Gaming Roundup: Crysis 2 at Fall, New PS3 models

FIFA World Cup begins today and EA has opened up the FIFA Online Beta game to general public. Can anything be even remotely amazing than that? While the matches aren't on, you can play football online. Also Crysis 2 would be arrive sooner than we expected and seriously, that makes this week more amazing.

Loads of gaming updates have already flooded the web and here are the few snapshots that we've manage to pick up.

FIFA Online Open Beta has begun

The FIFA World Cup is hardly four days away and Electronic Arts has announced the FIFA Online game has gone in to Open Beta phase. Now, anyone can play FIFA Online with simple registration process that requires just your email and age. The game servers would be running 24 x 7 unless there is a scheduled maintenance. This open beta is the last testing phase of the game after that the game goes live, finally. FIFA Online had been running in closed beta for limited time but now EA has made the beta open to public. All you have to do is register for the game so that EA can have some information about you. Then get started as the Manager of the team. Choose a name, avatar, League, Team and so on. The game is available in single player and multi-player options.

Crysis 2 Scheduled to Arrive in Fall this Year

Electronic Arts and Crytek's mega blockbuster game Crsis 2 was expected to arrive holiday season i.e. at the end of this year. However, as per MCV UK's reports, a new trade ad by EA states that Crysis 2 is set to arrive in Autumn 2010. Yes, you read it correct. You got to wait less for this amazing sci-fi shooter game. Crytek has used new CRYEngine 3 for developing the Crysis 2 which comes for the first time for consoles - Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 besides PC. Award winning sci-fi novel writer Richard Morgan is writing the story of Crysis 2 that takes place in urban settings of New York.

New PS3 Models Tested at FCC

Engadget reported that two new models were being tested for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips with different hard drive configurations. So, looks like we may get to see new PlayStation 3 models being announced at E3 or maybe later in the Fall when PlayStation Move comes out. Two months back, we reported the PlayStation 3 Slim refresh with 40nm RSX GPU chip. And now, yet another refresh was spotted at FCC test labs where in CECH-2501A and CECH-2501B models were certified for Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g). Both these models had different hard drive configurations.

Portal 2 Release Pushed to 2011

As per the official release, Aperture Science and Valve have decided to push Portal 2's release to 2011 due to 'exhaustive ethics-review-panel-supervised release date restructuring process' completion, reported shacknews. Portal 2 is a sequel to the first game that was released in 2007 with Valve's The Orange Box compilation of games. Now, Valve and Aperture Science confess that 'making games is hard'. The company stated "even though Portal 2 will arrive slightly later than planned, all life on earth won't instantaneously stop as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light." Honestly, we'd be looking forward to this game.

MotorStorm Apocalypse for PS3 due in 2011

Evolution Studios has officially announced the next automobile racing game - MotorStorm Apocalypse on the official Sony PlayStation blog. This new MotorStorm Apocalypse will arrive exclusively for PlayStation 3 console next year. This time, the race takes place in apocalyptic environments. MotorStorm: Pacific Rift was set in The Island resembling Hawaii and Pacific Islands. New MotorStorm Apocalypse is set in the City inspired by Californian Bay Area of American West Coast. The City has been abandoned and suffers from tremors. Every race will be unique and once a building falls, it stays down.

We know you ll be going all nuts over these updates and there will be more to come next week since E3 2010 Expo starts in four days. Keep gaming till next week when we return with E3 2010 coverage and buzz. Game on!