A new Star Citizen Newsletter has word that alpha 2.5 for Star Citizen nears. Cloud Imperium opts for a "road" metaphor for a space flight game and offers some details on the new version. There's no word yet on when the game might reach beta. Nor is there a release date for the new alpha, though it sounds close. Here's word:

As I write this, the team is putting Star Citizen Alpha version 2.5 through its paces. We’ve recently released it to the first wave of PTU testers, who are helping us identify bugs to smash and improvements to gameplay for the upcoming live release. Once that happens, you’ll be able to explore the Grim HEX outlaw base, fly the community-selected Reliant and try out the brand new Argo shuttle. This will be the first time in the mini-PU that we have different spawn locations and I’m excited to see what happens now that Citizens and outlaws have their own bases.