StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Unlocks Midnight Tonight AEDT

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StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Unlocks Midnight Tonight AEDT

Post by Dan @ 10:47am 11/03/13 | 53 Comments

Blizzard is hosting launch events around the world for StarCraft 2, and once again Australia is at the front of the queue, possibly owed to our timezone proximity to South Korea. With StarCraft II's game servers divided into three global regions, the game's unlock times for each have been positioned around a midnight launch in the three areas.

For South East Asia (which includes copies purchased in Australia and New Zealand), the game unlocks at the stroke of Midnight in Melbourne (AEDT, so 11pm in Brisbane, and 9pm in Perth). Europeans will follow at Midnight in Paris (CET) at the culmination of a Versailles event, and our North American friends come in lucky last at midnight in Blizzard's native Irvine, California (PDT).

A full guide to Blizzard's launch festivities has been laid out over on this official webpage. AusGamers will be in attendance at the Melbourne event in Federation Square, so if you see Steve about, don't be afraid to say hi.

starcraft 2 heart of the swarm blizzard

Buy now from Games 101 Only AUD$46.95!

(compare all prices)

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d^
Posted 11:55am 11/3/13

Well shit, I preordered from EB Richmond and didn't even know you could pickup at fed square and get it signed. I might roll up and check it out still. Will post back if I will go 100%.

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ctd
Posted 12:15pm 11/3/13

whats the best (cheapest) way to buy this? Probably will cave in even though the thought of getting rolled in sc2 again makes me cry

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TiT
Posted 12:36pm 11/3/13

AUD 44.95 on battle.net website

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ctd
Posted 12:51pm 11/3/13

God damnit, lost my phone the other week. Had the BNet auth app on it. Have to go through support process to login to my account. No sc2 for me tonight.

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TiT
Posted 12:58pm 11/3/13

oh really, yeah i lost mine too CTD, but my mobile phone number is linked to my account. I just did this about 5mins ago. click on lost my authenticate they sms me a code and it was deactivated took about 20secs.

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ctd
Posted 01:22pm 11/3/13

o rly. I just moved back from the UK so I don't have that number anymore. Will have a look maybe I didn't update from my original AUS number when sc2 was released.

edit: I must not have linked my mobile number. Oh well. Hopefully it doesn't take very long

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d^
Posted 01:30pm 11/3/13

Cheapest is video ezy online store @ $36.76 http://www.videoezy.com.au/games/starcraft-ii-heart-of-the-swarm-pc/dp/549316/656612#bc=bfe8

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Mosfx
Posted 03:20pm 11/3/13

I purchased mine via Battle.Net at $45, can't wait to play it tonight.

Does anyone know when the files will be available to download or would this already have been done?

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simul
Posted 04:02pm 11/3/13

Oh god :( I literally finished replaying SC2 last mission yesterday - good timing! Goodbye work yet again :/

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csirac
Posted 05:25pm 11/3/13

Got work etc so just going to drop into jb and pick it up for 45 during lunch.

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Mass
Posted 05:59pm 11/3/13

Will pick up my two copies (one for the son) from EB in the morning before work......but will have to wait till evening to play :/

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fryzeegunner
Posted 06:18pm 11/3/13

Picking up my CE tomorrow, will play all of teh nightz

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Mordecai
Posted 06:33pm 11/3/13

Going to wait for some single player reviews before getting it. Never could be bothered with the multiplayer side of things*

* that is I suck at them.

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simul
Posted 09:02pm 11/3/13

Going to wait for some single player reviews before getting it. Never could be bothered with the multiplayer side of things*

It will be awesome :-) SC2 single player was fantastic - a single player RTS campaign that actually made it worthwhile replaying.

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mteejay
Posted 10:52pm 11/3/13

i also lost my phone...doh!

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csirac
Posted 11:25pm 11/3/13

Does anyone know if you need WoL installed to install HoTS? (that is, you have the license to WoL but the game just isn't on your computer)

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Viper119
Posted 11:47pm 11/3/13

I guess I should play StarCraft 2! I take it it's awesome? I'm so behind on games.

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R3SiN
Posted 12:30am 12/3/13

Well looks like Blizzard has boned me again,

When I log in I've now been shifted to the North American server... Can't play or change my region back to SEA which it has always been.

First Diablo 3 now this. Pretty pissed off.

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kos
Posted 08:50pm 12/3/13

Does anyone know if you need WoL installed to install HoTS? (that is, you have the license to WoL but the game just isn't on your computer)

It's all the same client, as far as I understand it. You either have StarCraft 2 installed or not, and all SC2 clients that have been run recently should have preloaded most of the HotS content already.

No idea how the installers will work and if you'll need to install WoL before installing HotS though, I'd hope the HotS installer will install everything for you automatically.

Edit: removed shit about global play that doesn't apply post-HotS

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Zapo
Posted 08:43am 12/3/13

I've played the first 6 or so missions. Really enjoying it so far. Blizzard have nailed the single player again it seems.

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Mosfx
Posted 09:10am 12/3/13

Or at least that's how it worked before HotS, hopefully it's still the same now...

Blizzard suspended Global Play for the HOTS launch, if you last logged out on NA or SEA region before the lock out you will be locked there until 5pm QLD time tonight when the HOTS launches in NA. I was stuck on NA too, shit happens moving on.

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TiT
Posted 09:22am 12/3/13

how big the download, ive already got sc2 on my computer?

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kos
Posted 08:52pm 12/3/13

Blizzard suspended Global Play for the HOTS launch, if you last logged out on NA or SEA region before the lock out you will be locked there until 5pm QLD time tonight when the HOTS launches in NA. I was stuck on NA too, shit happens moving on.

Ah, of course. I expected accounts to revert to their original region when global play was disabled. Removed that info from my post anyway as HotS doesn't need it.

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Hogfather
Posted 11:26am 12/3/13

Get it awwnnnn

Anyone after some VOIP team action shit?

Also, big image is big, yes it is.

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d^
Posted 12:49pm 12/3/13

Don't know what the point of buying the disc was when you have to download 6.1GB on install.

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csirac
Posted 01:06pm 12/3/13

Are you serious?

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TiT
Posted 01:11pm 12/3/13

haah i only got 3gb left on 200gb plan till saturday :(

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ctd
Posted 01:15pm 12/3/13

Well I have got my security sorted. Waiting for the fucking download at 300kb/s. Man I miss my UK download speeds :(

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csirac
Posted 01:31pm 12/3/13

thats balls if i still need to download 5+gig AFTER i put the physical disc in... wth is the point of the disc, is it blank? I won't be getting any play time with my nice slow 250kb/sec internet.

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d^
Posted 01:34pm 12/3/13

Yeah I seriously had to download >6 gig. The disc is no point.

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Zapo
Posted 02:21pm 12/3/13

If your SC2 is up to date then you shouldn't have to dl anything I don't think as the content was already patched in.

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TiT
Posted 02:25pm 12/3/13

dam we need nbn lol

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Hogfather
Posted 02:31pm 12/3/13

If your SC2 is up to date then you shouldn't have to dl anything I don't think as the content was already patched in.

Zapo did you install from disk or just add key to account?

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Zapo
Posted 02:46pm 12/3/13

Neither, I had the digital deluxe edition. All I know is that my SC2 was up to date, and about a few weeks ago it downloaded a 6GB patch (which I suspect was the campaign among other things). Then last night did it another reconfigure of the game files and I noticed the campaign was now visible.

So yeah, if your SC2 is up-to-date all you should need to do is punch in the key and login.

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slyin
Posted 03:15pm 12/3/13

ehh i changed regions to NA and back to SEA this morning without thinking, didnt get locked. unless they've only locked it recently

you dont have to fuck with settings files you just hit the arrow next to your username at the login screen (so you can see the "connect" button, and not the password entry field) and click around a bit on the left of the screen and regions will show up........................................

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d^
Posted 03:52pm 12/3/13

They don't lock regions now. That 6gb patch Zapo would have been the game. My SC2 was fully up to date before installing the expansion.

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d^
Posted 04:32pm 12/3/13

Well shit, the game prompted me for a name change and now I lost all of my achievements for WoL.

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csirac
Posted 04:46pm 12/3/13

You might be in a different region to where you did the campaign originally.

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slyin
Posted 04:59pm 12/3/13

They don't lock regions now. That 6gb patch Zapo would have been the game. My SC2 was fully up to date before installing the expansion.

i was contributing to the topic of global play suspension during launch, should have quoted someone

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csirac
Posted 05:19pm 12/3/13

so the disc has about 7gig of data on it...wtf am i dl'ing another 3.68gig. I swear it didnt even read the disc. It read it for about 30 seconds then it went straight to the download screen

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d^
Posted 06:10pm 12/3/13

You might be in a different region to where you did the campaign originally.

I think this is the issue although I can't change the region at the moment.

edit: fixed it, you have to select the login area and wait some time before region comes up.

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Dazhel
Posted 06:43pm 12/3/13

I guess now might be a good time to buy Wings of Liberty in the digital bundle... yes I'm so slack.

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csirac
Posted 07:45pm 12/3/13

i feel less crappy now that i can play the game half downloaded. yayyyyyyer campaign time.

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Mosfx
Posted 09:08am 13/3/13

Only up to the 4th mission now Spoiler:
Where you select the first planet to attack
and I am loving the Campaign...

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csirac
Posted 10:44am 13/3/13

Some of the strategic moves performed by the characters to progress the story line is questionable but so far so fun, although the SP seems easier than it was in WoL. I'm a few hours in and it still feels like its still trying to teach you with intro missions (on brutal).

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Khel
Posted 11:09am 13/3/13

So does it take into account choices you made during the campaign in WoL?

Spoiler:
The bit near the start on the space station where Nova captures Raynor seemed like it did cos she said something about how I didn't side with her and help her kill Tosh, but I dunno if thats actually based off the choices I made or not

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Hogfather
Posted 11:20am 13/3/13

Played some MP lasy night. Fuck I'm rusty. We got smashed. NO idea how to use the new Swarm units, just did wings builds. Got out macroed anwyay, depressingly puny graph.

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ctd
Posted 11:32am 13/3/13

yeah think i built a widow mine once. yay. got smashed into silver leagues for 2v2 and 3v3. To be fair I only want to play silver/bronze :)

rusty is an understatement

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Mass
Posted 12:00pm 13/3/13

started playing the campaign last night, 3 missions in and loving it. Not tried the MP yet, my son played the Beta heaps, so I know he is going to smash me when I play him.

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Mosfx
Posted 12:52pm 13/3/13

So does it take into account choices you made during the campaign in WoL? Spoiler:The bit near the start on the space station where Nova captures Raynor seemed like it did cos she said something about how I didn't side with her and help her kill Tosh, but I dunno if thats actually based off the choices I made or not

Yep I thought the same I also saved Tosh, Spoiler:
I would love to know who killed Tosh and if the 3rd mission is different?

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Tanaka Khan
Posted 06:11pm 17/3/13

Well loaded this up today, haven't played it since it came out. Logged in fine but it asked me to enter a new gaming name. Seems all of my saved games from this and WoL are gone.

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simul
Posted 08:32pm 17/3/13

Well loaded this up today, haven't played it since it came out. Logged in fine but it asked me to enter a new gaming name. Seems all of my saved games from this and WoL are gone.

Check your region (as above)

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Creepy
Posted 05:25am 18/3/13

Speaking of mission splits in WoL affecting HotS...

Spoiler:
I took the air platform down toward the end of WoL, to clear the skies for the final battle. When I arrived at Char in HotS, I was told that the air was pretty much ruled by the Terrans, since they destroyed the platform.

Guess I'm gonna have to play through stuff right from the beginning to check?

Really digging the story...even if Kerrigan's character is completely questionable...

EDIT: So, turns out that voiceover dialog DOES get impacted, provided your savegames from WoL are fresh and incorrupted. Per http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2593047278?page=2

Spoiler:
Here are some alternative situations that happen:

Sided with Nova

"I Appreciate that you helped me with my Tosh problem, But a girl is gotta do what is a girl is gotta do"

Sided with Tosh

"If you had helped me with my Tosh problem, Maybe I would have looked the other way while you escaped"

Cameo appearance of Tosh on Hyperion

Something about sending in Tosh to rescue Raynor. Can't remember the exact Line

Flooded Tunnels on Char

"The only way through to warfields fortress is through the Boneyard? because the tunnels have been flooded with lava!"

Destroyed Air Platforms on Char

"Ever since our air platforms were destroyed, the Terrans have had air superiority. Now we have to deal with Gorgon Battlecruisers!"

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