Another excellent Starcraft 2 article written by a teamliquid member who attended the Blizzcon regional finals in Germany.

Personally I am not too fond of the auto-mining mechanic. Basically when you start the game and build a new worker they will automatically begin to mine. This makes macro (which Starcraft is all about) very easy. Many games are won or lost because one players macro was better than the other.

However there are other mechanics to keep macro important on the battlefield: Dark pylons, Zerg Queens and Mules. Dark pylons are special pylons that act as normal pylons but they allow to ‘cast a spell’ that increases the worker production, the zerg queens can inject 3 extra larvae into a hatchery and the mule can be called down from a drop ship to support mining. These mechanics are on cool downs which will make macroing equally important.

There are currently lots of balance issues but I think it will turn out to be a great game. As the author said “This is Starcraft. You are not playing Warcraft 4, from the first second on this feels like Starcraft. Oh, and it looks gorgeous.”