Big Star Citizen Update Launches Soon

Star Citizen's been trudging along since it debuted on Kickstarter in 2012. Initially seeking $500,000, Cloud Imperium Games' space-sim closed its Kickstarter campaign after accruing a little more than $2.1 million in November 2012. Some years later, the studio's first game has exceeded well over $200 million--and the numbers keep going up. Now it's announced the game's biggest update should blast off this weekend.

Titled Alpha 3.5, the update includes a new city-planet, overhauled flight models, and additional character creator options. The new planet is called ArcCorp, a planet with two moons that's "almost entirely covered in man-made structures." Players will be able to visit the Area18 landing zone where you'll find an NPC quest-giver who will dish out new missions.

Alpha 3.5 takes gravity into consideration, as it's factored into planetary flight. Further, the update adds a new map called Star Marine for the squad FPS mini-game, new guns for pilots and ships, some new vehicles, and additional performance balancing and improvements.

In addition to overhauled flight mechanics and a new planet to explore, Cloud Imperium implemented a new character generator. Now, players will pick two parents when creating a new character--think the character creators from Rockstar's GTA Online. Women will also (finally!) be playable, getting added to the character creator along with a variety of parents to pick from. Returning pilots can pick a new look and/or gender thanks to this update.

Star Citizen is available now on PC to those who backed the project. Alpha 3.5, similarly, will be available to all backers.