For StarCraft II fans looking to play this week’s Heart of the Swarm expansion, you won’t need to undergo the 15GB installation process if you already have the main game, Wings of Liberty, on your computer.
From Blizzard: “Instead, start up the StarCraft II launcher and allow it to optimize your game files and download any pending updates.”
However, if you don’t have Wings of Liberty installed on your current device, the Heart of the Swarm physical disc includes both games. Just note that a Wings of Liberty game license is required to play the new expansion. Blizzard has also detailed patch optimization issues and patch troubleshooting to its customer support site.
I’m personally eager to continue Sarah Kerrigan’s story, but my installation off the disc is taking abnormally long. I just hope by the time I get online eager fans haven’t already exploded the servers a la Diablo III.