For a few brief hours yesterday, anyone who prepurchased Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II on Steam had the opportunity to download and play a near-complete beta version of the game. Shortly thereafter, somebody realized the screw up, pulled the beta, and deactivated it from users' Steam libraries. Before that happened, several players managed to rush through the game, capturing some lovely new screenshots and videos for all the world to see. They even tested the 2-player local co-op!

MMO Betas are like your way to apply to be in the "cool club."  Today is the day you put on your fancy pants, pop your collar, and attempt to understand what the hell a Ke$ha is.  Guild Wars 2 is having an open call for beta participants, the game is attempting to redefine what it means to be an MMO.  Instead of grinding and meaningless kill 10 rat quests, the game promises a strong focus on story and character development.

Are you slowly going mad as you wait for the release of Trine 2, the sequel to the hit indie physics platformer of 2009? If so, you may want to consider pre-ordering the game on Steam (either PC or Mac). Just pre-ordering through Steam grants you access to the Trine 2 co-op beta where you can shoot, slash, and levitate your way through two levels. If that isn't enough of an incentive for those of you wavering about a pre-order, the Frozenbyte CEO has also said that "a few very cool TF2 hats are coming as pre-order bonuses." Yep, you a pre-order game on Steam and there's like a 90% chance (real statistic, I swear) you'll be getting Team Fortress 2 peraphenalia. Pfft to you, immersion (I say this, but secretly covet my TF2 familiars in Dungeon Defenders...).

(Re-post! A technical glitch erased the Battlefield Report. Here it is again, in case you missed it the first time...)
Over the last three weeks or so two shooter beta programs have been launched and closed. Here are my personal impressions of the Battlefield 3 open beta (Xbox 360 version) and the Ghost Recon Online closed beta (PC).

Naughty Dog has announced that Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception has gone gold and will be available to retailers on November 1st.  The PlayStation 3 exclusive game is one we've been watching for a while, along side one of the most entertaining single player experiences in video games this generation - Uncharted 3 will offer a variety of multiplayer modes including several cooperative modes for three players.  

If you've been following the series this week, we've been focusing each article on a character from the Diablo 3 beta and how they play into the cooperative aspects of the game.  So far we've covered The Wizard and The Witch Doctor.  Today our focus is on Diablo 3's Monk character.

While the Battlefield 3 beta won't contain any co-op, it is a good chance to get a feel for the game and check out the Battle Log online system.  The multiplayer beta for Battlefield 3 kicks off tomorrow on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, and while the former two won't require any manual intervention to run other than downloading it, you might want to get your PC in shape today by updating your drivers.  

Arcen Games has sent word today that A Valley Without Wind has entered beta for those that pre-order the game.  Along with that, Arcen is running a promotion right now -  if you pre-order the game, you can do so at a 50% discount making the price just $10.

Blizzard has sent out a limited number of beta invites this evening for Diablo 3.  It seems mostly press, media and a select few of lucky individuals got the invites, but this is the beginning of the game's beta ramp up.  Over time Blizzard will surely open it up for more players.  The beta used an installer similar to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and allowed us to play after installing around 700MB of the almost 2GB total installation.  From the little we played we learned there's full four player campaign co-op play with Battle.net support for friends.

Blizzard has launched a community site for Diablo 3, a website touted as your "sanctuary for all the latest developments" with the game.  Blizzard is already promising in depth game guides, creature and enemy info as well as character info.  The site is also linked to Battle.net - which most likely means it'll be the home for all your Diablo 3 stats and information.  

Fire up your PlayStation 3's and hop into the Uncharted 3's beta for a taste of the brand new Co-Op Adventure mode which has just been added to the active playlists with the latest update.  The co-op adventure mode is a mode we went hands on with at E3 and greatly enjoyed.  It's a three player local/online mode where Drake and his pal's need to recover some treasure, uncover some secrets, and just generally be cool archeologists.  

Are you trying to get into the Uncharted 3 beta, but you're not a PlayStation Plus member?  Did you miss out on our awesome beta code giveaway?  Never fear, steadfast gamers, the Uncharted 3 beta goes public today!  This marks week two of the game's multiplayer beta.  You will find it as a regular item in the PlayStation Store.  I did some in-depth research (I turned on my PS3) and yep, it's available.  

The Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta kicks off today for PlayStation Plus subscribers and owners of inFamous 2.  The rest of the world gets access on July 4th with the entire beta ending on July 13th.  During the beta period Naughty Dog will be making three maps available to play, with two at any one time in rotation.  They'll also be rotating game modes in and out throughout the weeks.

Gunshine.net is a free to play browser based isometric strategy game with co-op play.  Got all that?  Good.  Now head over to the official website and sign up for the beta, it takes like 3 clicks, and you'll be on your way to a Syndicate like experience.  

Naughty Dog have revealed details of the upcoming Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta test.  Like that for Uncharted 2, the beta will not only focus on the game's versus modes - but include cooperative gameplay too!  The beta kicks off on June 28th for PS+ Subscribers or users who have an Infamous 2 beta key.  If you don't have either the beta kicks off on July 4th and runs until July 13th.