Star Citizen's first system now has its final planet

Star Citizen has been in development for eight years, so it's hit many milestones and probably has even more to go. This year's final update is still pretty noteworthy, however, as it adds the final planet to Stanton, Star Citizen's first planetary system. Oh yes, and now you can beat people up with your fists.

New Frontiers launched on the weekend and you can check out an overview in the video above. The headline feature is microTech, a frosty planet that players can shoot off to and explore right now. The settlement isn't up and running yet, but you can still visit the world and freeze your butt off.

To stave off the cold (I don't think it actually does this, I just needed a segue) you might want to try brawling. Space explorers can now duke it out with fists and knives, which is probably pretty sensible—sci-fi has taught me that firing a gun when you've just got a wall between you and the vacuum of space is a dumb idea.

Under the hood, there are more new features. Planet Tech v4 promises to improve both the weather and landscapes of the planets you can visit. While they're still pretty stark, they sure are pretty.

With SOCS (Server Object Container Streaming), the team is going to apparently have an easier time increasing the scale of the space sim, too. There's one system right now with a bunch of planets and moons, but now they can add more without being limited by server resources.

On top of that, there are new weapons, more missions, a multi-crew mining ship and a lot more. The launch hasn't been entirely smooth, however, and Cloud Imperium Games has acknowledged that it's not as stable as the previous update. Polish and improvements will come with future patches, and in the meantime you can see the list of known issues in the patch notes.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.