Unless you've been living on another planet for a month, most gamers will have noticed the news hitting every FPS board and forum on the 'net; KAOS Studios/THQ have released a closed beta version of Frontlines:Fuel of War.

So, on the face of it, what's different? Look at the latest batch of beta builds/demos; Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock...everyone is doing it. Betas. 

Marketing ploy or a mass QA exercise? or something else? Popular opinion would seem to suggest the former - game developers pre-release a "teaser", a taste of what to expect. One veteran of over 20 beta tests says betas are generally considered this way. "Do you honestly think that any beta is for us to actually test? No, all they use you for is to see how many players the server can handle.
Thats it. We use the "beta" to get a taste of the game".

Frontines is a beta with a difference. Kaos Studios General Manager Frank DeLise, immortalized as the creator of the hugely popular Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942, has decided on the "road less traveled" by game developers; it is best explained by this quote from the man himself:

 "I would say first that we learned a lot from fellow gamers, so day one we started a forum and we constantly talk to players, gather feedback, what do they hate, love etc... This was very powerful in DC and we want to continue to work with the community."

"We definitely learned a lot here from the DC days. We were always adjusting balance as people found exploits and we managed to keep it fun without nerfing everything which most games tend to do. This is why we are having such an early beta. We want to get feedback and truly have time to do something about it. Most betas seem to be right before a product ships which is typically too late." Read full interview here.

Sounds too good to be true; a Game Developer giving gamers an opportunity to influence the development of the game before it is released. Coming from anyone else in the community it would be taken with a grain of salt, but the Desert Combat legacy gives the KAOS team a legitimacy amongst gamers, and it would seem by gaming forums that they are being true to their word.

What exactly is Frontlines: Fuel of War? Unlike current FPS games in the mould of BF2, Frontlines, as the name would suggest, goes beyond the ‘flag cap’ style maps and presents the gamer with a fluid ‘front line’ that moves depending on the progress of the battle. KAOS describe it this way:

 "The main game mechanic featured in Frontlines: Fuel of War in both in single player and multi-player, is the ability to join the forces on the front line. This front expands across large portions of a mission and will require a strategy to achieve the contextual objectives in order to move this front forward. Not only does this system keep the battle centric and players in the midst of the action, it gives a unique sense of advancement as your Division is rewarded with territory for their victories."

 Add this to 60 new weapons and vehicles, a destructible environment, squad-based gameplay (optional) and the unique game physics that made Desert Combat so popular, and it would seem this game has the potential to be number one amongst both pub players and clanners.

Battlefield 1942 recently celebrated it's 5th birthday, a game that created a genre and one which was perhaps the pinnacle of the series which followed with Battlefield:Vietnam, Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142. Most would agree that the competitive gaming community is screaming for a Battlefield successor and Frontlines is competing for that market. Whether or not it will be a success is yet to be seen, but Frank DeLise and his team at KAOS are doing everything right so far. The Frontlines developers do listen to their testers, and they are prepared to make modifications. The mantra is rock, paper, scissors - keeping gameplay balanced.

The Frontlines: Fuel of War Beta is currently in its first stage of "closed" testing. According to host Fileplanet, all keys in the current release have been allocated, but there are plans for a further 3 batches of keys to be released in the near future (see Fileplanet's Frontlines beta promotion and upcoming key releases here.

I urge all serious FPS gamers to get on board this beta, and let the developers know what you think; it can only mean a better game for us all.

Big props to Tonka for submitting this article.