Want to test Anthem? You can sign up now, and we know the PC requirements

Bioware has announced that the initial alpha test for Anthem will take place the weekend after next – and you can sign up to try and get yourself a spot right now – plus we’ve got our first look at the PC system requirements.

If you’re keen to test the game – a sci-fi online co-op shooter, which is something very different for Bioware – then you can sign up here via the EA Community Playtesting Hub (you’ll need an EA account).

Before you get too excited about jumping into your mech suit and flying around killing the various nasty-looking aliens that plague the world of Anthem, bear in mind that this first alpha test is going to be rough around the edges, and “mainly a tech test” as Mark Darrah, the executive producer of the game, clarified.

Also, there aren’t a huge amount of tester slots available, so your odds of inclusion are probably on the thin side.

First-come, first-served

According to Darrah, testers will seemingly be picked on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis, although he admitted he wasn’t fully sure on that score. So if you want to get in on the ground floor with testing on December 8, it’s probably best to move now.

Meanwhile, as Wccftech spotted, the signup process reveals the PC system requirements, although these may simply be early goalposts and might not represent the final spec needed for the game. Darrah has previously said that the team will be busy optimizing right up until the shipping date.

At any rate, the requirements currently stand at a minimum of an Intel Core i5 3570 or AMD FX-6350 processor, with at least 8GB of system RAM, and on the video card front, you’ll need to be running an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 (4GB) or an AMD Radeon R9 390 (8GB) or better.

You will also need at least 60GB of free drive space, and you’ll have to be running a 64-bit version of Windows 10.

Anthem is due out on February 22, 2019, on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One, with a pre-launch demo set to be available earlier in the month for those who pre-order the game (and Origin or EA Access members).

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).