StarCraft II: Legacy of The Void Beta Starts March 31

[Steven Bogos]

StarCraft II: Legacy of The Void Beta Starts March 31

The long-awaited conclusion of the StarCraft II trilogy will begin closed beta testing this month.

Earlier this month we ran a report that the starting as soon as this month [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/starcraft%202%20legacy%20of%20the%20void?os=starcraft+2+legacy+of+the+void], and it now looks like it was spot on the money. Blizzard has today announced that closed beta testing will indeed begin on March 31, with invites initially restricted to media and eSports personalities, before gradually rolling out to the general populace.

"This initial phase of the closed beta will include ongoing changes to previously-announced MP units as well as the introduction of a new Protoss unit - the Adept," said Blizzard. "Players with access to the closed beta will be able to check out PVP multiplayer action as well as Archon Mode, a cooperative/competitive MP mode, where two players share and control one base/army against another opponent or team."

For some more info the Adept: it's a basic ranged ground unit that has a neat little ability that sends out a mirror image of itself. After a fixed duration, the unit teleports to the location of its duplicate. Both the Adept and its mirror image can move independently of each other, so it's sure to be a fun way to have little micro mind-games with your opponent.

In addition, Blizzard announced three new maps that will be made available to beta testers: Ruins of Seras - an ancient temple in a mountainous region, Lerilak Crest - a Dark Templar world embedded by xel'naga ruins, and Orbital Shipyard - a Terran starship repair platform.

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[shintakie10]

Is it weird that I'm more interested in seeing what people do with the new assets for custom maps? Cause I'm totally more interested in what people will do with the assets for custom maps.

Also the campaign. Really really lookin forward to the campaign. Probably 50/50 between the two.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Shouldn't this have been done a while ago? It's JUST Starcraft for Christ sake, it's really not rocket science for Blizzard at this point.

 

[Compatriot Block]

Shouldn't this have been done a while ago? It's JUST Starcraft for Christ sake, it's really not rocket science for Blizzard at this point.

Those amazing CG cutscenes take a ton of time to make, but it's so worth it.

 

[Khymerion]

Cutscenes don't need beta testing and Blizz sure seems to love 'closed beta testing' where only media personalities who are going to stream a bunch are the only ones testing their products.

Meh, I can't really complain. Would have been exciting a couple of years ago but not so much now. Not after the extremely long wait between installments and the 'roll out' of Hearthstone and the still not released to the wild Heroes of the Storm.

Knowing Blizz's track record, they probably will hold 'closed beta' what is in essence a nearly polished and finished game for six months to a year, bore the hell out of anyone who is not a professional, and then roll it out to the public just in time to start it all over again with their next endless beta game (Overwatch).

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Shouldn't this have been done a while ago? It's JUST Starcraft for Christ sake, it's really not rocket science for Blizzard at this point.

Those amazing CG cutscenes take a ton of time to make, but it's so worth it.

Oh, they're absolutely worth it. I'm terrible when it comes to strategy games, but I've always loved the Starcraft universe, so I'm looking forward to Starcraft 2's conclusion.

I just wonder why Blizzard doesn't branch out and make full-length movies that tie into their games. They clearly have the animation chops, and chances are, it would make them quite a tidy profit, especially since they could probably do all of the work up-to-and-including distribution.

 

[Darks63]

Finally I was starting to think this game was gonna join HL3 in the never gonna finish the trilogy pantheon.

 

[Janaschi]

Cutscenes don't need beta testing and Blizz sure seems to love 'closed beta testing' where only media personalities who are going to stream a bunch are the only ones testing their products.

Meh, I can't really complain. Would have been exciting a couple of years ago but not so much now. Not after the extremely long wait between installments and the 'roll out' of Hearthstone and the still not released to the wild Heroes of the Storm.

Knowing Blizz's track record, they probably will hold 'closed beta' what is in essence a nearly polished and finished game for six months to a year, bore the hell out of anyone who is not a professional, and then roll it out to the public just in time to start it all over again with their next endless beta game (Overwatch).

That is a rather huge assumption - I only stream basic walkthrough videos, and have been a relative unknown in the Blizzard community ever since Warcraft III became the realm of our new bot overlords. Yet I was still able to get into the Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm beta. Here is hoping I am able to jump into LotV soon.

 

[Rattja]

I just wonder why Blizzard doesn't branch out and make full-length movies that tie into their games. They clearly have the animation chops, and chances are, it would make them quite a tidy profit, especially since they could probably do all of the work up-to-and-including distribution.

I've been asking the same for years, but people usually shoot it down saying "it's too expencive" which I believe is bullshit.
Another thing is that they may not have enough actualy story to tell, and yet they have books of lore?

I'd be all over it if they did that though, but seems like they just don't want to for some reason.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Third one's coming out? Hmm... should I finally buy the first one now, or wait for the inevitable Battle Chest>

 

[shintakie10]

Shouldn't this have been done a while ago? It's JUST Starcraft for Christ sake, it's really not rocket science for Blizzard at this point.

Those amazing CG cutscenes take a ton of time to make, but it's so worth it.

Oh, they're absolutely worth it. I'm terrible when it comes to strategy games, but I've always loved the Starcraft universe, so I'm looking forward to Starcraft 2's conclusion.

I just wonder why Blizzard doesn't branch out and make full-length movies that tie into their games. They clearly have the animation chops, and chances are, it would make them quite a tidy profit, especially since they could probably do all of the work up-to-and-including distribution.

Its quite amazing what they've done honestly, especially lately. The cinematic trailer for Overwatch was gorgeous and amazingly well crafted. That Diablo 3 animated movie skit thing they did, think it was called Wrath, was beautifully animated. All of the SC2 and D3 CGI shots were fuckin gorgeous.

The downside is that Blizzard doesn't really go outside of its fairly generic fantasy/scifi stories. Whatever they'd come up with would be absolutely beautiful, no doubt, but the story behind it would probably be somethin you've seen a million times before.

That kind of thing isn't terrible for short videos like Wrath and the Overwatch Intro, but would never fly in a full length movie.

 

[BoogieManFL]

If only they put as much effort in to new content that they put in to the cinematics.