If you want to see how failed MMO APB will live on as a free-to-play game, grab your guns.

For those of you out there who don't remember cops-and-robbers MMO APB, it officially became the shortest MMO ever when it was shut down last September after only 79 days on the market. Then, however, a savior appeared in the form of GamersFirst, who bought the rights and planned on relaunching the game as a free-to-play title, which is really what it should have been all along.

After a hiccup or two getting it up and running, GamersFirst says that the APB Reloaded open beta is officially online. We're taking their word for it, but I just spent five minutes scouring the official wesbite and couldn't find a download link anywhere.

The beta adds new rating systems and skills, and supposedly improves APB's notoriously clunky vehicle handling and gunfights. Reloaded will also offer clan-vs-clan fights and a retuned matchmaking system for missions.

"From the start of the development of APB Reloaded last fall our focus has been to remove obstacles preventing players from having fun," said GamersFirst CEO Bjorn Book-Larsson in a statement.

"While our development and design teams have done an amazing job improving driving, shooting, skill ratings, witnessing and other key elements of the game, I am also thrilled with the changes slated to be released during the latter part of open beta."

"We expect APB Reloaded to set a new bar for what is possible to achieve in a free to play MMO game, and the open beta represents another big step in that direction."

If you're intrigued (and can figure out where to download the damn thing), here's the official site.

Edit: There it is. Download the client here. I'm apparently blind - thanks to everyone on the forums who helped.

(Via CVG)