Now that the Cities XL beta is officially underway, we're happy to announce that Monte Cristo has supplied us with 500 beta keys to hand out to the ZAM community. If you've ever played a game of Sim City and thought to yourself how cool it would be to play the same kind of game in a persistent world, today is your lucky day.

Click here to receive your beta key and make sure to keep your eye out for Tamat Town (which will likely be on fire). Once you've obtained your key, download the game from the following link and follow the instructions. Special thanks goes out to Monte Cristo for giving the ZAM community a chance to try out Cities XL before anyone else!

Those of you lucky enough to participate in the Darkfall Online Beta reportedly had some problems. This is to be expected in beta testing, and likely the reason why the game has been delayed.  After sorting out the Denial of Service (DoS) Attack against their servers, they posted explanations and detailed plans as to what they are going to do next.

Testers experienced periodic low download speeds and various minor errors and hiccups which were soon dealt with. We increased our patching capacity and corrected small errors, until everything was running smoothly. For launch we will have in place a peer to peer system which should greatly improve download speeds and make the downloading and patching run smoothly.

Nevertheless, as most of these problems could not have been foreseen, Adventurine still manages to make everything turn up rosy. They are handling the issues in stride, and we shall be waiting for the news from the publisher on a release date and any further issues or developments.

After teasing the community mercilessly, Kiara brings us the Official Beta Invite !

Since today is Talk Like a Pirate Day (yeah, we totally planned it this way) the rest of our message will be brought to you in pirate speak!

Aye, please remember that registration int' the beta program does not guarantee admittance, but only puts ye int' the pool from which players will be randomly selected t' take part in the program. Also please remember that takin' part in our beta program means that ye accept the terms o' our Non-disclosure Agreement; e'erythin' included within the software and on the beta forums is co'ard by that agreement until otherwise stated. No aspect o' the beta program may be discussed on any public message shanty men; only on the pri'ate beta section o' the official E'erquest II forums. Ye'll ne'er get me buried booty!

If you don't speak pirate, try this link!

Kiara posteth :

The day we've all been waiting for is finally here!

Open beta registration will start on Friday, September 19th, 2008.

Stay tuned for the link and more information. Same ogre time, same ogre channel.

Watch here for more news as it becomes available!

You can now go to your Account page in WoW and sign up for the Wrath of the Lich King beta!!  No word yet on when it will start, or how accounts will be chosen for the beta.

European players can access their account page here.

Once you're in, go down to the icons below, and chose the one that says "Wrath of the Lich King Beta Opt-In" and you'll get this message, after submitting a yes response!

You have successfully opted in for a chance to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. In the event that your account is selected, you will be sent an email with further instructions. Good luck!

Indeed!  Good luck, now go sign up!

In a move that could have everything, or nothing, to do with WotLK, WoW has opened a new beta sign up page, with no note regarding what it's for!

We haven't yet announced what title will be tested, but we welcome you to enter your code now and confirm your spot! Along with the Beta Sign-up code, please enter a valid eMail address that will be active for some time. As it may be a while before the invitations are sent for this beta test, we want to make sure you'll receive your invite!

Once you enter your information, you should receive a confirmation eMail. We will eMail you again once invitations are being sent; the eMail you receive at that point will contain further instructions. Be advised that it may be quite some time before this beta test begins, and this sign-up may not be for the next beta test to become available. Thank you, and we'll see you in the test!

We've tried signing up without the beta code, even though it says required (we're gluttons for punishment!) but no luck!  Hopefully everything will become apparent this weekend!