BlackBoxBETA - Beta Test Community

Blizzard Entertainment announced yesterday that closed beta testing of the highly awaited Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty has now begun and early access keys have been sent to those lucky enough to have a chance to take part. Thousands of gamers will have recieved access keys to the first phase of beta testing and keys have even begun appearing on eBay for increasingly large amounts, although it is likely Blizzard and eBay will intervene with the sales shortly.

"Gathering concentrated feedback from our players is an important step for us as we head into the final stretch of development for StarCraft II and the new Battle.net service," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to having our players' help in polishing the overall experience and preparing for launch."

Testers will also be treated to the first experiences of the new Battle.net service which will be debued with the launch of Starcraft 2 and will be the future platform for Blizzard games, the web-based frontend of which is now being used to handle World of Warcraft.

B³ have not been fortuanate enough to recieve any access keys yet ourselves, although we remain hopefully at least one of the team will be given a chance to both play and help test what stands to be another "benchmark" game from Blizzard. This means for now we're relying on your experiences to hear how Starcraft 2 is shaping up so if your one of the fortuantes let us hear all the juicy details! You can join the discussion on the Starcraft 2 forums...

One of our favourite upcoming games, Mortal Online, has now moved to open beta testing phase and are handing out access on a first come first server basis! Although there's been no announced limit on the number of signups there will be a limit, so head on over fast for a chance to test out this gritty MMO from Epic Games.

This will be your last chance to help shape the game as a tester so please let both B³ and Epic know what you think! We'll catch you ingame....

www.mortalonline.com/downloadbeta

FilePlanet are now giving away keys to test the upcoming addition to the Settlers series. Settlers 7 is looking to be amongst other things a graphical glory so head on over to FilePlanet and signup.

Unfortuanately this giveaway is only open to FilePlanet subscribers.

http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/settlers-7/

Square Enix have finally open the floodgates of applications to test the upcoming MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV (14) via a specific beta portal site.

It seems the beta's for each region are being handled seperately so there's a better chance to get in to test than expected - this is a massively awaited release and competition for beta spots will be hot so get your app in as soon as possible.

Good luck in getting your hands on access, the portal site can be found at http://entry.ffxiv.com