Earlier today, Ubisoft put out a video that reminds you of the many releases, both gaming and otherwise, of Assassin’s Creed over the years, just in case you’ve forgotten.

More importantly, Ubisoft also formally announced an Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer beta, and it’s kicking off next month on September 3 – exclusively for the PlayStation 3. It’ll be exclusive to PlayStation Plus and UPlay members for the first week, after which point it’ll become available to all.

When the beta launches, it’ll include three maps (Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople), four gametypes (Wanted, Manhunt, Deathmatch, and Artifact Assault) and a total of nine playable characters (The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion).

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations launches on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 15. You can check out the newly released ‘Assassin’s Creed Universe‘ video below.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer beta starts September 3, exclusive to PS3 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gears of War 3 hits the Xbox 360 on September 20th, but waiting is for losers.

If you want to play the bloody, homoerotically charged third-person chainsaw-’em-up early, Epic has revealed the Gears of War 3 public beta will kick off on April 18th if you bought the ‘Epic Edition’ of Bulletstorm. If you didn’t pick up Bulletstorm, you’ll have to wait until April 25th, and also preorder the title at GameStop (for U.S. or Canadian gamers) or GAME (for British players).

Anyway, there’s also a bunch of free in-game stuff you can bag as part of the beta. A lot of which is very flamy:

♦ Beta Tester Medal – Complete one match in the beta to unlock the Beta Tester medal, which will carry over to your gamer profile in the final game. The Beta Tester title will be featured in the “Gears 3″ multiplayer lobby as well.
♦ Thrashball Cole (see screen above!) – Complete 50 matches in any game type to unlock the Thrashball Cole character variant in the beta. Once unlocked, complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole during the beta and the character will carry over to your gamer profile in the final game.
♦ Gold-Plated Retro Lancer – Show your ultimate “Gears of War” fandom by unlocking the Gold-Plated Retro Lancer. Complete 90 matches in any game type to unlock it for the beta, and score 100 kills with it once unlocked to carry the exclusive weapon skin over to your gamer profile in the final game.
♦ Flaming Hammerburst – Complete one match by Sunday, April 24 and unlock this weapon variant.
♦ Flaming Lancer – Complete one match during the week of April 25 and unlock this weapon variant.
♦ Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 2 to unlock this weapon variant.
♦ Flaming Gnasher Shotgun – Complete one match during the week of May 9 to unlock this weapon variant.

[Via press release]

Gears of War 3: Public beta date is in! is a post from: The Inquisitr

After much flipping and flopping, Xbox 360 meathead shooter Gears of War 3 has a solid, definitely-happening-this-time release date: September 20th, 2011.

That’s a global date apart from Japan, whose gamers will be showing mild disinterest in the title from September 22nd, before replacing it on the shelf and buying more Dragon Quest games.

This news was tweeted by Microsoft community boss Graeme Boyd, and as Gears of War 3 was recently voted North America and the UK’s most anticipated game of 2011, a few of you are probably keen to know.

[@AceyBongos, via Eurogamer]

Gears of War 3 nails down release date is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gears of War maker Epic Games has told GameSpot that the Gears of War 3 beta will kick off “sometime around April”, a few months before the game arrives for really reals in Fall 2011. The third-person shooter will be one of the big-hitters of 2011 for Microsoft and the Xbox 360 and, like all big-hitters, a beta was always likely expected.

Want to take part? Epic has a solution: buy the ‘Epic Edition’ of Epic’s other potentially epic game, Bulletstorm (out February 22). It’s $60, but will come with 25,000 bonus experience points, a few in-game goodies (the odd exclusive gun, piece of armor, etc.), and beta entry for Gears of War 3.

In case you’re unsure, Bulletstorm is a bit like Gears, but with more colour, more humor, and more kicking dudes face-first into giant cacti.

I’d imagine other ways of accessing the beta will be available, so don’t fret if you’d rather not pay up for Bulletstorm. Though, granted, most of the other ways will cost money as well.

[Via GameSpot]

Gears of War 3 beta ‘around April’, buy Bulletstorm for early entry is a post from: The Inquisitr

Because multiplayer betas are the must-have accessory of any aspiring-to-be-a-blockbuster videogame, Epic has announced that Gears of War 3 will get its own beta test from early 2011.

Apparently, the beta was made possible by the recent gut-wrenching delay of the game to Fall 2011. So … yay? Furthermore, Epic has confirmed multiplayer will be running on dedicated servers, so the online experience should be Fonzie smooth.

While the beta won’t begin next year, today saw a ton of sites put up hands-on previews of the title’s multiplayer, and some men got terribly excited about this. Here are their words:

Joystiq | Shack | 1UP | IGN

[Via press release]

Gears of War 3 getting multiplayer beta next year is a post from: The Inquisitr

Medal of Honor multiplayer betas kicked off yesterday on the PlayStation 3 and PC, but those wanting to play it on Xbox 360 are, for reasons unknown, in for a wait.

The game’s official blog announced a delay for the Xbox 360 version and apologized, though didn’t elaborate on details, such as why the beta was delayed, or when we can expect the beta to be up and running:

“To the Xbox 360 community, we say thank you for your continued patience. We are working to fix the issues that have caused this delay and, like you, we’re eager to get the game up and running at quality. As soon as we do, you’ll be the first to know. We can’t wait to hear your response to the game – feedback which will also certainly help ensure the game exceeds expectations when we ship this Fall. When the Medal of Honor beta does arrive on the Xbox 360, it will be open to Xbox 360 players who’ve pre-ordered the game and we will extend the beta to ensure all players have ample time to play and provide feedback for the final product. So stay tuned for an update. We hope to bring you some good news soon.”

Sucks, but hey, here’s a new-ish multiplayer trailer to pacify your RAGE:

[MOH blog, via VG247]

Medal of Honor Xbox 360 beta delayed is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’ve still not had enough of the ongoing Halo: Reach beta, then good news! Bungie has revealed that the beta period will be extended by an extra day, meaning “official plans as of now are to turn off the Reach beta on Thursday, 5/20 at 10AM PDT.”

The extension is perhaps understandable, due to the beta’s high popularity: according to Bungie’s own figures, the Reach beta attracted more participants in a single day than the Halo 3 beta managed in the 21 days it was available.

On the first day alone, fact fans, there were 157 million kills. That’s a lot of murder. And now you can have more murder. An extra day’s worth. Who wouldn’t want that?

But what are you still reading for? Go! Play! Maim! Kill! Teabag!

[Via Joystiq]

Halo: Reach beta period extended by a day is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blizzard has just revealed that the StarCraft II closed beta is Now! Totally! Live!.  That means those who are signed up to be involved can grab the installer their Battle.Net account page.

As for the rest of us peasants … well, as luck would have it, the first wave of beta keys will be sent out “shortly,” followed by several more waves soon thereafter. So there’s still hope! Unless you’re a Mac owner, because this is PC only for now. Sorry, Mac owners.

[Via press release]

Huzzah: StarCraft II beta now live is a post from: The Inquisitr

To apply for the Star Trek Online Beta register and fill out a short survey. The lucky participants will be randomly drawn and can join the Star Trek Online Closed Beta at the end of the year.

I’m not sure if this will be as big as Star Wars The Old Republic, but it deserves a chance.

Star Trek Online now taking closed beta applications is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the rest of the real world is sucking back all the Michael Jackson Memorial news it can those of us in the tech world are falling to our knees to report on how Google has removed the Beta tag from Google Apps and Gmail. When I fired up FeedDemon this morning to get started on my day I was inundated with what seemed like a flood of news from all the major tech blogs about this blogosphere shaking news.

Just to give you an idea of the coverage here’s a list of blogs that I follow who wrote about this monumental event

After five years, Gmail is ‘beta’ no more! – The Raw Feed
Wait. “Gmail Beta” Isn’t a Registered Trademark? – Digital Daily
Gmail and other Google Apps ‘Out of Beta’ – TheNextWeb.com
Google finally rips the beta label off Gmail and other Google Apps – VentureBeat
Google Apps Leaves the Beta Label Behind – GigaOM
Google Finally Peels The Beta Label Off Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and GTalk – TechCrunch

That it took a company like Google the better part of five years for Gmail and two years or so for Google Apps to figure out that corporate IT had a problem using applications marked beta across their networks is a tad on the ridiculous side. This was nothing more than a marketing and PR move as nothing has changed with any of these beta stripped applications that makes them anymore of a finished product than they were before.

While the beta labeling of their software may have provided them with some legal protection they are now acknowledging that these are indeed finished and complete software applications. So it will be interesting to see what happens the next time Google Apps or GMail suffers a massive outage or data loss.

I will admit though as pointless as this type of news is it is fun to watch how everyone literally falls over themselves to get those posts out there whenever Google does anything.

image courtesy of WorldGaming

Let’s all get a woodie over removing a beta label is a post from: The Inquisitr

Silverlight 2 beta 2, seen as Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s long-standing Flash platform, builds upon the .Net framework introduced in the first beta release. The new version adds extra controls, improved networking and data handling capabilities, and enhanced error handling. It also features enhanced templates and integration with Expression Blend and Visual Studio as well as added cross-domain support and several other modifications. The beta is expected to be made available for download by the end of the week with a full version slated to be completed by the year’s end.

IE 8 beta 2, on the other hand, may be the company’s attempt at competing with the upcoming Firefox 3. The new beta will be targeted more at average end-users as opposed to the developer-heavy focus of the first beta release earlier this year. Microsoft says beta 2 will come out this August. A final product release date has not yet been set.

Microsoft Reveals Beta Release Plans is a post from: The Inquisitr