Fury closed beta this week

Australian outfit Auran Games is unleashing its Fury this week. In the form of a closed beta test.

Things should get under way at around 3pm PST on Friday, according to the game's website, which is around 11pm UK time. You can sign up now, but remember there's only a limited amount of spaces.

Fury is an MMO attempting to do away with the familiar grinding template. There's no slaughtering hordes of rats to gain levels, for instance, or endless grinding for elusive pieces of equipment. Instead it's all based around the fast-paced world of player-versus-player combat.

This takes the form of martial arts and the sort of gravity-defying stunts and manoeuvres made popular by films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Each game automatically pits you against someone of your own skill, ensuring there's always an adequate challenge at hand, and various battle modes promise to keep proceedings fresh and exciting.

And while there's no class and levelling system, you'll get the chance to define your style by unlocking over 400 unique abilities. There'll be endless toolsheds of equipment to choose from, too, plus clan and individual ladders to climb.

It all sounds rather promising, especially coupled with the eye-pleasing visuals powered by Unreal Engine 3. Note that minimum specs are quite high, although not astronomical, and the sign-up will require you to run and upload a DirectX diagnostic file - so you'll need to be at the PC you intend to play on.

We hope to give it a run for its money over the weekend, and will be bringing you our thoughts as soon as possible.

Head over to the Fury website to get involved.

Alternatively pop into our Fury gallery for the latest screenshots.