Runescape Evolution of Combat beta weekend starts tomorrow

Runescape, the oldest and simplest free to play MMO, is finally moving with the times. This weekend will see an open beta weekend for The Evolution of Combat, making enormous changes to the way the game is played. For the last week the new upgrade has been in closed beta with 50,000 testers trying their best to break it but now it's available to all.

The previously simple Runescape combat will gain more modern features like action bars, dual wielding, situational abilities, critical hits and buffs. The upgrade will make things fairer, closing loopholes gankers were using to appear weaker than their actual level. That glitch resulted in lots of deaths.

The open weekend will start tomorrow and run until Monday. Three more weekends are planned before the upgrade goes live. It's all a far cry from the days of old, when Matt Lees formed a mining empire based on child labour.