StarCraft II finally launched last night and we know that lots of you are using your mouse and keyboard furiously to play Blizzard's sci-fi RTS sequel right now. But wouldn't you want to play the game with a keyboard specifically designed for the game and on a mouse pad with some StarCraft II imagery? Of course you would.

That's why Big Download wants to offer three StarCraft II editions of SteelSeries' Zboard PC gaming keyboards as a giveaway to our readers. These keyboards have special keys and software designed especially for use in StarCraft II. We will even throw in a SteelSeries OcK mouse pad with StarCraft II character Tychus Findlay staring up at you. You can check out an image of the mouse pad after the jump.

How do you get a chance to win the keyboard and mouse pad bundle? It's actually pretty easy:

• To enter, post a comment on this contest page.
• The comment must be left before 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Thursday, July 29
• You may enter only once.
• Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• The winners will be sent a SteelSeries Zboard StarCraft II edition (valued at approximately $70) and a SteelSeries StarCraft II OcK mouse pad (valued at approximately $15)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules. You must be a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) who is 18 years or older to enter this contest

Our thanks to SteelSeries for the donation of the prizes for this giveaway. Good luck. Don't forget that we are still giving away three copies of StarCraft II with the deadline of Wednesday at 11:59 pm Eastern time to enter. And stay tuned all this week as we will have even more StarCraft II related prizes to win.

Game retailer GameStop has said it wants to expand its digital game offerings and today the company did exactly that. Today GameStop announced that it had acquired the web-based game portal Kongregate. The site is home to over 30,000 web based games and 10 million users. Indie developers can gain revenue via micro-transactions and via ads. Financial terms of today's deal were not disclosed.

Kongregate's co-founder Jim Greer has posted up a funny FAQ on today's GameStop acquisition along with a video of Greer on the same topic (stay until the end of the video, by the way). Greer states that all employees of Kongregate will stay in their offices in California and that the site will continue to offer free games for its users. There are plans to give Kongregate users a way to link to GameStop's new PowerUp rewards program.

The classic Sierra Online-published Space Quest adventure games are no strangers to the DRM-free web site GoG.com. The site is already home to a bundle that collects the fourth, fifth and sixth installments of the humorous sci-fi game series. Now GoG.com has announced that the first three Space Quest games are available to purchase and download in a bundle.

The games, now owned by Activision, feature the space janitor Roger Wilco as he tries to fight for "truth, justice and really clean floors.' The first three games in the series were released in 1986, 1987, and 1989, respectively, and were very funny send-ups of sci-fi cliches as well as other events related to pop culture. You can download the Space Quest bundle from GoG.com now for $9.99.

Earlier this month we reported that 38 Studios was considering moving its main headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts to Rhode Island in order to secure loans from that state's government. Today Boston.com reports that the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. has indeed voted 8 to 1 to give 38 Studios a whopping $75 million in loan guarantees to move to the state. 38 Studios claims it will bring 450 jobs directly to Rhode Island by the end of 2012. If the developer shuts down operations, the state will have to repay the loans.

The game studio, founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, just announced its first game last week, the fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, which is being developed by Maryland-based Big Huge Games. 38 Studios' main office is working on a fantasy MMO code named Copernicus.

Another Massachusetts-based game developer, Demiurge Studios, made the unusual move of emailing to the press an open letter written to Schilling. The letter, which is also available on Demiurge's web site, asks Schilling to reconsider moving 38 Studios out of the Boston area. Demiurge's CEO William Reed states, "As 38 Studios' in-development MMO grows, you will soon realize that although the capital you have secured will fund your endeavors, the most vital and necessary component to completing your project is the vast pool of talent and resources you are leaving behind." Reed adds that members of 38 Studios who don't want to move are "more than welcome to join the team at Demiurge Studios, the state's soon-to-be largest independent game studio."

The beta period for Stardock's upcoming turn-based fantasy strategy game Elemental: War of Magic is getting close to the end. The game's official web site has posted up a preview of the game's beta 4 build which will be released to beta testers later this week. Beta 4 will be the last phase of the game's beta test period before Elemental is released on August 24.

According to Stardock head man Brad Wardell, "The stability of Beta 4 (our current internal beta of it) is equal to the day 0 version of Galactic Civilizations II and its performance significantly better than the release version of Galactic Civilizations II." He adds, "As of today, the game is now sufficiently ahead of schedule that the Stardock team is no longer in "crunch mode"

As with any PC game product, StarCraft II has some issues that are known to the development team at Blizzard. The scif-ti RTS sequel has some bugs in it and the game's official message boards have a list of known issues that are presented on the game's official message boards. One of the issues is having Blizzard's auto-updater being shown by anti-virus programs as a trojan. Another issue is seeing black screens "being related to the use of a Quick Cam webcam." Some of these problems do have listed workarounds. There's also a current bug list available to read on the forums.

If you have yet to purchase StarCraft II on the fear that your PC might not run the game, Blizzard also has more detail on the game's PC system requirements beyond the system specs that Blizzard confirmed earlier this month, including more detail on what processors and video cards will and will not work with the game.

For the past few days, a number of players on the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 have been on a rampage on various message boards, complaining that Valve has banned them from playing online even though they didn't do anything. For a little while it looked like Valve wasn't going to do anything about it but tonight it seems Valve has found a fault in its VAC anti-cheat system.

Valve's head man Gabe Newell has issued an email to those who were affected including one who posted his email on Steam's forums. Newell states, "This was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you." He then gave a rather technical explanation on why the inncorrect bans were made and then added, "We have reversed the ban, restoring your access to the game. In addition, we have given you a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to give as a gift on Steam, plus a free copy for yourself if you didn't already own the game." So apparently everything is cool.

After over 12 years of waiting, US gamers are finally buying StarCraft II and installing Blizzard's sci-fi RTS game on their PC hard drives. Blizzard activated the Battle.net servers just after midnight for the east coast. This allowed US gamers to play the full version of StarCraft II online like their Asian, Australian and European brethren had been doing for several hours (Latin American gamers should also be playing the game now.

I went to my local Taylors SC GameStop retail store last night to see if anyone showed up for the midnight launch of StarCraft II. In the end over 20 people came to the store at midnight to purchase either the standard or collector's edition of the title. Many spend extra for the regular or collector's edition strategy guide. All in all it seemed like a lot of people for the launch of a PC exclusive game. Remember if you chose to purchase the digitial download version of the game you won't be able to complete the download and purchase the game before 1 pm Eastern time today.

Now for the fun part - playing StarCraft II.

Update: You can check out reports and pictures from Blizzard's official StarCraft II launch event at Fountain Valley CA at the game's official web site.

With Starcraft 2 literally just around the corner, it's certainly important to understand just what has been going on in the Starcraft universe, from before the start of the first game until now. Thankfully, we've got you covered with an in-depth synopsis of the story. Even if you haven't played through Starcraft, you will know exactly what ties into where as you delve into Jim Raynor's story in Wings of Liberty.

Note: This article contains massive spoilers of the original game's story.

Medal of Honor is very straightforward in its depiction of the Tier 1 Operators of the Joint Special Operations Command. It's well known for bringing many of the soldiers onto the project as consultants, and they've been conducting a series of interviews to hammer this point home. It's now time for the latest interview in the series: 'Hammer and Sickle.'

While the interview is nothing particularly shocking, it's an interesting look into the military life. The interviewee discusses camaraderie ('I would rather take a bullet than cause the death of one of my squadmates'), morality ('If you are an innocent in harm's way, we want to be the guys that stop the bully'), and the rigors of training ('Years and years of sacrifices'). All in all, it'll be familiar to military personnel, but it's still an inspiring interview.

Download HD Medal of Honor Tier 1 Interviews: Hammer and Scalpel Trailer
Check out all Medal of Honor downloads

In about three hours the first players in the US will be hitting the Battle.net servers to play StarCraft II. Are you waiting outside or inside a store right now to get a copy? If so are you getting the regular edition or splurging to get the Collector's Edition? If you have any photos of StarCraft II launch events in the US tonight email them to us us at contests@bigdownload.com and we will add them to a gallery of US launch photos we will post tomorrow.

• Starting tomorrow and ending on Saturday people who buy StarCraft II via Kmart can get a $20 credit towards their next gaming purchase.
• The StarCraft II community web site has some new entries on how leagues and ladders are handled in the game.
• There's also a new entry on how to handle friend invites and friends list in StarCraft II.
• Fellow AOL site Blogging Stocks notes that Activision Blizzard's stock has been heading up ahead of StarCraft II's release.
• Quoted in Strategy Informer, Blizzard exec Michael Ryder states, "we don't expect players to have to wait too long" for the other two games in the StarCraft II trilogy to be released.
• The latest BlizzCast audio podcast just got released as Blizzard's Chris Sigaty and Dustin Browder chat about the game's b beta period and some hints on upcoming updates to StarCraft II.

More and more we are seeing the use of microtransactions in online games, both on the PC and console platforms. Today one of the leaders in developing the technology for microtransactions, Live Gamer, announced a new deal with publisher Electronic Arts to "drive its global microtransactions-based projects and accelerate the company's online gaming strategy." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is Live Gamer's biggest client yet to use its technology and services. The company has had its microtransactions model used by Sony Online's many titles. Earlier this month Live Gamer announced that its technology would also be used by THQ beginning with its upcoming RTS MMO Company of Heroes Online.

It's safe to say that the child in all of us absolutely loves LEGOs. We certainly adore the little plastic bricks and their capacity to bring to life our imaginations. LEGO Universe aims to scratch this fix with an MMO set in a unique world, and we're mildly excited for it. However, these new trailers show just how dedicated the team is to building an authentic and entertaining LEGO experience.

The first video, above, details the role of a LUP group, or LEGO Universe Partner. These folks act as GMs and construct the world that players will be exploring. These groups are made of volunteers that love LEGOs, and this particular video shows the efforts of one Victoria, British Columbia group. The other two videos, after the cut, detail the relatively standard elements of pets and factions within the game.

Yes, it's true. The country that actually developed StarCraft II will be one of the last places in the world for the sci-fi RTS game to go live. Blizzard's game has officially gone live for its many Southeast Asian and Australian players including, naturally, South Korea where tons of fans lined up to purchase the game. For many Asian nations the game won't appear on store shelves at all. It will only be available as a digital download where players can choose to pay for unlimited online play or play with monthly or daily fees. Players of World of Warcraft in Korea can play StarCraft II for free.

Across the Atlantic it's now past midnight in Europe which means those gamers who showed up at midnight launch events at various retailers can now install and play StarCraft II. The UK-based Rock Paper Shotgun has an entertaining live blog of the author installing and trying to play the game. Meanwhile Blizzard's official StarCraft II Facebook page has a gallery of photos showing launch event festivities in various Asian and European locations. Check after the jump to see a couple more photos including Blizzard's Dustin Browder in Paris and a Terran soldier in Moscow.

In just a few hours, the Eastern time zone in the US will become the first in the country to start playing StarCraft II. Of course lots of people are going to be conveniently ill or perhaps take a few vacation days to play Blizzard's next sci-fi RTS game. But what if you don't have that kind of excuse ready for your boss on Tuesday morning?

We doubt that The Late Show with David Letterman will have a Top 10 list tonight relating to StarCraft II (although they really should) so we have whipped up our own. So from the home office on board the Hyperion here are the top 10 excuses for staying home Tuesday to play StarCraft II after the jump: