A number of fans are reportedly receiving their invites to the Battlefield 4 Alpha Trial. A screenshot of the invite can be seen on Neogaf along with the system requirements. Interestingly enough, the present game does not support Windows 8 or a 32-bit platform.
According to the recommended system requirements, alpha testers will need Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7, a 64-bit platform, a DirectX 10 or 11 compatible GPU, 1 GB of RAM or more, 25 GB of HDD space and the latest Origin client from EA. Naturally these requirements do not necessarily represent the requirements for the final game.
"The selection process is completely random, and though some might suggest that a high Battlefield Veteran status or BF4 pre-orders, this is simply not the case as the selection process is, once again, random," said Neogaf user RoKKeR who posted the invite screenshot. "For those that remember the Battlefield 3 Alpha trial, the amount of play testers will be increased as the trial progresses, so if you don't get an invite now, there is a chance you will get one in a few days or even next week."
According to the invite, the purpose of the Alpha Trial is to perform a number of server-related tests in preparation for game launch, and to generate feedback from players to better fine-tune the upcoming shooter. The Alpha Trial version will be available to download in the tester's "My Games Library" section in Origin on June 17. The trial will only run for two weeks, and will only be up and running between 9am and 3pm Pacific each day.
"Please note that this is a highly tech-focused, white-boxed Alpha Trial that does not represent final quality of the game," states Patrick Bach, executive producer of Battlefield 4 at DICE. "Most of the level textures will be white (except Soldiers and Vehicles), and performance at this early stage of development will be potentially choppy, with possible issue such as server lag and downtime."
The Alpha Trial comes with a NDA, meaning no screenshots, no videos and no blog posting about the trial.