Written by 
If you’re a lover of expansive space games like Starfield or No Man’s Sky, Star Citizen is probably going to be right up your street. Sure, the enormous MMO may have a bit of reputation to shake, and it’s about ten years and hundreds of millions of dollars deep in development. But, there’s still plenty to enjoy. If you’ve always wanted to give it a go, now’s your chance – starting today, Star Citizen will be free-to-play for a limited time.
With procedurally-generated planets, a persistent world, resource mining, bounty hunting, and a blend of on-foot FPS and third-person vehicular gameplay, there is an awful lot to dive into in Star Citizen. In what is now becoming an annual tradition, it’s throwing open its doors to anyone and everyone for the next couple of weeks. Under the in-game guise of the Intergalactic Aerospace Expo 2954, this huge event allows players to try its wide range of spaceships and vehicles for free and start living out their own galactic adventure within the MMO.
As part of the IAE, all of the game’s fictional manufacturers will be offering up their products for free testing on a rotating schedule. From nimble spaceships perfect for dogfighting, to power armor that can help you haul heavy cargo, there is a super wide range of vehicles to try.
As Star Citizen is an online co-op game your friends can also join you on this two-week extravaganza of free test drives. Developer Cloud Imperium says that, in total, there are over 150 vehicles to try in this year’s IAE event.
Star Citizen’s free-to-play period is live right now and wraps up on Thursday, December 5. If you’re a new or returning player that’s going to jump in, I highly recommend checking out this FAQ page, which contains links to the entire event’s ship rotation schedule and advice on how to start your new adventure.
While Star Citizen continues to be iterated on, Cloud Imperium also recently showed off upcoming single-player spinoff Squadron 42. Sadly, you won’t be playing it until 2026, but at least this long-rumored project is actually coming together now.
For more games like Star Citizen, check out all of the best space games and best multiplayer games that we recommend playing.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.