as much Starcraft 2 beta content as possible, here are a couple links to Starcraft 2 beta replays.
Team Liquid Starcraft 2 replay thread – This thread contains a bunch of replays from pro players including KHB and some pro Korean Starcraft 2 players.
Gamesports Starcraft 2 replays – This page features a decent amount of Starcraft 2 beta replays. Everything on the site is in German, but hopefully you didn’t spend your high school German class playing games of pool on your Cybiko instead of paying attention enough to pass. I can’t imagine anyone doing that.
KHB replay pack — KHB was nice enough to upload a replay pack that includes over 70 replays of his Starcraft 2 beta games
CowsGoMoo replay pack — A replay pack of some quality Terran play.
Podcasts
The Bombcast 2-23-10 – The Giantbomb staff talks a bit about the Starcraft 2 beta near the beginning of their latest podcast. Brad seems to be the biggest Starcraft 2 fan over there.
Team Liquid Starcraft 2 beta cast — The guys over at Team Liquid put up their first Starcraft 2 podcast the other day. It’s only about 30 minutes, but I found the conversation high-spirited and full of interesting facts about Starcraft’s competitive history. I can’t remember the last time I heard someone talking about Tillerman.
Episode 13 of the BlizzCast — Rob Simpson, Dustin Browder, and Chris Sigaty talk a lot about the Starcraft II beta. The planned length for the Starcraft II beta is discussed along with unit balance, the new battle.net, and single player.
Music
Starcraft 2′s music is fantastic. A lot of people aren’t digging the music, which I think has something to do with Blizzard not tapping Three Doors Down for the soundtrack.
That Battle.net theme is really something special.
Other Media
A database of all the Starcraft 2 beta units and buildings
The status of the Mac Starcraft 2 beta
Blizzard disappointed a lot of people with the announcement that a Mac beta client for Starcraft 2 wouldn’t be available for the first phase of the beta.
A user on the Starcraft 2 Armory forum contacted Blizzard to get an ETA for the Starcraft 2 Mac beta client.
He hasn’t emailed me back but we all should email the the mac support because i did and they sent me an email back less than 30 minutes. macsupport@blizzard.com
Also this is the email that i got originally.Hello Alex,
The devs are still tweaking the Mac version of the Beta, but it should be coming soon. I can’t get a definite time from them since they are sequestered and working on the Beta, but, being a Mac user as well, I hope it’s sooner than later.
Rad
Mac and PC Technical Specialist
Blizzard Entertainment
radn.support@blizzard.com
Wrk hrs: (CMT) 1:30pm to 10:30pm Tue – SatHope this helps.
Ok he emailed me back, I asked him about if everyone would get into beta (cause it’s a the mac version) and i also asked about if it will be the end of this month or next….
Hello Alex,
No ETA yet on the Mac version yet, and not everyone will get in, though more than likely many more that signed up for the Mac version will get in since we don’t have as big a population of gamers on the Mac side as we do on the PC side.
Rad
Mac and PC Technical Specialist
Blizzard Entertainment
radn.support@blizzard.com
Wrk hrs: (CMT) 1:30pm to 10:30pm Tue – Sat
Other stuff
I’ll keep updating this post with all the new goodies I find across the bleak expanse of the internet. If you find something interesting that’s Starcraft 2 beta related, leave a link in the comments or contact me through Gamebane’s contact form.
