Protoss Colossi, Sentries and Immortals fend off an army of Terran Marauders and Medivacs. (image courtesy Blizzard)

The StarCraft 2 Beta phase has officially closed and the release is just a week away, July 27, 2010. The sequel to arguably the most successful real-time strategy in history was announced more than three years ago and I can say it’s easily the most anticipated game of the year for me and many others. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say, it’s likely I will be playing StarCraft 2 five years from now and I can explain why. Before the beta was released, there were still gamers devoted to the original game which was released back in 1998.

Read my full preview here.