The latest Star Citizen update lets you explore the sim's first world

Ahead of Star Citizen’s free week, the space sim’s very first planet has gone live, along with VOIP and the fancy face-tracking integration. Everyone will be able to check out Hurston and the city of Lorville on Friday, but for now only people who have bought the game can start exploring.

Hurston is much larger than the moons that players have previously been able to explore and contains multiple biomes, mining centres and a single city. When you land in Lorville, you’ll be using the city’s transit system to get around, letting you sit back and soak in some flashy views.

If you’re stuck waiting until Friday, you can still watch Chris Roberts’ guided tour of Lorville and Hurston from CitizenCon.

Players have already started posting their own videos, like this cracking view of Lorville from a landing passenger ship. The nose dip is a wee bit intense, though.

Orbiting Hurston are a bunch of new moons, too, all with a handful of outposts that you can visit. New missions are also available, letting pilots risk life and limb in death races both in space and on the surface of moons. Pilots need to race over or shoot checkpoints to get points towards victory, but they can also shoot other racers. Not very sporting, but space is a tough place.

Take a gander at the full 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.