Star Wars Battlefront BETA starts today!

In case you haven't heard, forgot or just don't care...

EA has seen fit to allow the rest of us to get a taste of Star Wars: Battlefront a month before its official launch.  Described as a "test period" running from October 8th to October 12th players can experience 3 game modes including:

Walker Assault on Hoth: Fight in epic 40-player battles as a Rebel to destroy the Empire’s onslaught of AT-AT’s by calling in Y-wing bombers. Or, side with the Empire and protect your walkers while utilizing their mighty weaponry to crush the Rebel objective.

Drop Zone on Sullust: Escape pods are crashing down and you and your team must fight to control them. With its frantic 8v8 matches, Drop Zone is sure to put your combat and strategy skills to the test.   

Survival Mission on Tatooine: Play alone or with a friend via co-op or split-screen as you battle to hold off waves of Imperial forces including AT-ST’s, TIE fighters, elite stormtroopers and more.

Source: EA's official Beta page...

But be warned!  The game has fairly steep hardware requirements.  You're going to need either a current gen console (PS4, XBox 1) or a current gen PC with at least the following:

·         OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or later

·         Processor (Intel): Intel i3 6300T or equivalent

·         Memory: 8GB RAM

·         Hard Drive: At least 40 GB of free space

·         Graphics card (NVIDIA): nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB

·         Graphics card (ATI): ATI Radeon HD 7850 2GB

·         DirectX: 11.0 Compatible video card or equivalent

·         Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection

Source: Gamespot...

Remember, this is a BETA release.  In other words, things are going to get wonky at times and server outages/availability are likely to be part of the experience.  Past BETA experience with EA titles has shown that this is likely to be a stress test on both the server infrastructure and code integrity.

Don't get to attached to your achievements either.  None of your stats will transfer and your level will be capped at 5 according to EA's official BETA page for the game.

So if you're at all interested and have the hardware to handle it, the closest you're ever going to get to a demo is yours for the taking.  Assuming you've got nothing better to do next weekend that is...