Hellgate to enter Open Beta Thursday

After an extremely short three-day closed beta, Hellgate is set to enter open beta this Thursday, June 30.

The beta will be run by Hellgate’s new publisher T3 Entertainment, which is in no way a reference to the Terminator movies, so the unsubstantiated rumors of an Arnold Schwarzenegger playable character I planned on starting are already shot down.

There is no word from the creators on how long the game will remain in open beta, though it is believed that it will be at least a month as that is the defined length of one of the four beta launch events. The events will pit players in the game into situations that will give them a chance to earn items, tokens and currency by completing daily quests and reaching in-game achievements.

What is known about the beta is that it will feature two new game mods, Duel Arena and Cow Room. The former will allow gamers to participate in a team deathmatch-style play. The latter, though initially believed to be be a farming simulation or a bovine-based interior decorating game mode, will actually be a zombie horde style mini-game with item drops galore.

T3, a subsidiary of HanbitSoft, picked up the game after FlagShip’s initial offering of the property faltered. Namco Bandai kept the game alive after FlagShip’s closing in 2008 but the game eventually died in North America and Europe in 2009. The games original creators included Diablo staffers and Blizzard executives.

[Source]