ArcheAge releasing 16th September, open beta tomorrow

Do you have room in your life for another MMORPG? Trion Worlds are rather banking on you saying 'yes', as they're bringing Korean-developed MMO ArcheAge to Europe and North America on the 16th of September. There's also an open beta due tomorrow at 10:00AM PDT; sign up here if the "sandpark" MMO takes your fancy (I'll explain what the hell that means after the break).

According to the developers, 'sandpark' is a word which here means 'a bit like a sandbox, and a bit like a theme park', so basically it's like Alton Towers if you were allowed to lick the rides and eat fudge from the gift shop whenever you want. Alternatively: 'an open game but structured with it'.

The open beta will go on until the 8th of September, at which point ArcheAge will knuckle down and finish itself in time for the September 16th launch, probably with some help from the developers. Here's a trailer for July's closed beta showing what you're in for, should you decide to get involved:

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.