If you missed out on our first Cities XL beta giveaway, that's alright! Because of the popularity of the first round, our friends at Monte Cristo have sent us 1,000 more beta keys to give to the ZAM community. If you've ever played a game of Sim City and thought to yourself how cool it would be to play the same kind of game in a persistent world, today is your lucky day.

Click here to receive your beta key and make sure to keep your eye out for Tamat Town (which will likely be on fire). Once you've obtained your key, download the game from the following link and follow the instructions. Special thanks goes out to Monte Cristo for giving the ZAM community a chance to try out Cities XL before anyone else!

In an exclusive interview last month, ZAM spoke with Michael Weber, Community Manager of the upcoming MMO, Cities XL. Michael described the game as an MMOCBG, or "Massively Multiplayer Online City Building Game." Simply put, it's a bit like the SimCity series with an MMO platform.

Only it isn't that simple (if you haven't read our interview yet, the game concept itself probably leaves your head tilted to the side a little, still confused about the "city-building MMO" part). It's actually a pretty intriguing idea though, and our interview left us with enough faith in the game to take a quick peek at Cities XL before its official launch later this summer.

Now that the Cities XL beta is officially underway, we're happy to announce that Monte Cristo has supplied us with 500 beta keys to hand out to the ZAM community. If you've ever played a game of Sim City and thought to yourself how cool it would be to play the same kind of game in a persistent world, today is your lucky day.

Click here to receive your beta key and make sure to keep your eye out for Tamat Town (which will likely be on fire). Once you've obtained your key, download the game from the following link and follow the instructions. Special thanks goes out to Monte Cristo for giving the ZAM community a chance to try out Cities XL before anyone else!

The Cities XL closed beta starts today, which means players will be developing and running their own cities as they test out the game. Players who already successfully applied to the closed beta will receive their keys today, but there's still numerous ways to obtain a key if you missed the initial registration period.

According to a press release, sites such as Eurogamer, Alltern8, GamesRadar, NowGamer, Total PC Gaming, C&VG and MMOzine are offering beta keys. For example, Alltern8 is offering 200 keys for the next week. The regular Cities XL Web site and forums are currently down due to the amount of visitors and will be back online later today, but the static page that is currently up contains a list of sites offering beta keys.

Also, we recently interviewed Michael Weber, Community Manager of Cities XL, and our friends over at Monte Cristo have promised us a large number of beta keys to share with our community! So keep your eyes glued to ZAM.com so you don't miss your chance to check out the game. You can read the full press release regarding the beta test announcement after the jump.

As we mentioned last week, we had the chance to interview Michael Weber, Community Manager of Cities XL. During the interview we went over the games core features and we talked about what players can expect in both online and offline modes. Additionally, Michael goes into detail about how the social networking features and the official website, will work with the game to keep players engaged.

The Cities XL beta is going to be starting soon and our friends over at Monte Cristo have promised us a large number of beta keys to share with our community! Keep your eyes glued to ZAM.com so you don't miss your chance to check out Cities XL.

ZAM: Hey Michael.

Michael Weber: Hi Tamat. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to present Cities XL to your community.

ZAM: Can you start by giving us some background information about the game and what players can expect other than another Sim City clone?

Michael: Sim City 4 has been the benchmark in the city building genre since 2003. So to us there is absolutely no shame in having Cities XL compared to an MMO version of Sim City. And there is actually some degree of truth to that statement as Cities XL obviously features the main gameplay mechanics you'd expect from any other city-builder.

UPDATE: Registration for the Cities XL beta is now closed.

According to an e-mail sent out by Monte Cristo Games, the first beta phase for Cities XL ended this morning at 11 a.m. Pacific time, and the launch of the second beta is right around the corner. An announcement on the Cities XL Web site states today is the last day you can register for the beta, so head over to the registration page if you'd like to get the chance to construct cities with thousands of players from around the world.

Also, if you haven't seen them yet, check out our exclusive screenshots from the Massively Multiplayer Online City Building Game, and keep an eye out for our exclusive interview with the Monte Cristo team and our hands-on demonstration write-up.

Recently we had the opportunity to give Monte Cristos' upcoming "Massively Multiplayer Online City Building Game" (MMOCBG), titled Cities XL a try. During our play session, I started the construction of "Tamat Town" which is probably on fire as I write this. Thankfully enough, our friends over at Monte Cristo were nice enough to give us a few of the screenshots to share with you guys. The following is an exclusive look at Cities XL which is playable in both an offline and an online, MMO meta-persistant mode that is unlike any other game available.

Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with the Monte Cristo team and our hands on demonstration write-up.

Monte Cristo has finally released some of the details for their Planet Offer for Cities XL! Patrick Marchal notes in the press release below that they want players to "first enjoy Cities XL in solo mode, and then convince them to join the Planet Offer, which will open the gates to a more ambitious level of game experience." And it really does look like the MMO aspect of Cities XL will be ambitious, as players will participate in a global economy by trading resources, developing economic strategies and specializing your cities. Not only that, but players can work together to build Mega Structures and the cities they erect will have an impact upon the world that they build on. Monthly costs appear to be lower than your average MMO, with one month subscription costing about 7€, and two longer term subscriptions for substantially cheaper amounts. Who'd have thought you could mesh a city building game with the MMORPG genre?

A recent blog entry on the Cities XL site goes into detail about how social networking will work in the game. Basically, every player, including solo ones, will get their own profile page on the Cities XL Web site. You'll be able to add an avatar, discuss what you are doing in the game and create your own friends network.

In addition, players who subscribe to the Planet Offer will have their cities saved on the game's servers, so the profile page will act as their permanent link to the game. " It allows you not only to take part in the community but also to play even when you are not in front of the PC on which you installed the game. ... You will be informed in real time of everything that is happening around your game."

The full blog entry can be found below.

After several years of development, CITIES XL has opened its beta registration. CITIES XL, which is expected to ship in late 2009, is said to be the "next-generation in city-building games" as it takes games like Sim City to the next level. You can get more information and screenshots in our gamelist.

Be sure to visit http://www.citiesxl.com for more information about the game, and to learn more about the upcoming beta and check out the full press release after the jump.