Family Guy Online open beta kicks off, character creation tool yanked

You'll have to make your own character for the Family Guy Online beta, because Family Guyzer has been pulled.

The tool, which was added to the game's community site at the end of February, was advertised via an email campaign this week.

Bare hours later, Roadhouse Interactive took it down.

No explanation was given for the tool's removal, although the added strain on the fledgling game's servers is one possible culprit - although as it allowed you to upload photos to be turned into characters, we can think of other reasons why it might have been axed, hem hem.

Never mind, there is good news - Family Guy Online has gone into open beta, and you can sign up for it here.

You can jump in and explore for yourself, but MTV Multiplayer has some snippets on the game's development. For the first time, the creative team behind the show have locked down the layout of the Griffins' home, and mapped out their hometown of Quahog.

The Griffins will be quest givers, and all new voice overs have been recorded to avoid duplicating the show's audio, giving fans something new to experience. The visuals have been given careful attention, as the team wanted to avoid sticking toon shaders on generic 3D models, preferring to emulate more closely the look of the show.