These kids today have it too easy. Back in our day there were certain aspects of being a gamer you just had to deal with. Polygons could be maxed out on screen. You’d have to use your imagination to see what the little collection of blocks represented. And one thing we all knew was that if you made it into the beta testing phase of a game, things were bound to be broken. But that was to be expected. A beta wasn’t a finished product and you “paid” for the early gameplay by dealing with the bugs. Kids today don’t get betas. They just get an extended demo and that’s why they don’t know the pain we went through growing up.

What brought on this jaded old man tirade you ask? The Titanfall beta of course. Don’t misinterpret, there is nothing wrong with the Titanfall beta. Between the beta and the awesome art book I got today (don’t worry, a review is coming soon), I am going to be picking up Titanfall on launch. But when playing it, it hasn’t been a beta experience. The game runs smooth, controls great and looks fantastic. The only limits are some of the maps and weapons not being fully unlocked. It’s basically a smaller version of the final product. And that’s not a beta. It’s a demo. But they’ve changed the name because beta access is a better buzz phrase for marketing.

Alien Homonid was one of the most punishing games to come out for the Gamecube with an old school challenge behind it and it quickly put Behemoth on the map. They followed up with Castle Crashers which would go on to become the highest selling independent game up until Minecraft was released. With over $25 million in revenue from Castle Crashers, Behemoth would go on to reveal Battleblock Theater as their next project.

The first playable demo of Battleblock Theater was revealed in 2009 and has been updated for both Comic Con and PAX since but the game’s release date was kept close to the vest. Things look like they may be changing for a 2013 release though

Behemoth has opened registration for a closed beta for Battleblock Theater. The beta will feature 10,000 slots and is expected to take place between February or March. These 10,000 playtesters will be responsible for reporting any bugs or problems with the game that the developers can fix in time for commercial release.

While some betas for games like Resident Evil, Halo and Gears of War are more for commercial attention, a smaller studio like Behemoth can depend on this group to help their QA since their budgets can’t come close to matching Capcom, Microsoft and Epic respectively.

Battlefield 4 being announced was only a matter of time. Billed by EA as the franchise that will take down Call of Duty, Battlefield 3 was an intense and awesome multiplayer experience, though it suffered from a lackluster single player campaign. In both a technical sense and as it was regarded by the most hardcore of shooter fans, the multiplayer of Battlefield 3 was the superior game compared to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

On EA’s Origin service on Tuesday, an advertisement popped up urging players to Preorder Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The incentive, access to Battlefield 4. This is the first time that EA has officially and publicly talked about Battlefield 4. Though everyone knew it would be coming, no one knew when.

“Though Battlefield and Medal of Honor Warfighter each offer players a completely unique experience, they are united by their underlying technology base – Frostbite. These are two of the hottest shooters, coming together to deliver a one-two punch of action, intensity and shooter entertainment,” said Frank Gibeau, President of EA Labels

The Beta access will take place during the fall of 2013, which may determine whether or not the game is going to be current or next-gen as well depending on the timing, though EA is tight-lipped about those details.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter is set for an October 23, 2012 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Battlefield 4 has no set release date or official announcements for what systems it will be on. Stick to The Flickcast for more info as it becomes available.

People said it would never happen and it hadn’t for several years. In fact, before today, we would have bet money that this change would never come. Google seemed perfectly content to keep its Gmail and Google Apps services with the “Beta” tag forever. That is, until today.

According to Google’s “official’ blog, they have removed the “Beta” status from Gmail and Google Apps (which consists of Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk) as of today. Both consumer and enterprise Google Apps categories are now out of beta in fact, and its pretty likely the enterprise version of Google Apps was the driving force behind the change. With 1.75 million companies currently utilizing Google Apps (including The Flickcast), the “Beta” moniker seemed a bit ridiculous, not to mention odd, at this point. Plus, if I’m a business guy trying to sell my boss on a “Beta” service, even a really useful and cool one like Google Apps, I’m probably not going to get very far.

Google obviously agreed. . . finally. Unfortunately, even with this momentous news, Google didn’t actually change or enhance the services at all to make the move out of beta. They probably feel that removing the beta tag is enough for one day and will no doubt add features down the road. They certainly were not shy about improving GMail and Google Apps while they were in beta, so there’s no reason to think they won’t continue the trend now that the “Beta” is no more.