Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta Begins

If you were lucky enough to receive a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta invite (and we weren't) then you'll be pleased to learn the beta has just begun. We don't care, because we don't have an invite, so it's pretty irrelevant to us. The beta, that arrived via Valve Time a touch late, will scale up (when perhaps we'll be invited, maybe), aiming for a release "early 2012". Which could mean any time between now and the eventual entropic destruction of the universe. Apparently it's only a teeny weeny bit of the game, so doesn't even require a pre-load for excited people who are able to play it, which we aren't.