Flying above ArcCorp, courtesy of Ron1n-Kenshin.

Star Citizen is hosting another free week to show off the fancy new additions that appeared with the recent 3.5 update. Everyone can download the client and play between today and May 8, which should give you plenty of time to muck around with the new flight model or explore ArcCorp, a massive ecumenopolis (think Coruscant) where there's apparently money to be made.

The update's headline attractions are the new world, improved character customisation, female player characters, new ships and a new flight control system that apparently gives pilots more control over their vessels while also adding additional wrinkles like gravity on planets. Take a gander at the 3.5 overview here.

Smoggy ArcCorp, courtesy of RedSolstice.

Across the free fly week, visitors will also get to sit in the cockpit of several ships without dropping any credits, including the Anvil Arrow, Aegis Avenger Titan, Drake Cutlass Black, Drake Dragonfly and MISC Prospector. They were all picked by Cloud Imperium specifically to show off the new flight model.

It's not really the sort of game you can just jump into, though. I had fun pottering around in the last free fly week, but I felt like I was achieving even less than I normally do in aimless sandboxes. To start on the right foot, you might want to pay attention to the new seven-part tutorial series .