Tom Clancy’s The Division is having its first closed alpha on the Xbox One starting today and if you’ve pre-ordered the game, the servers are currently live.

It should be noted that keys for the alpha are being sent out randomly with Xbox One pre-orders receiving priority. So if you haven’t received it, just remember that there’s some luck involved as well. If you’ve pre-ordered the Xbox One version, you’ll still receive access to the game’s beta which is scheduled to take place in early 2016 after being delayed. Xbox One players will receive access to the beta first with PS4 and PC players entering later.

The Division alpha weighs in at 23 GB and will feature much of what was seen at E3 and Gamescom, plus a bit more on top. Players will also be able to participate in the Dark Zone PvP mode as well. The alpha will last until December 12th.

Tom Clancy’s The Division won’t be having its beta happening this month – instead, Ubisoft has announced an Xbox One exclusive alpha that will begin this week. If you pre-ordered The Division on Xbox One, you’ll receive priority to the alpha. To make things better, the alpha will be separate from the beta which you still receive access to if you’ve pre-ordered on any platform.

The beta, on the other hand, will be taking place in early 2016. Those interested in the alpha can note that it starts at 10 AM CET/4 AM EST/1 AM PST on December 9th and will end at 3 AM EST/12 AM PST on December 12th. You’ll be able to pre-load the 23.2 GB alpha since keys are going out today.

The alpha includes some of the same areas seen at E3 and Gamescom along with the Dark Zone areas. It seems there will be a bit more to see though.

Keep in mind that the closed alpha will have an NDA so you can’t share images or videos or post details online. Tom Clancy’s The Division is out in March 2016 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

id Software’s Doom has a beta planned for next year but it seems that an alpha test will also be taking place in the “coming months” according to an announcement at the QuakeCon opening ceremony.

Beta players will have gained access through pre-ordering Wolfenstein: The New Order when it released last year. The alpha test will be slightly different in that id Software will randomly choose a small number of players from the current list of beta testers to participate. Of course, if you attended QuakeCon you would have had a chance to try out Doom’s multiplayer there.

Doom was first unveiled at E3 2015 during Bethesda’s conference and signaled a return to the violent, brutal FPS combat that defined the series. It’s currently set to release in Q1/Q2 of 2016 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Will you be taking part in the beta test? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Ubisoft has been rather busy in the past 24 hours. Along with revealing Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, the publisher confirmed that AAA franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six would no longer have previous gen versions and that Tom Clancy’s The Division has been delayed to Q1 2016.

CEO Yves Guillemot spoke about the delay in a recent earnings report, stating that, “It’s an RPG online game. So those games take more time to be completed.”

Guillemot also mentioned that, “We want to make sure we have enough feedback from consumers from alpha and betas to polish it as much as possible before the launch. So that it comes to the market with the best experience possible.”

Given information that users have found about The Division receiving an alpha in the coming months, this is as good of an official confirmation as we’ll get from Ubisoft. We expect a more concrete announcement at E3 2015 though so stay tuned for more information.

The Evolve Big Alpha will begin this week, giving Xbox One, PS4 and PC players a chance to finally experience the 4v1 shooter.  Turtle Rock Studios has posted a primer of sorts to get players ready for the alpha and outlined just how it will work.

As expected, any experience earned during a match can be used to level up your character. Your mastery of different skills will fall into three ranks with the highest being Elite and each rank provides a new perk. The highest rank of each skill will also provide a special weapon.

There are 40 ranks in total – with progression being persistent across players – and you’ll unlock perks as you climb up the ranks. Some of the perks include Armour Regeneration, Damage Bonus, Weapon Switching Speed and more. The only drawback, and it’s to be expected, is that player progression from the alpha won’t carry over into the game’s launch.

Evolve’s alpha begins on October 30^th for Xbox One and October 31^st for PC and PS4.

Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve will be holding its Big Alpha test on October 31st for PC (with Xbox One users getting in on October 30th). A set of minimum and required PC specifications have since been released by the developer – keep in mind that these aren’t the final specifications.

For minimum specs, you’ll need Intel Pentium D 3 GHz or higher. AMD users will require an Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6400 2.4 GHz or higher. RAM required is 4 GB while the GPU requirements include an AMD Radeon 5770 or higher while Nvidia users will need a GeForce GTX 560 or higher. According to the developer, you’ll be able to get better frame rates by dialing down settings and disabling anti-aliasing.

As for recommended specs, you’ll require an Intel Core i7 920 2.67GHz or higher/AMD A8-3870 3GHz or higher. You’ll need 6 GB RAM and AMD Radeon R9 280 or higher/Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 or higher. Both sets of specs will require 15 GB of install space along with Windows 7 (64 bit).

Evolve will be out in February 2015 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. What are your thoughts on the settings? Let us know below.

For all the criticisms that Early Access games face – especially since they demand money for playing a game full of bugs or that may not even work – the onus still lays on gamers. If you know the game isn’t going to be fully playable, would you still spend money on it? Fans did just that for Bohemia Interactive’s stand-alone version of DayZ.

However, despite the support, some may feel that the game hasn’t been improving past enough. Producer Brian Hicks addressed those concerns in a recent forum post questioning whether players had lost faith in DayZ.

“You are not playing DayZ, you are playing development builds. Early development build. DayZ is 11 months into principal development, on what should be a three-year standard development cycle. I can’t force you to be a fan of DayZ, but I can call this out: Defining or judging what DayZ is by a build so early in its development is much akin to judging a painting within the first few brush strokes. Hell, even Bob Ross’s paintings didn’t look great for the first few minutes (until you realized what it was he was making).

“I can promise you none of your favorite AAA games played, or even resembled the final product that early in their cycles. Take a break, and come back in beta or even the full release. The Early Access period of development will have many peaks and low, low valleys. This is the nature of software development. Yes, it is stressful as heck – for all of us, but you get to be part of shaping the DayZ experience.

“For me, it’s worth it – for some of you, it might not be. No one can fault you for that.”

Hicks also explained that the current development process was looking to “effectively do a three-year standard cycle in 2 to 2.5 years. It might be a lofty goal, but as long as I have something to say about it–you will all be kept updated as to what is going on.”

Thoughts on Hicks’ words? Let us know below.

Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve recently began its alpha testing phase on the PC this past weekend (with tests incoming in the future for Xbox One) and though the non-disclosure agreement prevents any one from talking about or streaming the game, YouTube user jackfrags was authorized to showcase 23 minutes of gameplay. The best part? It’s all from the perspective of the monster so that you know exactly how it feels to stomp around like a boss. Check it out above.

The monster shown above is the Leviathan, a Cthulhu-like flying beast that can electricity to attack. You’ll see some of the mechanics on how to evolve your monster while tackling hostile beasts in the wild, fighting against Hunters and just outright dominating the environment. Consider this a taste of what’s to come in the next few months.

Evolve releases on October 21st for Xbox One, PS4 and PC worldwide. What are your thoughts on the game thus far? Let us know below.

If you’ve been dying to get your hands on the PC version of Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve, then good news: The developer has announced that it will be holding an alpha test for the multiplayer shooter and encouraged players to sign up now. You’ll need a PC though along with a Steam account and need to agree to a confidentiality clause to prohibit sharing any information about the game.

Head here, enter the password “happyhunting” (without quotes) and then place the referral code as “JoinTheHunt”. Turtle Rock will be sorting out its testers by July 5th so if you want to get in on the alpha, you should sign up now. More information will be provided in the coming days about the dates for the alpha.

If you’re on consoles, then don’t worry – Evolve will see its closed beta happening exclusively on the Xbox One. The game will be out this October for PS4, PC and Xbox One players.

The Destiny alpha was announced exclusively for PlayStation by Sony last week at their E3 conference (ahead of an exclusive Destiny beta later on as well). People have since been playing the game, and Bungie has since announced that it plans on extending the alpha play period of the game a little more… but it has also added, rather enigmatically, that what players find should they choose to continue playing in the alpha may not necessarily be to their liking.

“There’s a rumor that the #Destiny Alpha might be extended to allow dangerous experiments. Play beyond the official close at your own risk!” they said on their Twitter.

It is, of course, unclear as to whether they were being facetious, or whether they seriously do have something unpleasant planned for stragglers (which could be anything from account deletion to some catastrophic in story event). In any case, we’ll keep you posted.