Battle royale survival game The Darwin Project begins alpha testing next month

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The battle royale survival game show The Darwin Project was revealed in June at E3 with a trailer that was half-cinematic and half-gameplay. It's been kept well under wraps since then, but the first closed alpha weekend is coming in November and while most of us won't be able to play it, it will give us our first proper look at real, unedited gameplay.

The Darwin Project is "a competitive multiplayer third-person experience with an emphasis on survival," set in the northern Rocky Mountains of Canada. It's described as "half science experiment, half live entertainment," undertaken to prepare for the next Ice Age (which I guess is closer than we think), but to my eye it looks more like Running Man in January. That guy's not wearing an orange jumpsuit with a number on the left breast for nothing, you know.

The closed alpha will begin at 9 am PT/12 pm ET on November 10, and end at the same time on November 12. Players will be able to stream their sessions so the rest of us can see what it's all about, and while it's running, the developers at Scavengers Studio will be taking part in Q&A sessions on Twitch. You can sign up for a chance to get into the alpha, or just have a poke around at things, at scavengers.ca.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.