Guild Wars 2 Now Taking Beta Applications

Guild Wars 2 has finally opened up to allow the public to apply to future beta tests.  The process is pretty simple, and involves a system spec scan, and then just requires an email and name.  They haven't hinted yet at when they'll accept people, or how many, so we'll just have to wait and hope.  You can sign yourself up for the beta here: https://beta.guildwars2.com/

Sign-Up To Playtest Dungeon And Dragons 5th Edition Now!

WIzards of the Coast is going the way of a good developer, and has decided to take player feedback as a large factor in the desigining of 5th Edition DnD.  As such, besides certain articles and polls, they also opened up sign-ups for testing 5th Edition "at a later date", all it requires is an email and you will be contacted when there is more information available about the test.  So if you want to see what the next version of this amazing role-playing game brings, you can go sign up here.

Left 4 Dead 2's New DLC, "Dead Air" Releasing Early, July 22nd at the Latest

Y'know, Valve/Left 4 Dead team sure has been a bit nice lately, especially with the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 DLC pack. At the game's official blog, it was announced that "Dead Air," part of the DLC pack titled "Cold Stream" will be released, at the latest, on July 22nd. For those who don't know, Cold Stream is a user-created campaign, with the level included, being made by L4D modder, Matthew Lourdelet. He's been been working with Valve and the community to get this DLC pack out to get it all prepped up without bugs.

The Left 4 Dead team had promised that, while testing out the DLC, "Dead Air" would be released early if players were to complete the "Cold Stream" campaign on any difficulty, aquiring the achievement, "Stream Crosser", by Sunday, which was just last week. The goal was for 20,000 players to complete the campaign. In just 24 hours, 60,774 players had achieved that goal! What really was surprising was that the goal was set for everyone on July 6, 4 days before the deadline!

The team also encourages more people to continue playing through "Cold Stream" while reporting bugs on their blog post.

Thanks! This is a great stress test on Cold Stream. If you can, keep playing and submitting bugs this weekend. We have a bunch of bug reports and feedback – seems some of you don’t believe in purple and black checkerboard paintings. For Cold Stream the campaign this means we can fix those bugs, continue tweaking some game play and do our final performance optimization pass.

The rest of the campaigns included in the DLC are also being worked on as we modify some locations and make some optimization improvements on them as well.

That about does it guys! I'm pretty sure that all Left 4 Dead players will support this. Unfortunately, these testings are only for PC, so Xbox 360 players will have to wait until it's fully complete.

Rumor: SWTOR Beta has Expanded

Apparently Bioware has started sending out more Star Wars: The Old Republic beta invites, so you better go and check your email now!  Now they have already been in a very limited beta, but now they are opening the closed beta up for more players.  Now this isn't confirmed, but I am reasonably certain that what I was told is true.

Two Million Users Have Signed Up for Beta of Call of Duty Elite

There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Call of Duty is a powerhouse with over 30 million players world-wide. So when Activision introduced plans to release a paid subscription service-Call of Duty Elite-it was no surprise that the internet went crazy. Apparently though, this service has still managed to interest a large chunk of players. As there are already two million people signed up for the beta, according to Dan Amrich, Social Media Manager over at Activision.

There has been a cloud of mystery surrounding the service as we still don't know which features of the service will be paid and which will be free, and we don't know how much the paid features will cost. We do know that users participation in the service will help shape the services future.

"When the studio head at Beachhead said this would be a live beta," says Amrich, "he was not kidding — your participation really can make a difference in how Elite evolves."

He went on to reassure that if players want they can still get into the beta.

"Don’t be discouraged by the big number, thinking you shouldn’t bother because they already have enough people — two million volunteers among 30 million Call of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better."

Call of Duty Elite will be premiering with Call of Duty: Black Ops and will continue onwards into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and presumably future Call of Duty games. Again, the service doesn't make the multiplayer pay-to-play, it simply introduces in depth analytics and statistics.