The beta version of 'Galactic Civilizations 3' has finally arrived.

"We've officially launched the beta! Bells are ringing, birds are singing, and it's a beautiful day to dig up the archives of a forgotten race's reality TV shows and use them to placate a restive populace that for some reason doesn't see the value in mandatory six-month stints working the factories of the nearest forgeworld," said the official beta release announcement.

It continued, "To all of our Founders, thank you so much for your early support. Elite Founders, your feedback and bug reporting has been invaluable in getting Galactic Civilizations III ready for a wider audience. Fire up your Steam client, and it should patch your install to the beta automatically."

The Galactic Civilizations 3 gameplay shows a picture of a "hardly empty" space with nebula, asteroids, black hole and tons of planets.

The beta includes race-specific tech trees, ideology rework, huge hulls, new colonization events, terraforming, map features and massively enhanced rendering.

Full patch notes that involve new features, balance, UI and AI are all listed on the official website.

It is also interesting to note that there are additional difficulty levels: Beginner, Normal, Heroic, Genius and Godlike.

Players are encouraged to interact with the Galactic Civilizations 3 developers all throughout the beta phase via Twitch.

Galactic Civilizations 3 is a futuristic 4X space strategy game, where humans combat aliens to gain control of the galaxy.

The game developed by Stardock Entertainment is one of the highest ranked strategy franchises in history.

The target release date of Galactic Civilizations 3 is April 2015.

The beta testing will run for six months.

When it comes out next year, the regular price is $49.99, but a $5 discount will be given to those who participated in the beta program.

Galactic Civilizations 2 was launched some ten years ago and the fans of the sci-fi adventure game have waited long enough.