The free, one week-long trial for Star Citizen is now live, but something is amiss: users trying to connect to Roberts Space Industries' website in hopes of registering and downloading the game so as to see what all the funding (and fuss) is all about in a more hands-on approach are being met with a 504 Gateway Time-Out error. It seems that the company - or one of its service providers - is failing to provide enough server oomph to sustain all the users trying to get a piece of indiscriminate space flying on their hands. Provided the servers are fully restored before the end of the trial, you can access here to register, and here to download the game's executable.

Star Citizen, the entirely amazing game that could (but may never be, considering the pace of development), is going to have a free trial between November 23rd and November 30th. The announcement, made by Cloud Imperium Games, comes as a celebration of sorts for the game, as they're readying release of the first ever explorable planet in the game - Hurston.

As an added bonus, Cloud Imperium Games will allow those who partake in the festivities to experience the thrill of flying one of those amazing ships the game is particularly known for - in unlimited fashion, for free. The new Free Fly event will see ships from all in-game manufactured being offered for trial at a rhythm of one manufacturer per day - but no, you don't get to keep the keys. Just the feeling of the behemoth or nimble space-farer you choose to take for a ride. Cloud Imperium is also promising "some surprises in store for those of you who make the trek out to Hurston and see what Lorville's all about, as well as some fun interactive activities on the website", so you should all stay tuned. Check out the announcement website on the source for a comprehensive listing of the flyable ships that are currently available in-game.

Following on its plan to deliver quarterly updates to Star Citizen, Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) today announced the release of Star Citizen Alpha 3.1 to its eager fan base. Star Citizen is an epic first-person experience where players fly highly detailed space ships, battle on foot through massive environments, explore life-sized planets and moons, and discover boundless adventure in an ever-changing and expanding galaxy.

New features in the 3.1 update include the much-anticipated character customizer, allowing players to add a distinctive look to their in-game avatars by personalizing their physical appearance, as well as the Service Beacon feature, providing players the ability to send out distress calls which other players can detect and respond to.