With StarCraft II Betawatch levels recently being upped to code red, Blizzard’s emerged from its cone of silence. But this is Blizzard we’re talking about, so obviously, baby steps. No actual release date just yet, but here are some gameplay details to hold you over.

“StarCraft II beta testers will be able to play a number of ranked multiplayer modes, include multiplayer ladder quick match, which has 1v1, 2v2, and free-for-all (FFA) modes. In addition, testers will be able to play unranked custom matches. We are not testing the single-player campaign of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty during the beta period,” reads the FAQ.

Note, however, that – for those of you who aren’t so confident in your ability to not be torn to shreds by people who’ve been playing StarCraft since before you were born – CPU opponents are an option.

Also of note: Blizzard plans to bring more testers aboard the SS StarCraft II based on its “testing needs,” so just because you don’t nab a golden ticket right away doesn’t mean you won’t get in eventually.

Click through the link for the rest of the FAQ. It is, in fact, handy. And really, that’s all you can ask for. Aside from a release date (*hint, hint*).

We – as in, this particular blogger – don’t actually play World of Warcraft anymore, but we still have something of a personal stake the Lich King’s passing. Arthas’ fall – or his whiplash-inducing plunge, really – in Warcraft III still remains one of our favorite gaming stories, so it’s a bit surreal to just wake up one morning and find out that someone offed the old cold king. We always figured we’d get to close the book on what we started when we yanked Frostmourne from the ice all those years ago, preferably in some form of RTS. 

Even so, congratulations are in order. A guild by the name of “Blood Legion” did the deed, earning the title of “Kingslayer,” along with a World First achievement and – hopefully – a single night off from their assuredly rigorous raiding schedule.  This, of course, also means that Blizzard’s officially run out of drops of Lich King content to drip-feed players. Until the run-up to Cataclysm kicks-off, don’t count on any new content or real estate for the biggest MMO on the block.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty – perhaps too many – fish in the MMOcean, and even the hardest of hardcore WoW players should now be able to find time in their schedules to sample them. Or, we guess you could go outside or take a vacation or something, but we hear that murdering 30 boars and stealing their innards is actually frowned upon out there. Best to stick with what you know, after all.

Gotta say, it’s a bit ironic that a blood-soaked week of virtual warfare – during which, more than twelve million casualties met their abrupt, though most assuredly excruciating ends – is the perfect template for videogame immortality. But hey, when happenstance writes my jokes for me, who am I to complain? And so it is with Valve’s Team Fortress 2.

As you’re probably already aware, last week saw Valve launch its latest update for the now two year-old Team Fortress 2. Which, in videogame years, roughly equates to dead. And a half. At the very least, you’d expect the public eye – easily distracted as it is -- to have wandered elsewhere by now, leaving Valve’s wacky shooter to the vultures and tumbleweeds of the world. But it hasn’t. War, as with each of TF2’s other updates, grabbed all kinds of attention – even as newer games like Modern Warfare 2 watched jealously from the outside.

So, why hasn’t interest in Team Fortress 2 faded over the years? Well, I can’t uncover the entire recipe for Valve’s incredibly intricate immortality potion, but I can outline one of its major ingredients: presentation. When Valve gives TF2 a tune-up, it does so with style. While other developers are content to toss their DLC out into the cold, harsh world with little more than a press release to keep it warm, Valve rolls out the proverbial red carpet with comics, videos, week-long Advent Calendar-style reveals, and – most recently – in-game competitions.

Continue reading after the break!

Aside from one obscure little game whose name escapes our memory at the moment, WarCraft has been out of action since WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne’s release back in 2003. Don’t take this world without WarCraft to mean that Blizzard’s completely iced the idea of a fourth entry in the popular fantasy RTS series, though. Just be prepared to wait a tick before scratching your orc-commanding, night elf-outsmarting itch.

"Warcraft 4 is certainly something that gets talked about on a pretty regular basis," Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack said in an interview with AusGamers. "While I think we're all excited about a Warcraft 4, in concept, [the WarCraft 3 team is] going to finish up StarCraft 2, and then they're going to work on the two StarCraft expansions that we've announced, so they're booked for the next few years."

And though he stopped just short of nailing the team to the project, Brack did say that "it does sort of make sense."

Another Blizzard game, another tremendous wait. But at least we can while away the, well, years until Diablo III’s launch with Torchlight. As for WarCraft 4, though... hey Runic, ever think about making an RTS?