Ryzom reopens beta for July 4

Players feeling left out of the beta for the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Saga of Ryzom will get a chance to feel loved again this Fourth of July weekend. Developer Nevrax announced that it will be opening the beta this upcoming to test server stability. The first of several "Open Weekends" will begin Thursday, July 1 and will run through Monday, July 5.

The event will introduce the Tryker civilization and the Lakelands area, which were added after the beginning of the closed "focus beta" stage. Because of the large amount of water in the new Lakelands region, it is the most technically intricate area to be introduced--and therefore also one of the last areas to be introduced.

Players can both sign up for accounts and download the client at the official Web site. There will only be 1,000 open slots per server during the weekend, so first come, first served will be the rule of both Fourth of July barbecues and the open beta.

The Saga of Ryzom is an upcoming MMORPG from Nevrax. Besides the standard features, such as guild creation and item crafting, hordes of enemies will periodically attack parties and player-controlled cities through the game's RAID engine. Ryzom is scheduled for a September 7 release. Check out GameSpot's previous coverage of the game for more information.