UPDATE: It's official, the Hearthstone open beta has begun!

Multiple users on Reddit (including two of our writers) are reporting access to the Hearthstone beta without a much sought-after key or invite through Blizzard’s Battle.net desktop application.

The news comes on the heels of what was purported to be the final patch before the open beta for the wildly popular card game, which would open the floodgates for anyone wishing to play. The official site now acknowledges the open beta launch and many users are reporting access as of today through the desktop application.

Remember to check out our sister site, Hearthhead, for all your Hearthstone needs!

Ian Nowakowski

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Blizzard has published an official blog sharing its plans for Warlords of Draenor. It covers details surrounding pre-purchasing the next World of Warcraft expansion, as well as the controversial decision to go ahead with offering not only a free character boost to level 90, but also paid boosts. Players who pre-purchase the Digital Deluxe edition, which comes with a free mount and pet, will be rewarded with these goodies along with the free boost at the time of pre-purchase.

Judging by the content of this blog, Warlords of Draenor is set to move into open beta very soon, with Blizzard getting ready to test the functionality of the boosts to level 90 on the PTR. Their reasoning behind this new microtransaction is they'd like to avoid players going through "roundabout methods (such as purchasing multiple boxes and performing multiple character transfers)" in order to get more than one boost. It's important to note that a brand new level 90 character may be created too, but Blizzard promise to share more information on that later.

UPDATE: The mount should now be available for purchase in all regions!

A new mount is available via the in-game store for World of Warcraft players. The Iron Skyreaver is an armored Chimera with dual thrusters and bad attitude. It is account-bound, meaning all present and future characters on your Battle.net account will have access to it once purchased.

"Bred for war by brutal Iron Horde beastmasters and girded for battle in black steel and smoldering flame, the monstrous Iron Skyreaver suffers only the most fearsome of masters to ride it."

Talk Azeroth Episode 22 is live! Join Olivia D. Grace as she returns from her break over the holidays and dives right into looking at the announcement of the new PvP season and what it means for the release date of the expansion, as well as running through the arguments for and against "buy-a-90". Of course, she also tackles some view questions!

With Flex Raiding proving to be more popular than Normal in World of Warcraft, it came as little surprise when, at Blizzcon, Blizzard announced its intention to apply Flex scaling to both Normal and Heroic difficulties (10 and 25).

The staff at ZAM has spent many hours debating which of the games we’ve played over the past year were most deserving of an award. In several cases the votes were neck-and-neck while others had an overwhelming victory. We had so much love to spread around that we expanded our voting categories from six to twelve this year.

Congratulations to the final six winners and runners up of 2013!

Talk Azeroth Episode 21 is live! Join Olivia D. Grace as she answers several viewer questions during a slow news week!

The staff at ZAM has spent many hours debating which games we’ve played over the past year were most deserving of an award. In several cases the votes were neck-and-neck while others had an overwhelming victory. We had so much love to spread around that we expanded our voting categories from six to twelve this year.

Congratulations to the first six winners and runners up of 2013!

UPDATE: The winner has been revealed!

To celebrate the games we all love, ZAM is holding its annual gaming awards! One of the categories will be entirely decided by our fantastic readership.

Talk Azeroth Episode 20 is live! Join Olivia D. Grace as she dives deep into the gear changes coming in Warlords of Draenor and dissects the implications of all the new systems and much more, as well as hitting your viewer questions from last week's Garrison episode.