Cloud Imperium has just released the Star Citizen 2.1.2 alpha and are giving everyone the chance to try it out for the next week.
The patch notes  for this update are shorter than we are used to but are as follows:
Arena Commander Module:
Fixes:
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue where destroying the turret of a ship would render it unable to be targeted by other players.
User Interface
- Fixed an issue where a ships HUD could be (accidentally) interacted with outside of free-mouse or HUDinteraction mode.
Persistent Universe:
Fixes:
Environment
- Made several changes to potentially resolve the extreme audio corruption that could be experienced during extended gameplay sessions.
Now that the patch has been deployed anyone can try the game out now for free. This Free Fly access will be open for the next week and gives access to the small persistent universe, Arena Commander and the Social module. A new account can be created on this page.
As a backer myself, if you are new to the game and trying it for the first time, do not buy anything at the moment. Treat this offer as a way to find out what the game is about and nothing more because it’s so far away from release. Any money you spend on it now would be pretty much wasted.
