Level-headed and not ridiculously ambitious space game, Elite Dangerous: Horizons – the standalone expansion that’s bringing planetary landings into the mix – has got itself a release date, slating the game for launch on the 15th of December. That means it’s not long at all before you can go exploring, shooting and now driving in a 1:1 scale, procedurally generated version of the Milky Way with your friends.
For more arid planets and laser cannons, head to our list of the best space games on PC.
Posting on the Elite Dangerous forums, the franchise founder and CEO David Braben announced the standalone expansion would be launched in an “Early Access” phase so as “to highlight our normal process to our broad audience, some of whom have been with us since the start, but many have joined our community very recently.” In other words, as is always the case for massively multiplayer space games, it’ll still be in development for a while after release.
Alongside the impending release date, Braben also included a trailer made up of gameplay footage from the game’s successful beta. The trailer features the eagerly awaited Planetary Landing mechanic as well as plenty of jaw-dropping shots of solar-flares on the sun and land vehicles racing across vast dust bowls – it’s a thing of beauty.