The Secret World has been hitting fairly low on the radar since its original announcement. Fans have been actively taking part in The Secret War, an ad campaign for the different factions found in the game, though it hasn’t been too mainstream. Most of us have been wondering just what’s happening with the PC game’s development, though our questions haven’t been readily answered. Now, however, we’ve gotten some news that should help raise excitement once again for the new MMO.

The first beta for the game will roll out today at 6 PM CET/12 PM EST. This will be the first in many open beta weekends that the game will host. For this weekend players will take part in Kingsmouth Calling, where everyone will join up the ranks as a Templar. After meeting with your secret society liason in London you’ll be sent to Kingsmouth, a small town on Solomon Island. Strange events have been occurring in this place and you’ll need to investigate its myths and mysteries.

Character progress in the beta will carry over from weekend to weekend which is pretty nice. The way to score a slot in this, and upcoming beta weekends, is to pre-order the game. You’ll get some nice perks, such as early access to the game, character name reservation, a ring that boosts EXP, a t-shirt, and even an in-game pet that grants player buffs. If you’re looking to jump into some beta testing for The Secret World, now is your chance.

For those of you who have been waiting for the chance to try out Spirit Tales, it is now your time to shine. The open beta for this MMORPG kicks off today, and you will have tons of things to explore. This free-to-play game is sure to win your heart, as you not only play as a cute little creature, but you also get to annihilate cute little creatures as well. There’s something for everyone.

Some of the fancy features of this open beta are a level 45 cap, 40 million customization options for your character, and an enhanced pet system, in which you can capture and train new companions. You can level up your pets, or merge with them to gain new strength. For your guild, you will be able to build a private zone that will give you access to special buffs and content.

If you should like, you can also enter into a relationship with either the opposite or same gender, and get special abilities from it. There will also be new fancy dungeons to enter, and sigil stones which can enhance your armor. Well, now you know what to expect, so get out there and play!

If you remember, a couple of weeks ago we wrote about how for one short, glorious weekend, the Diablo III beta was open and available to anybody who wanted to try it out. During that time period, Blizzard’s Community Manager Micah Whipple estimated that around 300,000 people were online playing the demo at one time. He never did give us a final number, only estimating that it was “a lot”.

Well, it turns out that “a lot” is equal to two million people, as Blizzard President Michael Morhaime revealed during Activision’s annual earnings call. The original Diablo sold around 2.5 million copies. The fact that a beta earned about the same number of players compared to the original game is astounding, and just goes to show how much bigger games have gotten over the last decade.

Diablo III will be released next week on the 15th. While Blizzard is having official release parties in only a few locations around the world, many different local game stores will be opening at midnight, allowing you to get your copy of the game as soon as humanly possible. Sadly, Blizzard will not be allowing you to play your copy of the game until 3:01 EST, so if you’re like me, you’ll be forced to wait 3 long hours until the servers go online. Oh well, at least you’ll have plenty of time to play with the stuff you got in your Collector’s Edition, right?

Well, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of a fashion show for a game, but there is definitely one happening today! Spirit Tales is an adorable game that features little chibis who have alternate spirit forms. There is a whole lot of customization for your character in this game, so it should only make sense to have a fashion show to put these spiffy duds in the spotlight.

If you want to tune in, this event will be happening at 3pm PDT (which isn’t far from the present time). You should run over to their Facebook page and share some of their photos before the event to have a chance at winning the costume collection. For those of you who are wanting to participate in the open beta, you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer, as what was originally going to be a April 25^th event date, was pushed back to May 10^th. (these things do happen) You can download the game here, but the servers won’t be live until the 10^th at 4pm PDT.

We’ve brought up the “spirit form” a couple times now, but for those of you wondering about what that is, wonder no longer. Koram Games has posted a full background story which can be found here. It seems that these forms are the spirits of the Guardians of the Earth that had previously passed into legend. They have resurfaced to face the darkness that is growing in the North. Obviously we’re going to have to wait until we play the game to really know what’s going on, but this at least gives us a heads up.

Last month, we got to see an adorable new MMORPG called Spirit Tales that is full of happy-go-lucky looking chibis. It has had a rather successful closed beta, and is looking towards the open beta that is approaching on May 10^th. This game definitely has a day-brightening effect to it, that’s for sure.

As we approach the open beta event date, a good question is what you will be able to fight as. To clear up any questions you might have, Koram games has released a character class introduction video. You might want to decide what you want to play as now, as it will otherwise be a tough choice.

For the Gold Kirin Tribe, you have the choice of a fighter or a shaman, the latter of which is both a healer and a support class. Concerning the Lunar Fox Tribe, you can choose between a sorcerer and an assassin, both of which are quite self-explanatory. Lastly, there is my favorite, the Maned Dragon Tribe which gives you the option of either a warrior or archer class. Take your pick, and be at the ready for this cute free-to-play MMORPG.

When Blizzard opened up the Diablo III beta to everybody this past weekend, it appeared that everybody and their grandmother came in to defeat the Skeleton King. According to Blizzard Community Manager Micah Whipple, aka Bashiok, it’s estimated that 300 thousand people were playing the beta at the same time. As far as total users are concerned, even Bashiok doesn’t know, only saying “I don’t know… a lot.”

If Blizzard was worried about not having enough people to stress test their hardware, then those fears were unfounded I would say! Starting as early as Friday, many people were getting log in and Error 37 server full errors. That’s almost to be expected for an open beta for a game as highly anticipated as Diablo III, and you can expect that Blizzard is analyzing the data to figure out how to avoid those problems as much as possible at launch.

If you were looking to keep the character you made in the beta, I have some bad news for you. Once May 1st hits, the beta will be closed and all characters will be deleted. That’s a small price to pay, however, for playing the first part of what will undoubtedly be one of the top games of the year. I don’t know about you, but after playing just those few hours this weekend, I know that May 15th can’t come fast enough!

Well, the Diablo 3 open beta weekend is coming to a close today, but fear not. This is open beta season, and Guild Wars 2 is up to bat next. This coming weekend will be the first public beta testing event.

It will only last from Friday, April 29th (12pm PDT) to Sunday, April 29th (11:59 PDT), so make sure you mark your calendars! The only way you can guarantee that you will get to be a part of this beta testing is by pre-purchasing any edition of the game. As this is a public event, there is no NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) so you can brag about it all you want to whoever you want.

Once you have gotten past the waiting to see if you’ll get the invite, you’ll have some tough decisions ahead of you. There are charr, human, or norn characters to choose from, and eight professions to peruse over. Let your excitement build slowly, but try not to fall off the edge of your seat.

How long have you been waiting for Diablo III? For me, it’s been since the first time I beat the second game. I’ve played through dozens of times, though I finally put the game to rest a couple of years ago. After all, the third installment was surely right around the corner. Well the game did get announced. And eventually they started letting people into the beta. So I eagerly awaited my key. But it never came.

Rounds and rounds of keys have gone out. At this point I get ridiculed by friends and family members who have played enough to bore themselves with the content currently available. Sure, they’ve offered me their accounts to play, but I’ve decided to hold out until I get a key for myself. Well starting tomorrow, the wait is over. Not just for me, for everyone.

From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, everyone with a Battle.net account will be able to play the beta. To maximize your playtime, you can even start downloading the beta now. So what are you waiting for?

The final closed beta has past in The Exiled Realm of Arborea, but a new light is beaming from around the corner. This coming weekend from April 20th to the 23rd the anticipated open beta will open its doors to those who pre-ordered the game, as well as those who applied.

While participating in the beta players will be able to grab a taste of the game for free. You’ll be introduced to the game’s prologue story and experience the true action combat that sets the MMO apart from others of its genre. The level cap for beta characters will be 32, but that’s plenty of time to get a glimpse of what the full game will introduce. If you decide to pre-order the game (if you’ve not already done so), you will be able to take your created beta characters over into the full game when it releases.

If you’re interested you can go download the beta on the official TERA website. I recommend that you do so, as I’ve already had a run in a closed beta test that ran earlier in the month. For a swift and exciting change to the normal MMO run, TERA promises to be a great new change of pace to the gaming world. The full game is set to release on May 1st, so get in the beta time while you can.

Now, last year Starcraft II and World of Warcraft both had starter editions come out, allowing people to play the game up to a certain point before prompting them to pay for the whole game. With this leak, many other websites are speculating that Diablo III will be getting a starter edition soon. I would have to agree with them, especially considering that Blizzard announced that the Diablo III beta servers will be shutting down for good on May 1st. So, who knows? Maybe we’ll see the starter edition a week or two before the game comes out, to whet our appetite, so to speak!

Diablo III will be released on May 15th. If you’ve pre-purchased the game, you can go ahead and pre-load the game onto your PC, so that you can play the moment the servers are online.