The beta is over and battle lines have been drawn. They're sort of squiggly. Team17's classic team-based trajectory shooter is now open to everyone on Facebook. Release the sheep!

The spineless competition is fierce in the Facebook version of Worms. Along with the four-on-four battles that have been endearing these slimy little bastards to gamers for ages, players can participate in weekly tournaments, customize their squad and island, and conquer single-player challenges to prove their superiority over 2D sprites of all shapes and sizes.

It's really the perfect sort of game for Facebook. You can play it right here.

Spicy Horse's web-based Worms-meets-Mother Goose trajectory shooter Crazy Fairies flies from Facebook to Android, bringing cross-platform multiplayer to the Droid-loving masses.

Crazy Fairies is a turn-based shooter in the same vein as the PC classic Worms, with a heaping helping of American McGee's penchant for twisted fairy tales. Players choose a character from several fantasy archetypes and then take to the battlefield in single and multiplayer shooting matches. They'll collect fantastic weapons, level up their characters, and participate in massive online tournaments against fellow Android players, browser gamers and, eventually, iOS warriors.

Grab Crazy Fairies for Android for free at Google Play, or just go play it on the web. It's a heck of a good time.

Team17's battling invertebrates hunger for the blood of a billion Facebook users. The original Lumbricus terrestris-based trajectory shooter is going social, and it craves your beta testing prowess.

With bite-sized real-time multiplayer battles, weapons drawn from the span of the series' 17-year history and an array of stylish hats, Worms for Facebook is a different sort of social gaming animal. Should you find yourself online with your friends at the same time, you can challenge them to a one-on-one battle to the death, pitting your squad of four worms against theirs. If they are offline you can battle their automated defense force.

You can rename your Worm Totilo, if you so choose.

But no one will see your Totilo worm if you don't sign up for the closed beta.

Join me, and together we will... well, one of us will lose. It could be you!

Remember Worms? That great old PC action game that's been released and remade quite a few times over the past couple of decades?

It's coming to Facebook, and you can apply for the beta right here.

After spending the past 17 years trying to kill them it's a lovely change of pace to be able to cuddle them. Team17 has just launched a new line of plushies based on one of the most adorable war game franchises ever, Worms.

With such iconic character designs it's a wonder we haven't been buried in Worms merchandise before now. This latest group of stuffed invertebrates not only features worms in plain, commando, and pirate flavors, it also includes the adorable Super Sheep. Who doesn't less than three the Super Sheep?

All four plushies are now available for purchase at GameOn Stuff's Facebook store for £8 (about $12) each, with keychain versions available for £5 ($7.50). They ship from the UK, so be sure to account for shipping time. Hopefully they won't just drop them near your home in a giant crate and make you crawl to it.

Worms Plush Store [GameOn Stuff]

Worms Plush Store [GameOn Stuff]

To celebrate the launch of Worms Reloaded, Valve will be handing out the game's (well, Monty Python's) trademark Holy Hand Grenades to anyone buying the game on Steam. Sadly, they're just for show.

After a couple of failed attempts at making classic trajectory-based shooter Worms 3D on the PC, Team17 returns to its 2D PC roots with Worms Reloaded, due out August 26 on Steam.

Worms never needed a 3D version. It was perfect as it was, and Team17 acknowledges that fact with next month's release of Worms Reloaded, the first 2D PC game in the series in a decade. Reloaded plumbs the series' storied history for content, with more than 45 weapons, 60 single-player missions, a full-featured map creator, and a currency-based customization system. All this plus high-definition 2D graphics, which you can sample in the screens below.

"Worms Reloaded has been a labour of love for the team given the legacy of 2D PC Worms™ titles such as Worms 2, Worms Armageddon etc. It has been almost 10 years since the last 2D game was released on personal computers", said Martyn Brown, iconic figure in the world of Worms and Business Development Director at Team17. "In bringing Worms Reloaded to PC, we've reintroduced so much of what gamers loved about the good old days, and it's fitting that it is also the first Worms game we've self-published since the early games. We are very much looking forward to supporting the game through the community on Steam as well as our own Facebook page."

Worms Reloaded is now available for pre-purchase through Steam, with 24-hours of early access and exclusive in-game items for folks willing to preorder what could very well be the ultimate Worms experience.