9dragons, the martial arts MMO from (the new) Acclaim is currently running their open beta phase and have finally added a European server for us on the motherland. 9dragons is a massive-multiplayer martial arts title, re-creating the ancient myths of early Asian, allowing you to explore, learn and battle rival fighters along with your friends, mentors and fellow disciples.

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Lost in the press bucket thanks to all the hype from Microsoft’s simultaneous release of Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express, Garage Games announced the beta release of their complimenting TorqueX games engine for the Xbox 360. Though an early beta, TorqueX does not support source or 3D yet, but it’s one of the most powerful 2D games engines on the market and hey, you can create small games (or prototypes) for the Xbox 360 making use of sprites, scrolling backgrounds, 3D objects, lighting, physics, and collision detection. I must admit, this is a great move on the part of Microsoft (and great for Garage Games), which I rarely give props to.

Read more: TorqeX product page | TorqueX beta goes live

Armada Online brings an indie tear to my eye. A sci-fi themed MMORPG with some of the sickliest-sweet art direction I’ve ever seen, Armada takes the hyper real art style of Eve Online and gives it a coating of playfulness. Don’t be mistaken though, Armada is already a surprisingly solid game, featuring quite an in-depth items, weapons and stats system for the RPG nerds deep down inside all of us and a rapidly growing and enthusiastic community. Currently the world features 1 PvP and 1 PvE instance, though I expect this to grow as more players discover the joy of massive PvP space battles. Hopefully a Mac client is forthcoming, since this would be a nice addition to the paltry options available to us Mac users (who like to keep their PCs permanently shutdown).

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Total Annihilation was a great game for the hardcore RTS fan, a label I sometimes stamp on myself. Well, thanks to the Supreme Commander himself, Chris Taylor, we’re getting ready for the next-generation RTS title, Supreme Commander (see what I did there?). Supporting dual monitors (yay!), extremely nice graphics and AI, and sporting an art direction that looks like Terminator meets Battlestar Galactica, Supreme Commander is looking hot and I can’t wait to have this rolling on dual 20.1″ tft! Supreme Commander is currently in open beta and will be released early 2007.

Watch the trailer after the jump..

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I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Pirate-themed MMORPG, Pirates of the Burning Sea. Unfortunately I’m not too interested in the traditional fantasy-based MMOs that are all around, so I’m always happy to see someone breaking the mold and taking on a subject matter that I both find extremely interesting and somewhat new. Who doesn’t want to be a pirate, I mean, come on? Pirates of the Burning Sea takes the player on an epic and historic trip back into the days of sea-battles, peglegs and frilly feather caps, allowing the player to take on several professions and compete both financially and with firepower. My only concern is, who would want to be anything BUT a pirate in the game? I’m sure there will be a few people who want to be traders or navy captains, but, come on, where’s the fun in that!? PotBS is currently in beta and is accpeting beta applications now.

Watch the E3 2006 hands on preview after the jump..

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With over 200,000 players signed up for the US beta, Codemasters and Turbine have opened registration in Europe for The Lord of the Rings Online beta round! LOTR Online allows players to role-play in the ongoing struggle for Middle-Earth, exploring detailed realms and joining storyling characters in an evolving and persistent re-creation of the epic Tolkien world. We’re currently waiting to hear if we’ve been accepted, so you can be sure to hear more from us, as we’re really looking forward to this (and Pirates of the Burning Sea).

Read more: Lord of the Rings Online beta signups begin for Europe

The indie gaming world was abuzz after Microsoft announced it’s independent and student game development tool, XNA Game Studio Express, allowing aspiring game creators the ability to begin developing their own games for Windows XP and Vista at no charge. The most exciting bit of news from that announcement was the ability for game creators to develop for the Xbox 360 console starting this holiday season 2006 as part of what MS are calling the XNA Creators Club. This will be a subscription-based service, requiring a yearly subscription of $99, a low fee for any student or bedroom coder who wants to see their creation running on an Xbox 360. To follow that up today, Microsoft has announced the beta release of XNA Game Studio Express for Windows XP and Vista, leading up to the final release at the end of this year with XNA Game Studio Professional launching Spring 2007. Coinciding with today’s beta release, GarageGames has announced the enrollment program for their Torque X beta program, which will include both the Torque Game Builder engine and the Torque Shader Engine, which were developed in conjunction with XNA Game Studio Express.

Read more: Microsoft releases Game Studio Express beta | Garage Games

Ubisoft today announced the upcoming open beta round for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, the upcoming fantasy action title developed by Kuju. Open beta rounds will begin Tuesday, August 29th at 9AM PT and potential beta testers will be able to sign-up via Might and Magic’s website. Ubisoft are looking to have approximately 100,000 players participate in this final open beta before the release of Might and Magic.

Read more: Dark Messiah – Might and Magic

“Acclaim” is offering open beta positions for it’s online action-bot title, BOTS. Allowing the player to create their own robotic characters with unique powers and transform abilities, BOTS allows players to take part in a wide variety of free-range robotic PvE and PvP combat throughout many gameplay sectors. Acclaim are currently looking for beta testers using the Windows XP platform, no word on a Mac OS X or Linux version is available at the moment (unfortunately).

Read more: Bots homepage | Acclaim Bots open beta announcement

Western-themed animmo Bang! Howdy is currently in an open-beta phase and looking for more players to test their game and services. The gameplay is a hybrid of turn-based and realtime strategy set in a 3d wild west setting, with lovely 3d toon-style artwork. Currently there are hundreds of special ‘playing fields’, dozens of unique units and 10 scenarios (missions I guess?). Currently the developers are working on adding new towns and new scenarios as testers test through the current missions.

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