After a brief delay, developer Valve has launched the beta for its upcoming Counter-Strike Global Offensive multiplayer shooter. So far beta keys are available only in limited quantities, but there are plenty of players who have gotten some game time and uploaded videos. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is scheduled for release in early 2012 on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Minecraft has taken the world by storm and has quickly become one of the most successful independently developed titles of all time. However, what you may not have known is the fact that Minecraft is still a beta. That’s right, the game has already sold millions of copies and isn’t even a final release just yet. Luckily Mojang Specifications are doing what they can to push the game towards a final release. In fact head developer Notch has just come forth to let us know that the company is currently working on beta 1.7. The big news surrounding this beta is the fact that it will be the “adventure update” along with adding small support for mods.

Unfortunately no other information was given as to what exactly this adventure update will include but it seems that Minecraft will be a much more feature intensive game quite soon.

Apparently, someone at Valve realized that they operated Counter-Strike as well, in addition to Team Fortress 2 and Left For Dead. Valve has announced that they’ve updated CS Source with new features and new engine updates, and the whole thing is now in a beta for selected users. The new features include:

• 144 achievements added
• New lifetime player stats and summary screens
• New match player stats and summary screens
• New end of round display with MVP and interesting fact about a player
• Updated scoreboard with new icons, visual style, MVP stars, and avatar pictures
• New cinematic death camera
• New domination and revenge system
• Added avatar icons to voice chat, scoreboard, and end of round display
• Incorporated many source engine updates