Elite Dangerous: Beyond, the third “season” of Frontier’s sprawling space trading and combat sim, is kicking off soon, and you can test out its first chapter via a free open beta.  Here’s what you can expect from Elite Dangerous: Beyond – Chapter One (the beta will offer access to all the chapter’s content).

　　Elite Dangerous: Beyond - Chapter One follows the Thargoids’ devastating assault on humanity’s starports. Beyond advances the ongoing player-driven narrative and introduces a variety of gameplay enhancements, upgrading the gameplay experience whether players prefer to trade, fight or explore in Elite Dangerous’ massively multiplayer galaxy.

　　Major new features include:

　　Wing Missions bring challenging team-based objectives for players to complete with friends and community members around the world. Commanders will share their adventures - and rewards - with allies while working together to overcome dangerous obstacles.Advanced in-game Trading Data will empower traders to make better deals and smoother transactions. Information on the galactic economy is now more freely available, allowing every commander to become a master merchant as they journey among the stars.The Elite Dangerous galaxy becomes more realistic and beautiful than ever before with reworked planet rendering technology in Frontier’s COBRA game engine. In Beyond vibrant surface colors better reflect planetary geological properties, enriching the full-scale Milky Way.Sounds like a good, meaty update – I’m excited to see the new visual upgrades! Improvements to Elite: Dangerous’ engineering mechanics, mission rewards, and crime-and-punishment system are in the works, as well. You’ll also be able to take command of a new warship, The Chieftan. You can check that out, below.

　　The Elite Dangerous: Beyond – Chapter One beta will be available for PC players on January 25. The full-release version of the chapter cruises onto PC, Xbox One, and PS4 in the first quarter of 2018. All the upcoming third season content will be free.