Weekly MMO news round-up: Fallen Earth gets screened, CrimeCraft enters beta, Ultima needs testers

Leading up to E3, there is not a megaton of news with anything, let alone MMOs. The week was basically all about screens, delving into crafting systems and character sheets, and general stuff that you can view on any online game's website. It's called pre-E3 malaise, and today it's pretty thick.

However, we have dug through the mire once more to bring you something in the way of MMO news that didn't hit the front page.

You can catch up on it all after the break.

• Gamespot got a look at Cryptic's upcoming Star Trek Online. The political backdrop and timeline is explained to us, while ship battles, away teams, race customization, and exploration are the main focus of the piece. You really should check it out if this game interests you.

• Play Ultima Online? Think you have what it takes to be a beta tester? Then EA wants you to sign up as one for the upcoming Stygian Abyss expansion. You can do so here. Good luck.

• Black Prophecy allows you to to shift from first-person cockpit view and a third-person view of space. Pretty neat. You get to pilot ships too. Even better. Massively has new screens of the both views. Check them out.

• Vogster's shooter-MMO hybrid CrimeCraft entered closed beta this week, and its very strict on beta testers and possible leaks. That's why we know so little about the game. Like the fact it went into closed beta, for instance. Hopefully once it's over with we will get news about it, so keep checking back with us.

• The Fallen Earth website got a face lift this week and had screen and trailer pages added to it. Other interesting tidbits added include a backstory, event timeline, character skills, abilities, and the ten different mutation paths. From what we've seen of it so far, this post apocalyptic game is gonna be a day one play for us.

• SOE has issued a fact sheet for its upcoming spies and mercenaries MMO The Agency, due for release in 2010 on consoles and PC . To find out what exactly the fact sheet entails regarding this "modern setting of bullets, bomb blasts, and betrayal," head on over to Massively.

• Jaskell from Sony Online Entertainment's Star Wars Galaxies has written a developer journal looking at housing updates for the game's upcoming update. Details are over on MMORPG, and there's some nice looking decoration modes in there.

• Patch notes have been released for Darkfall, and the list is too extensive to put here, so just hit this link to read over them. We still haven't been able to purchase the game yet. We'll keep trying though.

• EverQuest II is having another Hot Zone weekend. It started yesterday, and ends Monday morning. Until then, players will get an experience boost in the following zones: Greater and Lesser Faydark, Butcherblock and Steamfont Mountains, and Loping Plains. More through the official site.

• Stage one of public test 1.3 is live for Warhammer Online. The first segment will focus on combat and career changes, the mechanic for gathering resources and unlocking the Tomb Kings zones. While the Land of the Dead is not currently available you can unlock it and take a gander at it, but can't traverse through it. Sorry. The devs have posted a list of test and game highlights as well as instructions on how to get into the test server here.