Defiance Beta

Syfy has teamed up with Trion (creators of Rift) to make a mmofps game tie-in with a new TV series:

http://www.defiance.com/en/

This is my second weekend of participating in the beta (if you count logging in and immediately getting disconnected as "participating".)  They still haven't unblocked screenshots though so I can't show any in-game action.

This weekend is far more polished and stable than last time and I was able to run around a bit and shoot things.  I was surprised that the game actually registers headshots.  I also got myself an ATV early on that I can somehow technomagically materialize at my whim.  The available skills are nifty - So far I went with invisibility and extra damage when attacking from behind.

Defiance is a buy-to-play game, so no monthly subscriptions.  I did see a vendor selling lock boxes of a sort and I do wonder if these will require keys (purchased with real money) to open, similar to other f2p games.