Dreadnought enters open beta, so here's a cool trailer of brawling spaceships

Remember Dreadnought? It's a game of huge spaceships in small-scale combat, as we put it a little over a year ago. We've actually had some hands-on time with it too, although nothing recent: Once in 2014, and then again in 2015. That's a lot of time gone by, but it looked at least potentially cool, and let's face it: it's hard to go too wrong with huge spaceships blasting the stuffing out of each other at explosively close range. And with the launch of the open beta, you can find out for yourself how it's all shaping up. 

The open beta will feature a new map called Ixion, set 60,000 kilometers above the Saturnian moon Titan, which "forces players to maneuver around the colossal orbital ring that dominates its center." More than 50 ships from five different classes are playable in the beta, and "night variations" of two existing maps, Rings of Saturn and Red Sands, have also been added. 

Dreadnought is free to play, which means you can go blow things up in the cold void of space without spending a penny, but if you find yourself having fun you can drop a few bucks on things like experience boosters, cosmetic items, and "Hero ships" if you like. Developer Yager said the game "will continue to receive new content, features, balancing and more with regular updates guided by community feedback" throughout the beta process.

You can find out more about what's involved, or sign up to play, at greybox.com.

Andy Chalk

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.