SimCity Four-Day Beta Starts January 25

While SimCity won't officially release until March, it turns out that eager gamers who may not be able to wait that long will be able to play a little bit of the new game later this month. EA Games and Maxis have announced that they'll be hosting a beta throughout the weekend starting on January 25 and ending on January 28.SimCity announced via Twitter that gamers will be able to play a "one hour slice" of the new game at any point during the four-day period. We're not sure exactly if Maxis or EA Games have a particular section of the game that they'll be handing out for beta testing, but we assume that the game will start from the beginning, showing you the tutorial and then giving you a little bit of time to explore the game on your own.

In fact, there's a new SimCity video that was just uploaded today to YouTube, and it shows off the tutorial at the beginning of the game. So, if you can't even wait until the 25th to see what it's like, the video is your next best option until then. However, it appears that the video wasn't uploaded by an official source, so who knows how long the video will stay up before it gets pulled.

Those interested in trying out the beta should head on over to the SimCity website and sign up. The full game is expected to hit shelves on March 5 for US gamers and March 8 for those in Europe. It's important to note that the beta looks to be a closed beta, and while anyone can sign up, they most likely won't let all gamers in.

[via Kotaku]