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.

Paris, France – 17th June 2009. Monte Cristo, developer and publisher of CITIES XL™, is delighted to announce that the game’s official closed Beta programme begins today. Those who were successful in their applications to join the CITIES XL Beta programme will receive their exclusive game keys today and can begin playing the full beta version of the game. UK gamers who have not applied can still get a key and download the Beta Client from the following partner websites: Eurogamer, Alltern8, GamesRadar, NowGamer, Total PC Gaming, C&VG and MMOzine.

CITIES XL enables players to develop and run their own cities, built on realistic 3D maps featuring a variety of environments from mountain ranges to beaches and islands. Each city manager, or mayor, needs to create the right combinations of job opportunities, social services, leisure activities, and special events that will occupy and entertain their citizens.

In the Beta programme, mayors can trade with one another, manage their economy and team up with neighbouring cities to create sprawling metropolises. The Beta version of CITIES XL is fully playable with online elements fully implemented.

“We’re delighted to have reached this milestone in the development of CITIES XL with the start of the Beta programme,” said Jerome Gastaldi, CEO of Monte Cristo, “We can’t wait to see how players interact with CITIES XL to create some amazing cities, and of course it will be an incredibly valuable testing time for the game itself.”

Visit http://www.citiesxl.com for more information about the game, and to learn more about the beta programme.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
DESKTOP MINIMUM 
CPU Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.5 GHz or better 
RAM 1 GB (XP), 1.5 GB (Vista) 
Video Card nVidia GeForce 6600GT / ATI Radeon X1600 or better 
256 MB VRAM or better 

DESKTOP RECOMMENDED
Intel Core 2 or better
1.5 GB (XP), 2 GB (Vista)
nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 3850 or better
512 MB VRAM or better

LAPTOP MINIMUM
Platform Intel Centrino 2 w/ Intel Graphic Accelerator 
RAM 1.5 GB (XP), 2.5 GB (Vista) 

LAPTOP RECOMMENDED
Intel Centrino 2 w/ nVidia or ATI GPU w/ 512 MB VRAM
1.5 GB (XP), 2.5 GB (Vista)

ALL PLATFORMS MINIMUM 
Sound DirectX Compatible
DVD ROM 2x
Hard Drive 8 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP SP3 or Microsoft Windows Vista SP1
DirectX 9.0c
Note : need to be DirectX 9.0c compatible and support Shadel Model 3.0