The first round of invitations to the Crysis 2 closed multiplayer beta test are going out, indicating that this first session is a strictly Xbox 360 affair. Back in June EA told customers the first round of multiplayer beta tokens would be offered to folks who signed up at the game's community site. Now those invites are going out, but PlayStation 3 and PC players need not apply.

No, for this early round of tech testing requires an Xbox 360 and an Xbox Live gold account.

Reader JollyClogger sends along this image of the invitation. Sadly Jolly no longer owns an Xbox 360, so he won't be participating in this initial phase.

Hopefully developer Crytek and EA will expand to include other platforms as the testing progresses.

The public beta test for Killzone 3 starts on October 25, and Kotaku's got the low-down on how to get in. First step: Pay for PlayStation Plus. Yes, with the exception of some media partners and some PAX feedback participants, only folks who pay for Sony's premium PlayStation Plus service will gain access to the public beta trial of Killzone 3. It's not something I'd buy PlayStation Plus for, but I'm sure there are some Killzone fans out there willing to shell out some dough for an early shot.

Once you've paid your way into Plus, you'll have to download an exclusive Killzone 4 XMB theme. The first 5,000 PlayStation Plus subscribers in the U.S. and Europe will gain access to the beta.

After that, just wait until October 25 for an email containing your promotion code.

So who among you is willing to play to get into the beta?

Gears of War 3 is getting a public beta early next year, Epic Games revealed at an event this week at their studio. This will be the first time a Gears of War game is getting a public beta. Epic Games' Rod Fergusson told the gathered press that the team has always wanted to do a public beta, but only if they could later use that feedback to improve the title.

Now that Gears of War 3's launch has been pushed back from April to the fall of 2011, the team thinks they will be able to to do just that.

No word yet on when next year the multiplayer beta will be hitting.

Update: I've moved those fancy two videos to their own post where I walk you through the oodles of new things you're seeing and give more details on the three new multiplayer game modes unveiled.

Here's almost ten minutes of action from the PS3 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer beta.

Launched yesterday, the beta features two gameplay modes, each of which supports up to eight players.
Wanted pits players against each other in a race to get the highest score by killing their assigned targets, while Alliance pairs up players and challenges them to fulfil various contracts.