Starhawk gets Release Date, Beta now Live

Warhawk was a hell of a game but it began to look dated as soon as some of the more recent AAA titles started taking full advantage of everything the console can do. That wasn't enough for people to ditch it entirely, of course, and there's been steady support for the title since its release in 2007. For those people, the fact that Starhawk will be released May 8th is probably the most exciting announcement of the year so far.

Before you run off to start marking calendars and smashing your piggy bank: it gets more exciting. The public beta is available for download right now from PlayStation Plus in the US (with the EU version coming tomorrow). Rather than just dropping you into the game, Sony have released the video above in order to explain exactly what you'll be doing, your goals and the best ways to kill your enemies.

I played Starhawk at Eurogamer last year and I can promise that the beta is something well worth your time checking out. I imagine there'll still be quite a steep curve between a new player and somebody who has more experience, but that's more something to worry about when the game is in stores.