Dark Souls 2 closed beta to hit PlayStation 3 on October 5

Game publisher Namco Bandai has announced that From Software’s upcoming RPG epic, Dark Souls 2, will be hitting the closed beta stage soon. The closed beta is set to hit the PlayStation 3 on October 5. Despite the announcement, however, it made no mention of how one gets access to the closed beta, but it did note that those interested should check out the Dark Souls 2 Faceboook page for registration details, which will be announced on September 5.

The beta will be Available to players from North America as well as Europe, and since Indian games more-or-less depend on Europe, the closed beta will be accessible to us as well. Namco Bandai has stated that players will get to try out "an entirely new area of the game," which hints to the possibility that the closed beta won't be the same part of the game that was demoed at gaming conventions this year.

Here's hoping it's at least as brutal as the last game was

Since the official announcement of the game at last year's Spike VGA, we've learned quite a bit about the game from developer interviews and the like. The most recent bit of information from back in July revealed that Dark Souls 2 will allow more freedom to players. The game's Director Yui Tanimura told Digital Spy, "Freedom of exploration is something we want to prioritise for Dark Souls 2, even more so than Dark Souls 1." He continued, "In Dark Souls 1, you were able to travel to several areas, but hopefully for Dark Souls 2, there you have more freedom to explore throughout the game."

Dark Souls 2 is slated for a March 2014 release date on the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. There is no word on whether it will be hitting the next-gen consoles.