Something to look forward to: Today, Relic Entertainment announced a free multiplayer pre-alpha demo of its upcoming real-time strategy game Company of Heroes 3 would be available starting tomorrow. It is the second free demo the developer has launched since announcing the game in the summer.

The multiplayer pre-alpha demo for Company of Heroes 3 is already available to pre-load. Players will be able to boot it up starting Tuesday, November 30 at 9am PST and run until December 6 at 8pm PST. Users can sign up at the Company of Heroes community website to access the demo download on Steam.

A FAQ post on the community forums outlines demo details, including modes, factions, maps, and other features. It also lists system requirements. Relic warns that as a pre-alpha, the demo isn't fully optimized yet. The recommended specs include a GTX 1080 or a Radeon 5700, along with 16GB of system RAM.

The demo has two playable factions---the US and the Wehrmacht---each with two battlegroups. The US has the Airborne and Armored, and the Wehrmacht has the Breakthrough and Luftwaffe. The demo includes four maps---a single 1v1 map called Twin Beaches and three 2v2 maps---Pachino Farmlands, Torrente, and Aere Perennius.

Players can choose from two match types called Victory Points and Annihilation. The demo will have custom game creation, search, join, and automatch. The only method of player communication will be the ping system, as developers are still working on chat functionality.

Relic already held a pre-alpha single-player demo when it announced the game in July. However, solo players that didn't get in on that may still be interested in MP pre-alpha since there is an option to fight against AI bots, either alone or in co-op.

Relic says more features are still to come, presumably in the final game. They include mirror matches (like USAF vs USAF), 3v3 or 4v4 matches, map functions, a tutorial, and more. The post also lists known bugs players should pay attention to before trying the demo.

Company of Heroes 3 should hit shelves sometime next year.