The first Assassin’s Creed, which followed the exploits of Altair during Jerusalem’s Third Crusade, was somewhat of a learning experience for developers; it showed the world how not to do the whole ‘difficulty’ thing. Making the game harder the further you get in is fine and mostly recommended, but having the guards alert to your presence as soon as you run past them, as if your footsteps were assassinating the ground, was completely nonsensical.
With Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, you now get the chance to hunt down and decide which member of the surrounding public is another player controlled assassin and therefore deserves a quick, clean stab to the temple. The PS3 console exclusive beta trial will commence on the 4th of October in Europe (13th of September for North America) and will be given to all players who pre-order the game. The beta will include nine inconspicuous character skins, two maps –Rome and Castel Gandolfo– and two game modes: Wanted and Alliance.
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood will also feature the Rome level in single player, which players of Assassin’s Creed 2 will have had a brief glimpse of. This won’t be a part of the beta but will be in the final game when it launches on November 19.
[Source]
