With Karos Online nearing its North American launch slated for Q4 2009, the team has slated its open beta date for December 4th. In addition to this, NHN Corporation, the developers of Karos Online, has also noted that they will be hosting a final closed beta testing event on the 27th and 28th of November, where they will allow beta testers to experience high-level content and reserve their character names for the Open Beta event. In particular, with the closed beta event, NHN Corporation notes that new characters will come fully equipped with gear and items to support high-level play, and the experience gain has been "dramatically" increased, so players can hit the level cap of 44 almost instantly.

Heejin Jeong, the Senior Overseas Sales Manager at NHN Corporation notes that, "The third event offers the opportunity to play as a much more powerful character, and there will be new features available this time that players haven't seen before, including new monsters, weapons and Holy Creatures."

You can check out Karos Online and sign up for the closed beta at their website. Just create an account and click "Apply Now" to get into the closed beta.

German Atlantica Online fans definitely have something to cheer about today as Ndoors Corporation has just announced the commercial launch of Atlantica Online in Germany. This release comes after three closed beta periods, one open beta session, and "countless hours" of testing the game. Now with the commercial launch also comes a full Item Mall launch, filled to the brim with purchasable in-game items, stat boosts and a variety of 'licenses' to give players a head start on their levelling journey.

“The beta period in Germany gave us great insight into what the German audience wanted, which allowed us to fully optimize and localize the game,” said SeongWon Cho, CEO of Ndoors Coporation. “Atlantica was very well received, and we cannot wait to share the game with a large new group of players.”

Apparently Funcom and GiveawayGamer.com are teaming up to give players a year-long subscription, complete with tons of virtual items, like the Mammoth, Rhino, and the Horse mount. According to the GiveawayGamer.com website, players simply need to "share the contest or the GiveawayGamer.com website with the world" in order to win. Once you "share" the link, players can then send in a picture or a link showing how they shared the website. While the contest itself seems to be kind of odd (who takes a video of themselves sharing a website?), if Age of Conan is a game that's been interesting you, you can definitely check out this contest to play it for free for a year.

Also remember to check out ZAM.com's two-part revisit to the Hyborian Kingdoms, where we went back to Age of Conan to see how Funcom has moved past their launch development woes! Part I can be found here, and Part II can be found here.

Cryptic has just noted that in addition to releasing their new Nemesis Confrontration expansion pack for players on November 24th, they are also planning to release a new batch of costumes for players to choose from when they're figuring out their new wardrobe. It seems that the theme for this particular batch of costumes is weaponry, however, as many of the additions include hip-mounted pistols and sabres, or a variety of guns worn across a player's back. Also included with this update comes three new capes, two guitars (one acoustic, one electric) that can be worn across the back, and oddly enough, a brain-in-a-jar helmet.

Players can look through the rest of the costume additions over at the November Costumes page, and you can expect all of this to come on November 24th.

The developers behind Atlantica Online are at it again and have sent their latest developer journal to our inboxes. This week we're featuring the Spearman, a powerful mercenary that is also defensive enough to stand on the front lines. Are you willing to learn more about this awe-inspiring warrior? Do you think you could stand toe-to-toe with this fierce gladiator?

If you're up to the challenge, keep on reading!

Sony Online Entertainment announced today in a press release that more than three million user-created quests have been made in Star Wars Galaxies using the Chronicle Master system since its launch just over a month ago. This number includes one individual who has created more than 6,000 playable quests! That's definitely a dedicated player.

In addition, the Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures Premium Plus Pack is now available on Steam and Direct2Drive for 50% off for a limited time. Players who purchase the pack through these sites will receive three exclusive in-game vehicles, including an AT-RT, a Queen Amidala Transport Ship and a General Grievous Wheel Bike.

Cryptic revealed on Wednesday that the Nemesis Confrontation lair that is currently on the public test server will go live on Nov. 24, and the dev team is hosting a dev chat about the feature today at 4 p.m. PST. If that's not enough Nemesis news for you, Cryptic just announced in a press release that the update will launch alongside a free weekend of play from Nov. 26-30.

It looks like the free-to-play weekend event will be the perfect chance to check out the Nemesis Confrontation update and decide if they want to stick with the game. You can view a trailer for the lair at MMORPG.com and read the full press release after the jump.

A blue post in the official technical support forum seems to suggest that patch 3.3 isn't scheduled to launch for at least another month. In response to a player complaining about how long it takes to complete the 448MB background download, Datth said, "We only provide mirror links for full client patches. Background downloads do not count. You have around 1+ month to download this file so we're not really worried about your speed."

This comment certainly shouldn't be taken as any sort of official confirmation of the 3.3 launch window. After all, Datth could have just been talking about the timetable for background downloads in general. Regardless, it's just something to think about while we all wait for 3.3 to hit the live servers on one of these upcoming Tuesdays.

What does the future of Aion hold? North American Community Manager Andrew "Tamat" Beegle posted an interesting hint on his Twitter page yesterday: "On November 24th, we will be showing a movie that demonstrates the future of Aion with actual gameplay."

We'll certainly be keeping an eye on the official Aion site and Tamat's Twitter feed next Tuesday. Do you have any speculation as to what Tamat means by his statement? Head over to our Aion general forum if you'd like to add to the discussion.

Star Trek Online may have just entered closed beta about a month ago on Oct. 22, but Cryptic just announced that the open beta will be held from Jan. 12-26, 2010. Keys will be given on a first-come, first-served basis on the game's revamped Web site.

Star Trek Online is scheduled to launch on Feb. 2, 2010 in North America and Feb. 5 in Europe. Do you expect the game to actually be released on those days, or do you think the game will be delayed? We asked this question when the launch dates were announced, but it seems like a good time to ask it again since the open beta has already been scheduled.

Regardless, we're looking forward to the launch of the Star Trek MMO. We gave the game the "Best in Show" and "Most Innovative Gameplay" titles in our 2009 PAX Awards, and we also took another look at the game at the convention.