Not to say it had anything to do with the discovery of gravitational waves, but space trade and combat simulators Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen have both experienced tears in their space time. Frontier Developments has announced on Tuesday that Elite Dangerous' universe is splitting yet again, offering a standalone chunk of the action for $7.50 this time.
The standalone dogfighting game, titled Elite Dangerous: Arena, is a spinoff that comes on the heels of news that rival space sim Star Citizen is offering its core components, the campaign and persistent universe, as standalone options. Gamers can pay $45 for either component and then pony up another $15 should they want the rest of the game.
Arena is free for those who have purchased the core game of Elite Dangerous, but $7.50 for those who haven't done so. Conversely, those who purchase Elite Dangerous: Arena first will receive a discount if they decide to buy either the standard or deluxe version of the game.
Gladiators entering this arena will have a selection of four "combat-honed" spaceships. They're all described as "agile," though they'll range from super-fast pea shooters to golem-like destroyers.
Adding to the uniqueness offered by its four classes of ships, the game also lets pilots customize their loadouts by leveling up.
Arena's four locales are the mining facility at Cluster Compound, the towering view at Elevate, the frozen asteroid belt at Ice Field and the space station at Asteria Point.
The game modes included in the new arena are an eight-player Free for All, Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch.
Frontier also outlined the minimum and recommended specs for PCs to run Elite Dangerous: Arena.
Minimum Specs
OS: Windows 7 or later (Recommended)
Processor: a 2 GHz quad-core CPU
Network: A broadband Internet connection (Recommended)
Hard Drive: 7 GB of free space (Recommended)
Memory: 4 GB of RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 260 or an ATI 4870HD
DirectX: Version 11 (Recommended)
Other recommended specs are an AMD FX 4350 quad-core CPU or better, Intel Core i7-3770K quad-core CPU or better; 8 GB of RAM and an Nvidia GTX 770 or AMD Radeon R9 280X graphics card.
Check out the launch trailer for Elite Dangerous: Arena.
