Hellgate: London Release Date & Closed Beta News !?

Per their website, Halloween, 2007 will be the official release date for one of highly anticipated games, "Hellgate: London":

It's true: Hellgate: London will be shipping to US stores this Halloween. A fitting date, no? While the summer season was our initial release window, we just want to make sure the game is perfect before all of you get to play it. That means a few extra weeks of testing and balancing, but we think you'll agree it's for a cause that's worth it. We'll have a few more announcements in the coming weeks regarding preorders and our Collector's Edition, but suffice it to say that you will be pleased. That's not an assumption.

As mentioned, we're hammering away at the game, and the Alpha is going well; bugs are getting squashed, servers are getting stable, and we're all losing sleep (in a good way). Trish just got married as well, and we're super duper excited for her! We also have the first Flagship baby on its way from Jung, our graphic design guru, so it's good feelings all around. Stay tuned for more, but for those who care, here's the full press release...

EA AND NAMCO BANDAI GAMES ANNOUNCE OCTOBER 31st RELEASE DATE FOR HELLGATE: LONDON

Redwood City, Calif. – August 6, 2007 – Get ready to hack, slash, and shoot your way through a demon-infested London this Halloween! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced that Hellgate™: London, the premier title from Flagship Studios, will start hitting retail stores in North America on October 31, 2007 and in Europe on November 2, 2007 for the PC. Hellgate: London represents the next leap in the evolution of the action RPG genre, combining the depth and addictive gameplay of traditional RPGs with the visceral action of first-person shooters.

“We wanted to hit the sweet-spot for release in terms of the development schedule and delivering the highest-quality game to our players,” said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. “Halloween was the perfect fit as it ensures that Hellgate: London will have an appropriate amount of beta testing, while also being an incredibly fun time to unleash the game.”

One of the most anticipated PC games and RPGs of the year, Hellgate: London offers infinite re-playability with dynamically generated levels, items, enemies and events. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests, and battles through an innumerable amount of demons to advance through a deep, rich story-driven campaign. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances, and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment allow each player to create his or her own unique hero.

While some may prefer to slay demons solo, players will also be able to take the fight online*, teaming up with friends to save London in a secure, client-server environment and playing through the entire story-driven campaign for free. For those players who want to extend their Hellgate: London experience, Flagship is offering an optional subscription service which will give players access to huge amounts of content on an ongoing basis in the form of quests, character classes, demons, items, etc. More details about Hellgate: London’s online options are coming soon.

The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB, PEGI or BBFC. For more information about Hellgate: London, log onto http://info.ea.com or the game’s official website at www.hellgatelondon.com.

* Internet connection required.

AHHHHHHHHHH, damn you. That's Age of Conan's release date-ish (10/30/2007.) How could you do this to me!? I need to be a really good girl so Santa brings me lots of presents.

...

But in other news, I visited MMOFAN and read something that made my heart cry a bit.

Apparently, a Closed Beta that had been scheduled to take place in KOREA has been postponed until a later date. According to the article, the Korean publisher, Hanbit Soft has issued the statement that this was done so that the players would be offered a more completed version of the game to test, and that the postponement will not affect the release date at all, mirroring a statement offered by NCSoft earlier regarding the delay of their CB of "Aion," by 3 months.

FIDDLESTICKS!! I CALL SHENANIGANS!!

KOREA!? What about my needs!? What about my desire to blast demons to bits with my cricket bat!? A pox upon you!!

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I'll still play it though.