War of the Roses Beta Begins

War of the Roses

At GamesCom today PC game developer and publisher Paradox Interactive announced several new bits of news and games media to share from their upcoming English Civil War romp War of the Roses -- actually they call it a "medieval squad combat title" but we think English Civil War Title better describes it...

Showing massive restraint while confronted by thousands of screaming gamer fans attending GamesCom in Cologne, Paradox has demonstrated remarkable constraint as well as their spiffy game titles, resisting the completely understandable urge to deal with the bustling crowds by climbing onto a horse and carving a path across the convention floor with a lance. Rather than do-in the potential audience for its games, the European games studio instead invited the lot to sign up for the impending Beta Test for the game, and thus far something just over 100,000 gamers have enlisted in the army of Beta Testers (see how we did that? Army of Beta Testers? It's a military-centric game? Yeah!), adding their names to the rapidly expanding Beta roster and, as of today, Paradox has began to let players onto the battlefield as the first wave of Beta keys have been issued.

Many are called, few will listen, but you too can sign up for the Beta here: http://beta.waroftherosesthegame.com/ Not only that, but today Paradox Interactive announced that the pre-order date for War of the Roses has arrived! Gamers can reserve their copies by visiting the finest purveyors of quality games and livestock starting August 20th, 2012, and how cool is that?

"It's a real testament to the hard work that Fatshark has put into the game, that over 100,000 people have signed up for the Beta," says Gordon Van Dyke, Senior Producer for War of the Roses. "The level of enthusiasm that people have had to start playing has been incredible, and we can't wait to hear what they think once they're actually in the game. Our goal right now is to make sure every last person who signed up gets into the beta, but forging 100,000 swords takes a while. We'll be letting folks in, following the priority order we've set, and I'll see every last one of you on the battlefield!" he declared while gnawing on a humungous smoked turkey leg and quaffing mead from a golden chalice on the floor at GamesCom.

A new behind-the-scenes development video has been released for War of the Roses that features more of the team's painstaking research into the history surrounding this brutal battle and historical events -- if you missed the first offering in the series you can quickly get caught up on the first episode and then view the new one below:

War of the Roses Behind-the-Scenes Odyssey: Episode I -- watch this first to get caught up before watching the next vid below or, if you have already seen this one, skip down to the next one with no need to queue!

War of the Roses: Behind-The-Scenes Odyssey: Episode II -- the second offering in the dev diary and intense background series that offers gamers the uniquely American take on the historical battlefield and the events that are part of the game...

To learn more about War of the Roses open a new browser window and head on over to the source for Paradox News Feeds all this week from GamesCom -- and while you are at it check out the growing community presence at www.paradoxplaza.com and the official online chat boards.