About the beta, we've still got to do a lot, do mind taht this mod already consist out of 15 guns or so. Not to mention the other custom content.
We're going for HQ stuff, new explosionFX's, soundFX's, skins and models as you see. We're not jsut going to try to stur up the UT community, but to blow it in a vortex.
As for the slashing, in the UT version it won't be possible, it would look really lame in the third person as playermodels aren't outfitted with a slashing animation. We're trying to make it as cewl as UT permits while still keeping the playability in check (Like not too many overcoloured particle stuff or superhighdetailed models) .
Just so you know, for now there are 3 modellers 2 of them double as skinners, no animator yet, but I'm trying to take taht on account, 1 scripter (for whom I feel kinda back thinking about the major workload he's gonna have) and two soundartists, not to mention some mappers.