Dead-Fish.com

Today we have launched the second phase of World of Tanks closed beta. After a week of preparation works, testers can join the game and enjoy tense team battles. In a few days, a patch will come out delivering the following features:

• Squad fights. Call your friends, join action-packed battles as a single fighting unit of two or three people, and crush enemy defenses by well-coordinated actions.
• Additional modules. Increase your firing rate by installing rammers, improve your tank’s tonnage with suspension stiffeners, put on a camouflage net and decrease your visibility, choose between dozens of upgrades that will improve your vehicle.
• Crew kits. Equip you tank crew with fire extinguishers, repair kits, first-aid sets and other elements providing extra help in battles.
• Brand-new maps. The game maps feature various kinds of terrain and areas to provide great replayability.

Stay tuned!

I got a game or two in before heading out to work:

Victory!
Battle: Ensk 01 September 2010 18:52:52
Tank: PzKpfw V Panther
Earned:
2,163 Experience
46,051 Credits

Nice little time waster...

Couldn't login, then I found this...

We are planning some big updates for the World of Tanks closed beta, which will include launching new game servers in North America and delivering a fresh patch containing new game features. To make sure everything works well, we will halt the game servers from 9 a.m. GMT August 26 till September 1.

On September 1, we will be on air again with all the players connected to the American servers. Several days after that, the new 0.5 patch will be rolled out with several new features, which are:

• Squad fights. A squad will include 2 to 3 people and will allow players to invite their friends and join a random battle as a single fighting unit, which will help them coordinate their actions and maneuvers.
• Additional modules. Install rammers and increase your firing rate, take suspension stiffeners and improve your tank’s tonnage, decrease visibility by installing a camouflage net, choose between dozens of upgrades that differ depending on a tank model you choose.
• Crew kits. Equip you tank crew with fire extinguishers, repair kits, first-aid sets and other elements, with each of them providing extra help in battles.

With the new patch rolled out, all beta testers will get 5000 gold each to test the new game features. The patch will be followed by a “light” wipe when the players will go back to tier 1 tanks, but all the experience they have earned will be converted into free experience which they will be able to use at their leisure. All credits will remain as well, and losing all the tanks, modules, and shells will be compensated by corresponding amount of credits spent on buying them. If a player had a premium tank or shells, compensation will be arranged in respectful amount of gold.

Stay tuned, we’ll be informing you on all major events on World of Tanks.

A couple of major elements added in beta 4.

Firefox Sync lets users access browser history, password keychain, bookmarks, and open tabs across their different desktop computers, it's an add-on for Firefox 3.x,  integral in 4.o.

Panorama (formerly  Tab Candy), allows you to arrange  tabs into groups, you can zoom out and see all home screens at once.

Downloads

I'd love a decent pre-quel, fingers crossed.

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OMG...

Well, their version any how, no  prizes for the appearance by the Duke.

Typically, when a game doesn’t make it out of development, there’s a logical explanation behind it. Through lack of interest, money drying up, development houses getting shuttered, or a variety of other reasons, it’s sadly not uncommon for a game to get the shaft. More often than not, it’s a good thing for the developers to cut their losses on a game that simply won’t live up to standards.

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He clearly knows what he likes...

There's big, then there's this...

I'm a long-time fan of Tower Defence games.  Here is one of the best ones I have seen in recent memory.

Play Cursed treasure