[6:55] There will be a Starcraft II beta test later this summer, and Morhaime offers to get anyone in attendance into the program. Morhaime expects to launch Starcraft II by the end of the year, though he also notes that it will only ship once the game is done.

This is from the Gamespot coverage from E3, and as you can see, it’s not a guarantee, but when a Blizzard-man says it will be released during the year, we believe him. Another thing to notice, is that we will be getting a Starcraft II beta later this summer, which you can read more about here. You have to have a battle.net-account, where you can opt-in to the beta by configuring your “Beta Profile Settings”. You have to have at least one Blizzard-game in your Battle.Net-account to join the pool of potential beta-players.

One question was about critters, and if they would have attack animations. As you know, Starcraft 1 did not have aggressive critters. Warcraft was the franchize that introduced this to the Blizzard RTS, and Starcraft 2 will also have critters you have to fight. This probably means that you need some forces to spread out to the first expansion bases.

The biggest answer comes when they are asked about zerg versus zerg matches, where the choice earlier was between zerglings and hydralisks. In Starcraft 2 the hydralisks will mainly be anti-air units, and the new units roaches will be the alternative to zerglings. For the full response from blizzard, check their forums.

So far there is allmost only information about WoW, and apparently Wrath of the Lich King-beta testers can allready now see achievements. We will come back with more information as soon as we know more about how this will be integrated into Starcraft 2. Until then check out the Ctrl+Alt+Del comic about the news.

One of the things is that Zerg defensive buildings is no longer built by the Queen, but instead by a drone, like you all know from Starcraft. There are also two buildings like we know from the first game, one that fires into the air and one groundforce-killer. No information yet about if they see stealthed units.

Read the full Q&A here (41) and here (42).

I’m personally looking forward to a much more active way of using the queen than what I’m doing currently in Starcraft 1.

The feel of Zerg seems to have changed a bit to become a great graphic experience, and the whole zerg-area seems to be alive. I can’t wait to get my hands on a demo or the full game myself. Head over there to read the full review. Together with overall impressions, there’s impressions of the individual units that is worth exploring.

Starcraft Guide.net will keep you up to date on the development of Starcraft 2 until launch, and bring you strategies, information and tactics when the game is released.