If you never managed to get a beta key for Battlefield Heroes, it doesn't matter anymore. DICE revealed today that the free-to-play multiplayer shooter has begun its open beta.

They confirmed the news on the BF Heroes forums earlier today. You'd expect EA to send out a press release announcing this sort of thing but the closed beta has expanded greatly over the months so the vast majority of people who want to play the game are probably already doing so. They probably want to avoid a Quake Live-esque spike in traffic, too. Let's just hope that no lame ass gaming site spoils that plan by - oh, wait.

The game's been in closed beta since last summer, with a couple months' break around holiday time. To play, head here. It's a browser-based game and you'll need either Firefox or Internet Explorer to run it.