Any fan of the new series of BattleStar Galactica will instantly know what the title "Beyond the Red Line" means and will have probably guessed from the title that it was based on this great series.

The even greater news is that currently this new game is destined to be completely free.

Why? That is easy. It is based on the Open FS2 project, which itself is the updated and completely free open source version of FreeSpace 2 which the original developers released for anyone to use a few years ago.

So to run Beyond the Red Line you just need a copy of the freely downloadable Open FS2 code and the BtRL code.

This game has been in development for a couple of years now and finally a playable demo is now available and it looks and plays amazingly. So if you are a fan of space sims, the original Freespace games, or BattleStar Galactica, then you have to try out this demo.

You can find lots of information, screenshots, and the downloads at the official site which is: http://www.game-warden.com/bsg/index.html

The only worrying thing is the Sierra now own an official BattleStar Galactica license so now that this open source project has finally launched itself into the public eye after spending two years in secret development it might grab Sierra's attention, and for all the wrong reasons. Lets hope they don't take legal action because this is very good.

Try out the demo and let me know what you think. If you are a fan of the TV series I can guarantee you will not be disappointed. They have included everything from the TV show including the ship control systems accurately modelled, right through to the short wave radio chatter between the pilots. This is great stuff.