It’s been a while since we last heard about Huxley, that über-pretty MMOFPS from South Korea’s Webzen. The latest hype went as far as E3 2006, and perhaps a few sporadic previews here and there. After poking around, I discovered when it’s supposed to come out.

According to the game’s forums, the game is scheduled to begin its close beta sometime between the tail end of 3Q and 4Q 2007. Huxley’s open beta will fall between 4Q 2007 and 1Q 2008, and its commercial launch would be somewhere before the middle of 1Q 2008 to the beginning of 2Q 2008. Got that?

So what makes Huxley special? Other than its spectacular visuals, we don’t know yet. Perhaps a part of us is hoping that the MMOFPS subgenre gets its marquee equivalent of Mario. No, I don’t want to see an Italian plumber take the lead role of a new MMOFPS—I was hoping for a game that achieves critical and commercial success like Nintendo’s bouncy hero.

One particular thing going for Huxley is its use of the Unreal 3 Engine. That means it’s going to be as pretty as Unreal Tournament 3 or Gears of War in a sci-fi, gun-toting way. Let’s just hope that Webzen doesn’t turn this game into a generic Asian-developed MMO that depends on some form of grind that’s prevalent today. Then again, Huxley is an FPS so it would take a special kind of inanity to pull that off.

Post from: EveryJoe

Huxley’s launch info is revealed