To help hold us over the post also included three new screens including the glimpse at commander mode seen above. Cleveland reminds us that this will be a real alpha and there's still a lot of work to come. Their plan calls for an aggressive patch schedule of 1 to 4 updates per month during the alpha. If you've never participated in one before, watching a game evolve through this stage of its development is a fascinating experience. The alpha will feature one full map from the final version of the game along with some smaller ones specifically for testing purposes. We've got the full rundown on what you'll find in the alpha after the jump.

• One of our shipping maps (ns2_tram), plus some smaller "test" maps
• Marine, with Rifle, Pistol, SwitchAx, Grenade Launcher (oops, and shotgun!)
• Skulks, Gorges, Lerks and their basic movement abilities and weapons
• Marine armory "buy" screen for purchasing new equipment
• Alien evolution menu for choosing your lifeform and upgrades
• Basic marine and alien commander interfaces including MACs, Drifters
• Much of our final sounds, artwork, animations, etc.