A day alone with Blizzard's StarCraft II

Those lucky chaps over at 1UP have managed somehow to spend an entire day in the Blizzard camp playing Starcraft II, they have written a 5 page preview (!).  Here are a few paragraphs to whet your appetite:

As we've seen prior to this report, one of the key new Terran combat units is the Reaper; that highly mobile, highly irritating Terran soldier, that will make it difficult for our Zealots (even with their new 'Charge' move) to land an attack on them. While we have measures and counter-measures for nearly any battlefield scenario, these Reapers could be problematic, especially during communications with other Protoss commanders, who may mistake 'Reaper' for 'Reavers,' causing undue confusion in times where clarity is key. A new development with the Reapers, however, is worth paying close attention to. Now it appears as if these units can plant special, timed explosive charges. Unlike the Spider Mines frequently employed by those annoying Vultures, these timed explosives can be used in a more strategic fashion, such as a demolition capacity or in more conventional hit-and-run scenarios.

I wasted little time gathering minerals, as I'd spent some time before the session brushing up my rusty Starcraft skills with the original, and so was somewhat proficient getting my build order started. Climbing up the first tier of the tech tree was like riding a bicycle. Pylon, Forge, Stargate, Photon Cannons in that order, all the while producing more and more Probes to gather resources until my Pylon cap was maxed. As the first few Photon Cannons started warping into view, I began generating Zealots to help preoccupy any enemies that should come my way while my Cannons lay down covering fire. By 'enemies' I mean Jeff and Sean. Sean, in the long run, did a little bit better than Jeff did, mostly because I didn't bother surrounding his early attempts at creating a base with a suffocating grid of Photon Cannons as I did with Jeff. Jeff, so rusty I could hear his brain creak, was unable to get anything going thanks to my ruthless perimeter of Cannons, and while I didn't eliminate his base outright, I did squash any uppity attempts at rebellion (usually when he sent three or four hard-earned Zealots at one of my Photon Cannons) by keeping a cloaked fleet of massive overkill at the ready. Nothing quite like thinking you may be able to eke your way through someone's phalanx of Photons, only to wake an entire, invisible fleet hanging by overhead.

What are you waiting for?  This stuff is amazing!