Star Citizen shows off 20v20 mode, snow effects, Anvil Carrack commercial

Star Citizen is running its CitizenCon right now, and developers Cloud Imperium Games have a bit of new stuff to show off. They’ve announced a new 20v20 game mode called Theatres of War. It’s a multi-stage, combined arms, objective-based combat mode in the game’s Star Marine FPS bit. (If you’re interested in Star Citizen, there’s a free period about to begin.) Seems exciting for those who want a bit of battlefield in their Star Citizen, since it incorporates vehicles, flight, and infantry combat—though as with all things Star Citizen it’s very much an Alpha. Here’s the trailer for Theatres of War:

In addition to Theaters of War, CitizenCon has included the usual spate of tech demos, new feature announcements, and in-universe commercials. This includes a commercial with a new design for one of the most anticipated player ships, the Anvil Carrack. Billed as a military explorer, the Carrack is to many players the equivalent of the eponymous Firefly-class ship from that beloved sci-fi series, a self-sufficient ship that can take on many roles. Anyway, here’s a fake commercial:

The most impressive bit for me, however, was this short sequence during a tech demo showing off some cloth physics, wind, and snow on a visor. I mean honestly, this doesn’t even have to be a game, it’s just nice to watch:

Seriously:

Star Citizen is an incredibly ambitious space simulator game that has been in development for a very long time and crowdfunded lots of money. If you’d like to see what’s done so far, you can check it out during their November 24th to December 5th ‘free fly’ event. Anyways, I'm off to watch that gif with my head inside a freezer for the full experience.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.