It was revealed earlier this month that the Starcraft II closed beta would begin, and begin it has! Invitation codes were sent out to approved applicants for this highly anticipated beta which could be redeemed as early as yesterday. The beta is only open to multiplayer aspects of the game including a number of ranked multiplayer modes: multiplayer ladder quick match – which has 1v1, 2v2, and free-for-all (FFA) modes. Testers will also be able to play unranked custom matches. Beta players can choose to play against the computer AI or other players.

Blizzard has not announced how long the closed beta would run, nor how many lucky players would get the chance to join,  but did announce that a Mac beta would be available later during this test period.

The minimum PC requirements were also released for the beta:

PC Minimum Requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024×768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

There is an extensive FAQ posted on the Battle.net forums: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23214531243&sid=5010

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