14 DAY TRIAL // Looks like game developers have come to their senses and realized that it's cheaper to release a beta version of a game for testing instead of hiring some dudes to play their developing game to tell them what is wrong with it.
This is the case of Sigil Games Online and Sony Online Entertainment, as they have just opened the books for Vanguard Saga of Heroes beta sign-ups. You can go to FilePlanet, fill in a virtual form and then wait until January to receive an invitation to beta. If you are a FilePlanet subscriber, you can also download the 6.6 GB game client. Frankly, I don't know why the game client takes up so much space because the game doesn't look that great judging from the screenshots.
The game is powered by Unreal Engine 3 and is set to be released in the first quarter of 2007. Vanguard Saga of Heroes servers are called Shards, and so far, only two server types have been confirmed, Player versus Environment and Player versus Player servers. Apparently, some role-playing servers will be added once the game comes out, if we are to believe Sigil Games.
Vanguard Saga of Heroes is set in the fantasy world, and features several MMORPG traditional races, such as humans, dwarfs, goblins, barbarians and elves. There will be some never-seen before races in Vanguard Saga of Heroes, out of which the vulmane seem the most interesting, they are described as a race of intelligent bipedal wolf-men (not werewolves-they are not so bright).