Starcraft 2 pre-orders for S$109 at Licence2Play

It’s no surprise for anybody who went down to last weekend’s Licence2Play that Starcraft 2 was the biggest thing there.

Blizzard and IAHGames had a big booth showcasing Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty at the gaming fair, which was held this year from 28th to 30th May at the Singapore Expo. Besides this, not much else has changed compared to last year’s event, except that it is not held at Suntec anymore.

There were some events being run by the Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA), but this paled in comparison to the big draw: A chance to play Starcraft 2 beta and pre-order the game.

I was tempted to get it, but the S$109 pre-order price for the game and beta key was a little steep. The dog-tag souvenir was not enticing enough for me to pay upwards of S$100+, so without more shiny stuff, I passed. Hopefully, when the game comes out on July 27th, it will be more reasonably priced.

I had a chance to try out the Starcraft2 beta at the booth though. All around the big Blizzard booth were placed gaming laptops where people could try out multiplayer games on the Battle.net servers. There was of course virtually no lag as games are hosted locally here in Singapore, and finally SE Asia gets its own servers. Yay!

I played three games. Game one got wiped by a zergling rush, game two stalled out with a turtling Terran player, and the last game I zealot rushed someone to death. It really reminded me of the lost hours I had with my Starcraft days in university back in 1998. My old university mates will remember countless LAN games we played both in our computer labs — being a computer science major has it privileges — and at home. Fun times.

If just for old times sake, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 are must-buy games for me. And oh, this fanboi has been patiently awaiting Guildwars 2 for the longest time now!