Star Control: Origins enters beta phase

Stardock released the first beta of Fleet Battles for the highly anticipated Star Control: Origins today. From what I can tell, Stardock is following a process similar to that of Star Citizen by releasing components of what will eventually be a large,multi-faceted science-fiction adventure game set in an open universe. The player gets the dubious honor of being the captain of Earth's first interstellar vessel on a mission to find allies to help save humanity from certain annihilation, which is really a way of saying "to seek out new civilizations and destroy them."

Sign me up!

The first component to go beta unlocks the Fleet Battles piece in which players assemble ships in a fleet and engage in battle with fleets controlled by either the computer, humans via the Internet, or even friends sitting at the same PC.

This will be a fairly deep beta in that it will include a lot of the underpinnings that are needed to create differentiation in your fleet. The beta will include the Ship Crafting system, in which players can literally design their own ships to use in combat, then share them online. Players can also download ships designed by others to play with as well. Ship Crafting not only allows players to decide what weapons and defenses a ship has, but allows total control of how a ship looks. Another way of describing this is "enjoyable time sink."

Again, sign me up!

The full and final version of Star Control: Origins is expected to release next Summer.

Users can pre-order the game now at a discounted price and receive instant access to the Fleet Battles beta. It's all available on Steam.