Activision is to invite 60,000 gamers into the public beta of multiplayer shooter Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC), it's been confirmed, although a start date for the beta is yet to be announced.

Gamers who secure a place in the public beta will be thrashing the living daylights out of only one map: Sewer. This level "is part of ETQW's Pacific Campaign," the Quake Wars website explains. "Set in Japan, the map revolves around a Strogg base hidden in, well, a sewer. It's an interesting mix of outdoor and indoor, vehicle and infantry combat, deployables and counter-deployables and good old-fashioned FPS combat."

An announcement on the website adds, "If you'd like to help us finish ETQW, we'd really appreciate your participation. If you want to just play a game for free you may find it a frustrating experience. This Public Beta is not the Demo - it's not the finished game, but an opportunity to get feedback from a large group of people while testing stability and performance on a wider range of hardware combinations.

"The Public Beta will also collect some information on your hardware configuration, so you shouldn't apply unless you're comfortable with that."

More details here.

June 18, 2007