So for all the folks wanting to try the new 1.31 patch, open beta starts Feb 22. 

http://www.battlegroundeurope.com/index.php/component/content/article/10-production-notes/4468-open-beta-begins-febxx

Well, here's the kicker.  It's only for active subscribers.  Essentially you're buying the game for $14.99 to play open beta.  Now CRS knows without a doubt that there's been a lot of hoopla over this new patch, and I think they're being pretty clever here to bring in a few more dollars.  Instead of offering a 2 week open beta, they're selling a game for $14.99. 

I was going to play this and test the new patch out but this really turned me off.  I think I'll pass on this and wait for the inevitable "Welcome Back Soldier" 10 day free subscription. 

This is hte way it has always been. The game is still running and you can play that for free for two weeks, but this beta is not really open, there are still a lot of things to be fixed. The Rats will run the server with the idea of controlling the tests. Then it will be run for some time to find bugs that escape them and can be found when you have a huge assortment of rigs. I suspect it is easier to have existing player login than try to let new accounts enter also. New players may not even like the control that will be used for the first couple of weeks. So this is not really an open beta, but there may well be one before they release the beta to the campaign server.