Alphas & Betas

MMOs in various stages of testing and crowdfunding, playable and… not. Don’t forget to follow our Betawatch and Make My MMO columns for a weekly rundown. [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

When you're out in the club and you see a fly girl, do the creep!

New and tweaked class specs arrive in WoW’s latest Legion build

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The testing for World of Warcraft's next expansion is almost finished adding new specs for players to try out as the latest Legion test...

How Overwatch’s Tracer will play in Heroes of the Storm

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Game Informer's latest digital issue has the scoop on Tracer, one of the many Blizzard franchise toons being ported to the Heroes of the...

Gloria Victis’ rep system lets players become nobles and outlaws

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Indie sandbox Gloria Victis' alpha is humming along, this week with a redesigned rep system, rebalanced combat dynamics, and the overhauled settlement of Mereley,...

Darkfall: New Dawn shows first in-game footage

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Darkfall: New Dawn, the fan-made and authorized reboot of the PvP MMO, has popped up with another progress report along with its first video...
Mad skills.

Crowfall is tweaking healing, dizzy states, and multiple archetypes

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Hopefully you weren't unduly attached to the number-crunched specifics of any of Crowfall's planned archetypes because the in-development MMO is contemplating some minor changes. In...
Details, details.

The Repopulation looks to its existing testers to fill out Fragmented’s test pool

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It's been a rocky few months, but The Repopulation is getting back on track with development of the main game and its interim survival...
We know we said that was the last time, but this is the super-really-last-time now!

Star Citizen puts two ships from concept sales back up for sale

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Did you not have the money to drop on internet spaceships when Star Citizen opened up concept sales for the Aegis Sabre or the...

Pantheon to debut on Twitch this Friday

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You've read about Pantheon, you've followed the various crowdfunding campaigns, and you've devoured every second of its trailers. Now it's time to see the...

EVE Valkyrie shifts from testing to launch this month

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Do you all remember betas? They used to be something games went through, back in the days before early access, alphas, pre-alphas, and pre-pre-alphas....

Exclusive: Shards Online’s skill system dev diary

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Indie sandbox Shards Online is barreling toward its 2016 launch, promising a creator's paradise for those willing to steer their very own servers. Today, Citadel...

Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts on hobbies, patch sizes, and bacon farming

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Don't lie: You know you want to know what Chris Roberts likes to do in his spare time when he isn't manning the Star...
This is not a frog, for the record.

Project Gorgon adds special weekend modes, slows combat leveling

6
When Project Gorgon adds a patch, watch out: This game does not mess around. The March 8th update is absolutely enormous, with big adjustments...

The Stream Team: A first look into Trinium Wars’ Early Access

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Another game has joined the ranks of Steam's Early Access: Trinium Wars. If you wanted to get a peek inside this post-apocolyptic game but...

Long-running Korean shooter Gunz is getting a second lease on life

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After launching way back in 2003, South Korea's Gunz: The Duel had an impressive 10-year run as an online PvP shooter (it launched in...
The Kobrave and the &c.

Shroud of the Avatar shows off kobold style

4
As players venture deeper into the underground of Shroud of the Avatar, they're going to run into kobolds. That's just the reality of things....

Indie sandbox Sacrament heads to Kickstarter next week

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Indie jack-of-all-trades sandbox Sacrament is planning a Kickstarter for March 16th, according to its recent podcast. Ferocity Unbound Core Studios developers Steeldeal, Layenem, and Kraive...

H1Z1’s delayed patch arrives this week

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The latest H1Z1 producer's letter has arrived, this one focusing on the Just Survive half of the now-split zombie survival sandbox. Daybreak begins by...
Let's just say that no one involved in the making of this picture was a particularly nice person.

The Culling launches into early access even earlier than promised

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Did you see the announcement that The Culling would be launching into early access on March 8th and weep bitter tears because you couldn't...

Rumor: Overwatch is releasing on May 24th [Confirmed]

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Rumor confirmed! See below. Overwatch could be releasing a lot sooner than you think, if a web ad is to be believed. An ad for the...

Jukebox Heroes: ARK: Survival Evolved’s soundtrack

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If you've been hiding in a cave on Mars with your fingers in your ears and your social media feeds on the fritz, you...