To help get you started, here’s a quick summary of each custom game as well as some basic instructions on how to play.

StarJeweled
Category: Puzzle/Strategy

Mode: Solo vs. A.I., Co-op vs. A.I., Player vs. Player

Players: Up to 4 (1v1, 1v1 A.I., 1v2 A.I., 1v2, 2v2, 2v2 A.I., etc.)

tarJeweled focuses on matching groups of jewels according to color and strategically selecting StarCraft II units to overcome an opponent’s forces and destroy their base. StarJeweled can be played several ways, including cooperatively against the A.I. or competitively against other players.

Each successfully matched jewel combination provides a burst of energy; the larger the jewel combo, the bigger the energy burst. This energy can be spent to train a variety of StarCraft II units, including zealots, banshees, and ultralisks, which will help you eliminate your opponent’s defenses. You can also use energy to cast spells that heal friendly targets and do damage to enemy units. To activate a unit or spell once you’ve gained enough energy, simply click on the corresponding icon located beneath the jewel board.

Since the goal of StarJeweled is to destroy your opponent’s base while protecting your own, you’ll want to choose which units you purchase carefully. StarJeweled is not just about matching as many jewels as possible, but also managing your energy efficiently and understanding how the units in the game counter each other. If you’re unfamiliar with all the units’ strengths and weaknesses, each unit’s tooltip (which you’ll see by hovering over its icon) includes a list of what it’s strong against and what it’s weak against. Use this knowledge to use your advantage, and pay attention to what units your opponent is building.

A game of StarJeweled consists of five rounds. Each round will continue until one player’s or team’s base is destroyed. Take out your opponent’s base in three out of the five rounds and you win!

Aiur Chef

Category: Collection/Cooking

Mode: Free For All

Players: Up to 8

Each round of Aiur Chef features a theme ingredient and three succulent recipes that play upon its unique flavor. Before you can master these themed dishes, though, you’ll first need to scout across the map and collect a variety of tasty ingredients (including the theme ingredient). Each recipe has its own set of required ingredients, listed in the recipe menu in the upper-left of your screen, which can be picked up off the ground or acquired by killing specific creatures. Don’t get too greedy when loading up on ingredients, though — inventory space is limited, so you’ll want to focus on collecting ingredients for one recipe at a time.

http://us.media4.battle.net/cms/gallery/07HRJRMLRKQC1295401108530.jpg

Once you’ve collected the proper ingredients, you’ll need to return to the kitchen in the center of the map and use the Beacon to prepare your dish. Each dish created using the theme ingredient will award you points based on the complexity of the recipe. Some dishes even award special one-time use abilities like Hearthstove, which allows you to quickly port back to the Beacon, and Decoy, which places a fake theme ingredient on the ground for other players to scavenge. Take advantage of these abilities whenever possible, as they could provide the competitive edge you need to outcook your opponents.

The player with the most points at the end of three rounds will be named Executor Chef, culinary guru of the entire Koprulu Sector. With such a prestigious title on the line, expect some fierce competition… and get those psi blades ready!

Left 2 Die

Category: Survival and Siege
Mode: Co-op, Endless Night
Players: Up to 2

Left 2 Die is a cooperative take on the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign mission Outbreak that shifts between two phases: a night phase and a day phase.

At night, you and a teammate are tasked with protecting your base against waves of infested terrans. In order to survive, you’ll need to use defensive structures like bunkers and coordinate your defenses against the invading zerg armies. You’ll also want to watch out for special zerg units such as the Kaboomer and Stank that can perform unique and powerful abilities capable of overwhelming even the strongest front lines.

During the day, the attacks on your team’s base will cease, giving you and your teammate time to train additional units and take them out to destroy infested terran settlements scattered across the map. It’s also a good idea to continue building up defenses during the daytime so you can survive the merciless onslaught of zerg that swarm your base at night.

While the struggle to survive in Left 2 Die can be daunting, you and your teammate will have some help along the way. You can earn zerg Biomass by killing special zerg units and destroying infested buildings, and then use the collected Biomass at the Science Facility in your base to research new units and structures like medics, firebats, and perdition turrets. Both you and your teammate will receive these upgrades, which will aid you in your struggle against the zerg strain.

In order to achieve victory in Left 2 Die, you’ll need to eradicate all traces of the zerg virus. Work together to survive at night, assault and rebuild during the day, and use Biomass wisely for epic upgrades to win!

Endless Night: If you’re looking for a different kind of challenge, be sure to try out Left 2 Die’s Endless Night mode, essentially a “survival” mode in which infested structures are invulnerable and daybreak never comes. You’ll have to fend off wave after wave of the infested, with each wave becoming increasingly more powerful. While defeat is inevitable, the challenge comes in seeing how long you can endure in the dark.

To play the beta versions of Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, or Left 2 Die, simply go to the Multiplayer tab in StarCraft II and look for the custom games window. A few of these games have more than one difficulty setting, so select the level of challenge that’s best for you. We hope you enjoy them, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game-time passes are available in 3-day, 7-day, and 30-day increments. Gamers in Southeast Asia can now choose from an array of convenient alternative pricing options and play on a schedule that best fits their preferences.

Pricing for the game-time passes for the Philippines are as follows:

3-day pass: Php50
7-day pass: Php100
30-day pass: Php350

StarCraft II Official & Final System Requirements:

Minimum PC System Requirements:

- Windows XP/Vista/7 with DirectX 9.0c
- 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
- 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT or ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card and better
- 12 GB available HD space
- 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB required for Windows Vista/Windows 7 users)
- DVD-ROM drive
- Broadband Internet
- 1024×720 pixel minimum display resolution

Recommended PC System Requirements:

- Windows Vista/Windows 7
- Dual Core 2.4GHz CPU
- 2GB RAM
- 512MB NVidia GeForce 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon HD 3870 and better

StarCraft 2 Standard Box costs about Php3,500.

The whole preview is very Protoss-centric, with the narrator starting with a disclaimer that “nothing here is final.” We’re introduced once again to the Zealots, the Protoss basic unit. They now feature the Charge ability, which lets them close the distance quickly with enemies so that they can unleash their powerful melee attacks.

After annihilating a group of marines, the Zealots are in turn wiped out by Siege Tanks, the classic Terran unit known for long range and extreme hurt. Here’s where a new unit, the Immortal, comes in. These ranged attackers have a special shield that activates when it receives a powerful attack, minimizing its damage. The Immortals use this ability to survive the siege tanks’ barrage and destroy them all.

Then, we’re introduced to a new Terran unit, the Reaper. Reapers have jet packs to go up and down cliffs, and carry two pistols. Since they do weak damage, they’re able to punch through the Immortals shields and win the battle. The Reapers then jump their way to the Protoss base, and destroy a pylon to disable the photon cannons. The Protoss then bring in a Phase Prism, a new unit that can turn into a mobile pylon, returning power back to the photon cannons. The Reapers retreat.

Now a new “Dark Dragoon,” called the Stalker makes it debut. It’s special ability, Blink, lets it instantly teleport to anywhere it sees. This is used to pursue the faster Reapers (by teleporting beside them when they’re out of weapons range) to kill them all.

Then, we see the new version of the Nydus Canal, which is literally a worm exploding out of the ground to provide easy access for Zerglings to ambush the Stalkers. The Stalkers use their Blink to try and escape, but there are just too many Zerg, who rush to attack a line of Zealots.

From behind the Protoss lines come the Colossus. These gigantic robots have long legs that let them go up and down cliffs (just like the Reapers), and feature a powerful and sweeping ground laser perfect against the numerous Zerglings. The Protoss win the battle.

Then, pushing forward, the group of Zealots of Colossi encounter a group of Zerglings, who immediately mutate into Banelings. Once the mutation is complete, the Zerglings are now a relentlessly rolling suicidal swarm. They wipe out the entire Protoss group, except for a single Colossus who manages to walk up a cliff and escape certain death.

That is, until a group of Mutalisks show up and destroy it. The Protoss send their Phoenix, light spacecraft that feature the Overload ability. When activated, Overload causes the Phoenix to shoot all of its weapons at nearby enemies, causing lots of damage in a short amount of time. Problem is, after such an attack, the Phoenix is temporarily deactivated, becoming vulnerable.

But through Overload, the group of Phoenix destroy the Mutalisks, and push forward. Eventually, it’s shown how they don’t have enough firepower against larger ships like the Terran Battlecruiser. A group of Warp Rays come to the rescue, using their ability to do more damage the longer they fire to cut through the Battlecrusier’s thick armor. When pushing forward however, they encounter a group of marines who use their numbers to negate the Warp Rays’ slowly but surely approach. The Terrans then fortify their position with missile turrets.

Here’s where Blizzard shows off the ultimate Protoss weapon: The Mothership. Essentially a flying space station with powerful shields and weapons, it’s good that the Protoss can only have one of these at a time, and build it at great cost.

Yet the Mothership is well worth its cost, as demonstrated when it activates its Time Bomb ability. It creates a field that keeps incoming projectiles from hitting the ship. This lets the mothership destroy all the anti-air defenses in the area.

But that’s not all. When the Mothership moves towards a Terran base, it unleashes its Planet Cracker ability, which deals instant death to anything on the ground underneath the ship. When the Terrans try using Battlecruisers to dispatch the Mothership, it activates its Black Hole ability. Which of course sucks all enemy ships into non-existence.

The Mothership, having annihilated everything in its path, pushes forward and encounters a large group of Terrans. Protoss support units appear from nowhere and the battle that makes up the last part of the video is joined. After a few seconds of virtual mayhem, three nukes destroy everything. Three ghosts reveal themselves, and are instantly ambushed by Zerglings. After the ghosts are killed, the Zerglings maneuver themselves into formation, spelling out “GG” (good game) as they mutate into Banelings.

That’s all folks! Remember, nothing in the demo is final!

Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company’s world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game.