The anticipated v2.0.4 patch for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty has landed (thanks ^d); the in-game updater will obviously get you upgraded but you can also download the manual patch now locally from AusGamers for PC and Mac OS X.

There's an extensive changelog which can be fully viewed at the official website, but some of the more major changes include a revamped UI, the addition of the new clan and groups system, new replay features and the freedom to select any game region to connect to and play with Global Play. There's a lot of balance changes; what's the verdict on them?

In related StarCraft 2 news, Blizzard has also announced details on the upcoming Australian launch party for the Heart of the Swarm expansion, which will be hosted by EB Games in Federation Square, Melbourne, Victoria.

Local festivities will start at 8:00 p.m. AEDT on March 11, and will feature special guest hosts from the StarCraft II and eSports community, including commentators Leigh “Maynarde” Mandalov and Sean “Flamga” Krauter. Live eSports show matches will be played by top Australian pro gamers including Andrew “mOOnGLaDe” Pender, Jared “PiG” Krensel, Mark “yang” Richardson and Daniel “deth” Haynes. The night’s celebrations will also include a developer panel by StarCraft II Game Director, Dustin Browder, digital speed painting by StarCraft II 3D Artist Luke Mancini, a developer Q&A featuring both developers in attendance, a cosplay contest, music videos by Viva La Dirt League and a series of epic prize giveaways. When the clock strikes midnight, gamers will be able to pick up their copies of the expansion as well as have them autographed by members of the StarCraft II development team.

You can learn more about the upcoming launch party at the official website, which also includes further information on the 21-hour broadcast.

The Silicon Sports crew have reminded us that their BarCraft gathering is meeting again tomorrow night at Melbourne's The Exchange Hotel for another round of alcohol-fueled e-sports action. The occasion is the GSL Season 2 Final which will see StarCraft 2 players MVP and Squirtle duke it in a Terran vs Protoss showdown.

The Exchange Hotel wants to support eSports as much as it can and have opened the entire venue for BarCraft Melbourne on May 19th at 5 pm. With a capacity of 1000 people, 7 screens and 3 bars, we will all be able to watch, enjoy and celebrate the GSL Season 2 Grand Final in comfort. I am sure MVP and Squirtle will put on an epic TvP series – I can’t wait! Go MVP!!!

Hit up the Silicon Sports website for further details.

Anyone who plays StarCraft 2 even remotely seriously is familiar with the awesome Husky and the incredible work he does on his HuskyStarCraft YouTube channel, commentating on high-level competitive StarCraft 2 games. It's an awesome resource for all StarCraft players as he explains a lot of neat gameplay stuff in a fun and engaging way so even Bronze noobs like me can understand them.

His latest video is a little different, but it seems worthy of a news post - he's done a hilarious SC2-themed song called "Nerd Alert - Nerdy and I know it (a parody of the LMFAO song with a similar name). Check it out below (props to Raven for initially throwing it down in the forums):

We've heard that Blizzard's hugely anticipated Diablo 3 will have an immensely challenging final difficulty level and it looks like the StarCraft 2 team are not going to be outdone, with the announcement of a "fiendish" new official Custom Game modification called StarCraft Master, due in the "next few days" and aimed at teaching newcomers some of the advanced play techniques that can be used in multiplayer.

In a blog post on the official site, Blizzard describes the new addition:

A new challenge is coming: the new single-player Blizzard mod StarCraft Master. StarCraft Master offers you the opportunity to put your skills to the test in 30 different challenges that will tax your knowledge and your ability to control your forces. Each fiendish challenge will demand your utmost concentration to prevail, and they’ll help you hone your unit micro-management skills in situations which mimic real battles.

See battle.net for more specifics and keep an eye on the "Custom Game" menu over the next few days.

The StarCraft 2 blog carries word a new feature is coming soon to Battle.net - region linking:

Region linking will benefit players in the connected regions in a number of ways. First and foremost, a linked community means a larger pool of players to improve our automated matchmaker. Whether you're an elite Grandmaster or a Bronze-league all-star, more players in the mix means that we'll be able to find you a matchup more quickly and more accurately. Players will also get access to a broader range of custom map games, which in turn means wider audiences for mapmakers. Those of you who have friends in the linked region will also be able to add them to your Battle.net friends lists once the region linking is complete.

The post also carries a FAQ with some more information, although nothing about Australia is mentioned specifically.

Blizzard have launched three new official mods over on their StarCraft 2 mod page (for those that don't know what mods are, they're like DLC but you don't have to pay for them). The mods:

StarJewelled
Pit your puzzle-solving talents against your opponent's. Match jewels to generate resources - and spend them to attack with StarCraft II units, countering your adversary's forces and destroying their base.

Aiur Chef
Gather and mix exotic ingredients in a cooking race against your opponents. Choose your recipes carefully to achieve culinary dominance and be counted among the most hallowed chefs of Aiur!

Left 2 Die
Working together with a partner, defend your base from onrushing zerg infested. Protect yourself from the relentless hordes during the night, and build up your forces to strike back during the daytime. Cooperate, or measure your survival in seconds.

You can find them all in the "Custom Game" section - just look for the maps with the little Blizzard logo next to them. Looking forward to trying these out!

The version 1.2 patch for StarCraft 2 has landed and is now available in the annoying Blizzard updater, or for direct download via the awesome AusGamers site! There is a healthy changelog with a bunch of cool changes:

This patch will update the U.S. English PC edition of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty to version 1.2.0. This patch features adjustments to race balance, notable StarCraft II Editor improvements, the addition of Battle.net Chat Channels, and several bug fixes. Be sure to check out the full patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.

General

• Battle.net Chat Channels have been added! Players can now join others in both public and private channels.
• Added in-game chat bar command to whisper to other players. Using the "/w" command will open up a list of available friends, party members, chat channels, and other players within your current game.
• Added Battle.net option to auto-join previous private channels.
• Added Battle.net option to prevent chat channel text from appearing in in-game chat display.
• A new Master League has been added! This league now represents the highest tier of players.
• Customizable Hotkey Support has been added.
• Stalemate Detection has been added. This will end the game in a tie for all remaining players if no players have income, production, or destroyed structures for three consecutive minutes. A countdown timer will now appear when the game detects this scenario.
• An Extreme graphics option is now available. Players can now configure screen space ambient occlusion.

There's also some minor balance tweaks to Protoss and Terran - you can check the full changelog on the download page. We've got both the Windows and Mac OS X patches available for download right now.

For those who haven't tried it yet, you can now get a sweet free taste of Blizzard's latest strategy extravaganza with the new StarCraft 2 demo:

If you haven’t yet experienced the intense strategic combat of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, you can get into the action today with the newly released demo edition. Featuring full access to the first three missions of the single-player campaign, as well as unlimited access to skirmish mode as the terrans versus an A.I. opponent, the free demo gives you an introduction to the cinematic storytelling and fast-paced gameplay of StarCraft II.

You can download it now locally from AusGamers (1.6GB).

Blizzard have revealed StarCraft II players can now log into their account and change their character name. But you only get one.

If you'd like to change your character name, log in to Account Management and choose your StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game license. On your game license screen a "Character Name Change" button at the bottom will initiate the request. After confirming that you'd like to change your character name, simply log in to StarCraft II and you'll be prompted to select a new one. Please be sure to use this name change wisely.

Not sure why anyone would want to change their name after having already made one up, but each to their own.

Some gamers were up in arms after the recent rumour wildly propagated that not only were they [Blizzard] bringing down the banhammer on StarCraft 2 players caught cheating in multiplayer, but also some that were only using third-party cheat applications for the single-player content too.

Blizzard typically responded to their community to clarify and reaafirm their position on the situation, which, it would seem, also confirms they have actually taken into account a number of gamers utilising said third-party tools for the single-player, despite no negative affect on the multiplayer:

"Blizzard Entertainment is not banning StarCraft II players just for using single-player cheats. There's been some confusion in the last couple of days about the suspensions and bans meted out to players caught cheating in StarCraft II. It's important to point out first, that many of the 3rd-party hacks and cheats developed for StarCraft II contain both single- and multiplayer functionality. In order to protect the integrity of multiplayer competition, we are actively detecting cheat programs used in multiplayer modes whether there are human opponents or not.

That said, players who opt to use any type of 3rd party hacks do so at their own risk — there are already built-in cheat codes for StarCraft II single-player that can be used safely. Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating seriously and will continue to aggressively crackdown on players who cheat in our games."

While this company line appears somewhat reasonable, it renews the debate on how much control consumers should have over the games they buy. Some would argue that Blizzard have the right to protect the integrity of their service, but others might say that the issue here is Blizzard's own fault for requiring such hard-line online authentication for the solo play content in the first place.

The anticipated v1.1 patch for StarCraft 2 has landed; the in-game updater will obviously get you upgraded but you can also download the manual patch now locally from AusGamers (~130MB).

There's an extensive changelog (all available on our download page), but the major change is that Australians can now join the US region to play against our American brethren (though note all your achievements and Battle.net stuff will be reset for the new region). There's a lot of balance changes; what's the verdict on them?

Blizzard have confirmed that the version 1.1 patch for StarCraft 2 will be dropping this week and is currently scheduled for a Thursday release, bringing the promised access to the North American Battle.net servers directly into the game for Australian players. The blog post linked above has a brief FAQ. Most of it seems pretty obvious, but some interesting stuff:

Q: How will my friends list and rankings be handled?

A: All account-specific data, including friends lists, rankings, achievements, statistics, titles, and unlockable rewards, will be tracked separately for each region's Battle.net servers, and will not carry over between them.

Stay tuned!

Shortly after the launch of StarCraft 2, Blizzard have published a reminder that they're still taking cheating seriously and that if you do it in StarCraft 2, you should expect harsh judgment to be meted out:

Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that's no different for StarCraft II. If a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play StarCraft II with his or her account.

Playing StarCraft II legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future.

No doubt people will continue to push the envelope to catch and edge and inevitably be banned when they're caught. I'm having trouble staying alive for more than a few minutes in game, so it certainly seems easier to assume that everyone is cheating than the more likely reality - that they're all just way better than me.

Blizzard have confirmed that PC gaming is still alive and strong - at least, if you're a company that is in the habit of making really awesome games that you then support for years and years afterwards: StarCraft 2 has sold over three million units since its release around a month ago.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released simultaneously in North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on July 27. With day-one sales topping 1 million copies, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty became the bestselling PC game of 2010 within its first 24 hours of availability.

The game went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies in its first 48 hours, setting the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time, and has won numerous critical accolades, including multiple editor’s choice awards from major gaming publications.

If you aren't one of those three million people, then maybe you should read our review and find out why you probably want to join the crowd.

Blizzard have revealed they'll be patching the recently released StarCraft II by mid September. This will be the game's first feature and balance patch and will address a number of issues players are having with multiplayer balance, while also offering more mod features, support for nVIDIA's 3D Vision, Editor improvements, changes to maps (in the realm of "adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect") as well as some pretty meaty changes to all three classes.

You can find a much more detailed run-down of what Patch 1.1 will offer by clicking here. Keep your eyes peeled too, as we'll be looking to host this locally on AusGamers if possible.

Blizzard just sent through word they're hosting an official StarCraft II Invitational Tournament specific to our region, which will include South East Asia and New Zealand.

Based on their regional ranking and performance on Battle.net, sixteen of the top StarCraft II players from Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand will be selected to take part in the region's first StarCraft II online tournament.

The regional matches commence on September 10, and selected players will be seeded randomly in a sixteen-player, double elimination bracket. The four finalists will face off on September 12, 2010.

Tournament finalists will be awarded cash prizes, with the first-place winner taking home the $3,000 USD grand prize. Best of all, the first- and second-place winners will be invited to attend BlizzCon 2010 in Anaheim, California!

So do you have the gusto to ante up and represent for AU? I don't as I can barely beat my house-mates in a local game, but if you're planning on throwing your hat in the ring, be sure to let us know.

We knew it would happen, but it won't stop Blizzard from gloating. StarCraft II has become the fastest selling RTS of all time, and is currently the fastest selling PC title of 2010. Day one sales of the game put it in more than one million consumers' hands within the first 24 hours of release worldwide, with 1.5 million pushed out the door within 48 hours.

"We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment (via press release). "We're pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net in the weeks and months ahead."

Just once I wish a post-release press release said something like "told ya so" or "we're number one, you're number two!" For more StarCraft II on AusGamers, click here.

A lot of you have probably already been logging long hours into either the robust single-player offering, or the intense (and massive) multiplayer, but for those still awaiting a definitive verdict, or at least a professional and informative breakdown of what all the StarCraft 2 fuss is about, AusGamers has a little something for you.

Our resident StarCraft 2 expert, Hogfather, smashed through the game in both modes to deliver us an in-depth review we're sure he probably would have liked to flesh out even more. This covers everything you need to know about the year's biggest PC release, so get into it.

Click here for the full review.

We came, we saw and were conquered by the sheer amount of consumer and fan support for the midnight launch of StarCraft 2, which you know from all accounts was a successful event. Thankfully, on-hand for fans was the game's producer, Kaeo Milker, who we actually got to sit down with the very next day and grill about all things science fiction, RTS and sequel.

We've compiled the interview in the usual AusGamers package: that is a fully transcribed (thanks Boba) piece to read if you can download or stream, and obviously video for the aforementioned, embedded, conveniently, within the feature itself. There's some great info in this regarding playing against other regions beyond Asia Pacific, match-making, scaling, Easter Eggs and more.

Click here for the full interview feature.

We attended the very successful launch of StarCraft 2 last night in Brisbane, which drew a massive crowd and showed you could very easily maintain the attention span of some 2000-odd hardcore gamers for more than two-hours. We'll have some awesome video of the night coming up soon, but today Dan and I will be heading out to catch up with SC2 producer, Kaeo Milker, to talk to him about everything StarCraft 2, Blizzard and Battle.net.

What we want from you, is any questions you'd like answered during said interview. And remember, this guy has been living and breathing this game and Blizzard lore in general for a long time, so it doesn't matter how hardcore your query is. Drop us a line in the Comments section to shoot us a question to throw Kaeo's way.

Also, be sure to check out two new SC2 vids we've posted up today: "Campaign Overview" and Battle.net Overview".