You see, waiting for your key is the key to waiting to get into the C&C 4 multiplayer beta. GameSpot is doling them out by the thousands, giving players access to four maps from the game, including Afflicted Arena, a Polynesian GDI military dock under siege by the Brotherhood of Nod. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Even the game’s lead designer thinks so.

“We could not be more excited to give fans a taste of what’s in store for Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight with the new multiplayer beta,” said Lead Designer, Samuel Bass. “Players can expect the fast-paced strategic RTS action they’ve come to know and love in the Command & Conquer franchise augmented with new gameplay elements that really ratchet up the intensity, especially in our 5v5 multiplayer modes.”

I can hardly wait, but wait I must. Upon logging into my GameSpot account on the beta page, I was greeted by this:

Thanks for your interest in the Command & Conquer 4 Open Beta. We’re currently limiting the rate at which we’re distributing keys, but we’ve just secured you a place in line. We’ll display your key here when we release more keys in the coming days, and we’ll be sure to notify you by email as well.

Hell yeah, I’ve secured a place in line! Now to bide my time until that fateful day. Oh the biding I will do.

Jens Peter Kurup, Director of Kane & Lynch at IO, tells GamesRadar that “there was something in the tone of that review that was tough on people, and on me”.

Calling the GameSpot thrashing of Kane & Lynch — a nasty 6.0, when many reviews range from 7.0 to 10 — “a review that I would like to forget”, Kurup is surprisingly honest in his feelings about the judgement.

Kurup says that single review has molded the opinions of gamers everywhere, even ones who haven’t played the game.

“In glimpses I still feel it, because when I meet somebody who hasn’t played the game, I can be fairly sure that his or her opinion is based on the GameSpot review”, Kurup said. “It just won’t go away”.

It doesn’t sound like we’ve heard the last of the unlikable Kane and Lynch, according to Kurup’s assessment of the franchise’s future. When you sell a million copies, you’re almost guaranteed another go — even if Jeff Gerstmann doesn’t like your game that much.

Kane & Lynch: How it feels to be critically panned [GamesRadar]

Sony PSP 3000 Hands-On [GameSpot]

In-game ad company Double Fusion announced a promotion and two new management hires today: Double Fine’s own Julie Shumaker will now oversee the company’s newly formed Core Games Group as general manager and former VP of games at CNET Joshua Larson has been brought on as Vice President of Business Development, and former GameTrust CFO and COO Glen Sussman is now Double’s Fusion’s CFO.

Joshua Larson, Joshua Larson, Josh Larson? That’s right, at CNET he was involved in GameSpot business strategy, and he was apparently involved in the site’s “Gerstmann-gate” brouhaha. This controversy supposedly lead to the controversial firing of long-time staffer Jeff Gerstmann (pictured0. After that incident, other senior GameSpotters like Frank Provo, Brad Shoemaker, Ryan Davis and Jason Ocampo all left the site. Josh Larson was sacked last April. According to an anonymous “gamespot” commented at sister site Valleywag, Larson was “a suit [...] who had no editorial experience and was only involved on the business side of things”.

And now Joshua Larson is working in advertising. In-game advertising. Why was he ever working in editorial?

GameSpot’s ‘Gerstmann-gate’ VP Heads to Double Fusion [GameDaily] [Pic]

Fallen Earth Project Manager Colin Dwan said, “During the Alpha test phase, testers will be focused into specific towns so we can have miniature stress tests each week. They will be able to experience all of our game systems including missions, combat, crafting, scavenging, economy, and vehicles. We are extremely excited to move from general content creation to game balance and bug fixing.”

Incidentally the game date is 2145 and their apocalypse of choice is a plague named Shiva that wiped out 99% of the population. Always good to know which post-apocalyptic scenario we are working with. Hit the jump for full details on the alpha sign ups.

FALLEN EARTH ANNOUNCES ALPHA TEST

CARY, NC – August 12, 2008 – Post apocalyptic MMOG Fallen Earth announced today it will officially begin Alpha testing on Thursday, August 14, 2008. The test is scheduled to run through early 2009, immediately followed by Beta testing to begin in 1Q09.

Fallen Earth Project Manager Colin Dwan said, “During the Alpha test phase, testers will be focused into specific towns so we can have miniature stress tests each week. They will be able to experience all of our game systems including missions, combat, crafting, scavenging, economy, and vehicles. We are extremely excited to move from general content creation to game balance and bug fixing.”

Fallen Earth is a post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online game that mixes first person shooter and role playing game style mechanics. The game is set in 2156, one hundred years after the world is brought low by a plague known as Shiva that killed 99% of the population. The game takes place in and around the Grand Canyon, one of the few habitable places left on Earth, which makes it a place many are willing to kill to control. Our world is one where mankind teeters on the edge of extinction, clinging to the bones of the old world while trying to recover their lost secrets. It’s a world of scavengers and desperation. The players are those who choose to rise above the hardships of this new world and work toward a better world, or decide the old world was corrupt and all signs of it must be erased completely.

Gamers who are a GameSpot subscriber can apply for the free Alpha test at http://www.gamespot.com/event/codes/fallen-earth/. Gamers who are not GameSpot subscribers can go to http://www.gamespot.com/signup/index.php and sign up for free. Participants will be chosen based on qualifying criteria, applicant numbers, and testing schedules. If accepted into the Alpha test, gamers will receive a key code and can download the file immediately.

Fallen Earth, being developed using the Icarus Studios Tools Suite platform, will be showcased in the Icarus Studios booth 307 at the Virtual Worlds Expo in Los Angeles, CA, September 3-4, 2008 and in booth 316 at the Austin Game Developer Conference Expo, September 16-17, 2008.

For more information, players can visit www.fallenearth.com.

It’s just you, your horse and some mounted medieval combat. They may as well call it Stabby Stabby Horse Riding.

The game offers PC owners some first or third-person single player fighting with an RPG bent as the player guides their horsey around a sandbox environment, cutting a swathe and trading in what is reckoned to be a complex economic system. A bit like GTA with horses, I suppose.

If this tickles your fancy and you can’t wait until mid September for the full release, you can sign up for the game’s open beta via Gamespot.

Mount & Blade Exclusive Beta [Gamespot UK]

C-list celebrities hit E3 [The Cut Scene]

“I’m at a point where I rarely second guess what I think about a game upon finishing it,” Gerstmann told me. He said he’s long gotten over the doubt that could set in “when you are facing the raging fury of the Internet.” He used to get death threats about some of his scores. “Now that stuff just rolls off. It’s the ranting of insane people, which you could say about a lot of internet stuff.”

I’ve always thought that some people take personal offense to reviews. They are just opinions. Everyone’s got one.

The Art of Not Second Guessing [Multiplayer]

Graphics Comparison [GameSpot]

CBS’ existing online network already includes CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, MaxPreps.com, CBSNews.com, last.fm, Wallstrip, MobLogic, and the CBS Radio and CBS Television Stations digital media
platforms. CBS says its distribution net, the Audience Network, comprises 300 partner sites and reaches 82% of U.S. web users.

“CNET Networks operates some of the most important premium online brands, serving the most sought after online audiences,” said CNET CEO Neil Ashe. “Today’s announcement brings together two organisations that complement each other and working with Leslie, Quincy and the talented people at CBS, we look forward to taking our business and our brands to the next level.”

Full announcement follows the jump.

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, May 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) has entered into an agreement to acquire CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: CNET), it was announced today by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, CBS will make a cash tender offer for all issued and outstanding shares of CNET Networks for $11.50 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $1.8 billion. The acquisition will make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the United States, with a combined 54 million unique users per month, and approximately 200 million users worldwide.

“There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks,” said Moonves. “CBS stands for premium content and unparalleled reach, and CNET Networks will add a tremendous platform to extend our complementary entertainment, news, sports, music and information content to a whole new global audience. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest- growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives. We could not be more pleased with the prospect of adding CNET Networks and its tremendous team of people to the CBS family. I look forward to working with Quincy Smith, Neil Ashe and the considerable combined talent at both companies, as we build upon our success.”

Based in San Francisco, CNET Networks owns many of the Internet’s leading entertainment, news and information sites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com, CNET news.com, UrbanBaby, CHOW, Search.com, BNET, MySimon and TechRepublic. The company, which reported significant profits in 2007 on revenues of $406 million, has a large international footprint, particularly in China.

Upon closing, CNET Networks’ sites will be combined with CBS’s stable of dynamic and growing interactive businesses. These include CBS.com, CBSSports.com, CBSCollegeSports.com, MaxPreps.com, CBSNews.com, last.fm, Wallstrip, MobLogic, CBS Radio and CBS Television Stations digital media platforms, and the distribution network of the CBS Audience Network, which is made up of more than 300 partner Web sites and reaches 82% of all online users in the United States.

“The core businesses of CNET Networks and CBS Interactive represent near perfect category symmetry in premium online content,” said Quincy Smith, President, CBS Interactive. “Together we will have a terrific opportunity to not only grow our established businesses, but to build new attractive verticals of content as well. This is the beginning of an era for both CBS and CNET Networks; plus, it’s going to be great to work with Neil and his team, many of whom I have known for many years.”

“We’re thrilled to join CBS and combine our interactive media experience with CBS’s world-class content,” said Neil Ashe, Chief Executive Officer, CNET Networks, Inc. “CNET Networks operates some of the most important premium online brands, serving the most sought after online audiences. Today’s announcement brings together two organizations that complement each other and working with Leslie, Quincy and the talented people at CBS, we look forward to taking our business and our brands to the next level.”

“We look forward to completing the acquisition of CNET Networks and the terrific benefits it brings to CBS as Quincy, Neil and their combined teams build upon our success,” Moonves concluded. “At the same time our strong cash flow allows us to pay among the highest dividends in the industry, and we are committed to continue to pay our attractive dividend to return value to shareholders.”

The Board of Directors of CNET Networks has unanimously approved the merger agreement and unanimously recommends that CNET Networks stockholders accept the tender offer and tender their shares.

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.