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(Please beware that the following is a spoiler for the end of Fable II, so if you still plan to play it, do not read on!)

I've just been bollocked by a carrot. In almost three decades of gaming, I think it's safe to say that this represents something of a first.

Amid the deluge of information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm released at BlizzCon this weekend were a few morsels on the content and changes coming in future patches. The most interesting were at Saturday's dungeons and raids panel: a preview of Icecrown Citadel, and news that Blizzard will introduce cross-server dungeon grouping.

One of the surprise hits of 1998 was Baldur's Gate, an old school isometric RPG based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rule set.

Published as part of our sister-site GamesIndustry.biz' widely-read weekly newsletter, the GamesIndustry.biz Editorial is a weekly dissection of one of the issues weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. It appears on Eurogamer after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.

Blizzard design chief Rob Pardo explained the features of the new Battle.net that would ship with StarCraft II at a BlizzCon panel today. The Xbox Live-style service features unified friends lists, chat, achievements and identities across Blizzard games, "cloud" play so you can access your StarCraft II save from any computer, and a league and tournament matchmaking system for players of all skill levels.

As part of Blizzard's ambitious plans for the new version of the Battle.net online platform to launch alongside StarCraft II, the company's design chief Rob Pardo revealed plans to allow the mod community to sell content on a StarCraft II Marketplace after launch.

Following World of Warcraft: Cataclysm's unveiling at the BlizzCon opening ceremony, Blizzard unveiled plans for the third expansion in detail at a packed developer panel.

ShopTo has confirmed to Eurogamer that PS3 Slim consoles will be available to buy well ahead of September.

The BlizzCon 2009 opening ceremony has finished and two dazzling announcements have been made.

The rumours were true! Blizzard's next World of Warcraft expansion is called Cataclysm, although there's no word yet on a release date.

Blizzard has revealed a fourth character class for Diablo III at BlizzCon 2009 today - the Monk.

Demos and videos provide most interest on the PS Store refresher today.

DICE has pushed the PC release of Battlefield 1943 to early next year, after previously promising a September launch.

Three new Achievements have appeared for Mass Effect, which suggests the long-promised DLC is imminent.

It's a general rule that Japanese developers are nowhere near as effusively forthcoming about their games at preview stage as their European or (especially) American counterparts. But for the world's first showing of Final Fantasy XIV, we might have expected slightly more than producer Hiromichi Tanaka and online director Nobuaki Komoto sitting in a room and waiting for questions whilst the game ran in the background, showing an immobile Elvaan mage standing in front of a building.

Whether you love or hate Metal Gear Solid, there's no denying that it's an exciting spectacle - in the game and on the internet, where more than a few people are properly crazy about it (2318 at the last count). But poor old Hideo Kojima just can't get shot of it. After so many last games, he's still at it, working directly on PSP title Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, overseeing development of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and no doubt thinking hard about other ways to keep the wheels turning.

Kojima Productions boss Hideo Kojima has admitted that even he finds the Metal Gear Solid series a bit puzzling, which is why he keeps detailed timelines for each character.

Platform games have come a long way in the last couple of decades. Remember when this was all just 2D side-scrolling fields? Now there are huge 3D environments to explore, combat that involves more than jumping on enemies' heads and storylines that aren't just about rescuing princesses. In fact they're not even called platform games any more - it's all action this and adventure that.

Interplay classics Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Kingpin and Sacrifice have been added to Steam.

Square Enix hasn't decided whether the West will be given a Final Fantasy XIII demo, but if is then the content will be very different to the Japanese sampler.

Final Fantasy XIV Online producer Hiromichi Tanaka has revealed that Square Enix is "in discussions" with Microsoft about an Xbox 360 version of the MMO. The hold-up, apparently, is being caused by Xbox Live.

MTV Games is considering how it might make use of Project Natal in Rock Band 3, which it has confirmed is in development.

Ubisoft has announced plans to let PC gamers have a crack at a beta version of strategy game RUSE "later this year".

Conspicuously absent from the Sony press conference, Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5 appeared on the show floor in a specially prepared demo build that showcased the game's damage model for the first time.

Can we appreciate games ironically yet? You know, like how people will say a film is "so bad, it's good", or how people (well, students mostly) will dance to a rubbish pop song, precisely because of its naffness.

Non-linearity may be everywhere these days (with the option of being everywhere else), but as inFamous suggested and Assassin's Creed II now hopes to prove, a bit of linearity goes a long way too. Sucker Punch's PS3 game had those underground bits where you collected new powers, and they were some of the best and most focused bits of the game. Ubisoft Montreal's second crack at Assassins-versus-Templars pulls the same trick, hiding self-contained, Prince of Persia-style platform levels around the open world, virtually none of which is obligatory, but each of which rewards you with a special metal seal, which together will add up to a great, unidentified reward.

What a busy year it's been for Andrew House. Less than three months as boss of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and he's already been thrust into the spotlight - taking centre stage at the company's gamescom press conference in Cologne.

Square Enix has finally clarified that Final Fantasy XIII will launch simultaneously on PS3 and 360 in the West.

Harmonix and MTV have announced that downloadable albums for The Beatles: Rock Band will cost 1360 MSP (£11.56 / €16.32) on Xbox 360. Individual songs will be 160 MSP (£1.36 / €1.92).