For those of you eagerly awaiting Call of Duty: World at War on the PC, you may have been disappointed at news regarding the fact that the Xbox 360 beta is currently under way. There is no need to fret (because as we reported), the beta will be making its way to the PC soon. We've been tipped off by some of our readers regarding some changes to the PC multiplayer element of Call of Duty: World at War, which will offer a number of improvements over the multiplayer mechanics of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Amongst these, a more "console-centric" system will be introduced, enabling you to see what your friends are up to and join servers they're playing on more easily (a la Steam). A few other new features will also see various improvements in terms of multiplayer.

In a post made on the World at War forums, the changes are outlined, along with a FAQ. The first (and most dramatic) change to the multiplayer mechanics of World at War will be the way in which authentication is handled. This is explained with the following:

In CoD:WW, you will be authenticating in-game against a more global master server. This server will keep track of and maintain unique Profile names (like a screen name) which will be tied to your CD Key. So while user name / passwords will not be required to play our game, you will have globally unique profile names.

As mentioned earlier, this will allow a friends system to be put into place, along with invites and enhanced server filtering. (You'll be able to display only servers that have your friends in them as an option). The post continues, with refreshing news for clans:

... we understand that clan tags can change frequently, and it would be obnoxious and not very user friendly to keep changing your profile name. So we've added in clan tag prefixes, which will show up in-game. This should allow you to take full advantage of our Friends & Invites features, and still be able to make yourself more uniquely identifiable in-game.

This functionality will be incorporated right from the begining of the Beta test, with players "asked" to acquire a beta CD key by signing up to CallofDuty.com (all registered users will be given one). This will allow users to reserve their names pre-release. There is also good news in this regard - with the beta to work in the following way:

The PC BETA will pretty much be a limited MP distribution of our game. So you will be able to host your own servers, and GSP's will be able to sell BETA servers and put up as many dedicated servers as they'd like. All of this will function as if it were a regular Multiplayer game. It's important to note, that for the BETA, the dedicated server will be Windows only.

The information regarding the beta concluded with some pretty "normal" beta stuff - like the fact that "all accounts" will be wiped following the conclusion of the beta, much like the Xbox 360 beta test.

Call of Duty: World at War is set to release in Australia on the 12th of November, and will be available on the PC, PS3 and the Xbox 360. A DS version is due to follow on the 26th of November.

(And, before you ask, yes, we will most likely have several servers up as soon as we're able).

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Thanks to khalid1982 & Moses for this news submission!
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