For Honor's closed beta is coming in January and it will give you a teaser of cross-platform Faction Wars

Would-be sword slingers, you're on notice: Ubisoft's multiplayer dueling game For Honor will get a closed beta in January 2017. This testing period will let players try out all 12 character types from the Samurai, Vikings, and Knights and contribute to the newly revealed cross-platform Faction War metagame for the first time.

If you played the For Honor closed alpha back in September you already know the basics: players clash in big, MOBA-esque 4v4 brawls or intimate 1v1 duels (and everything in between) using a directional attack-and-guard system that plays like a high-speed cross of rock-paper-scissors and chicken.

The War of the Factions beta event will add another persistent layer on top of those online brawls: all multiplayer activity will be tracked across platforms, and whichever faction does best over a set period of time will be named the winner. Everybody who participates will get rewards, but the victorious faction will naturally get the best loot. You can sign up for a spot in the closed beta on the game's official website.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar.