Total War: Arena launches open beta weekend

We first played Total War: Arena, a curious 10v10 free-to-play spin-off from the historical strategy series, way back in 2014 and... it's still not out. Development evidently stumbled into several hurdles, and Sega ended up befriending the World of Tanks gang at Wargaming to help out. Well, now everyone is invited to see how it's coming along, as a free open beta weekend started today. How does Total War work with twenty players each controlling a few squads? Take control of Romans, Greeks, or Barbarians this weekend and see for yourself.

Click this link here to download the client and get going. It's running through Wargaming's systems rather than Total War's usual home of Steam. The beta weekend will run until 6am on Monday.

What even is Total War: Arena? It takes the battle bit of your typical Total War game then throws in loads of players. Each of the twenty players builds their own little army by picking three 'units' (who, really, are squads with loads of little warmen) from melee infantry, ranged infantry, cavalry, and artillery. And then they all work together to murder the other team. And there are persistent progression tracks and all that. It's a faster, murderous, battle-focused, multiplayer version of Total War, yeah?

Hit the game's site for more details and bits (oh, hey, Boudica is in it).