Surviving Mars

You'll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made.

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, AI War: Fleet Command, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, BattleTech, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Crusader Kings II, Darkest Dungeon, Dawn of Man, Defcon, Distant Worlds: Universe, Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest, Dune II: The Battle for Arrakis, Endless Legend, Endless Space 2, Europa Universalis IV: Art of War, Frozen Synapse, Hearts of Iron IV, Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising, Imperator: Rome, Into the Breach, Invisible Inc, King of Dragon Pass, Master of Magic, Men Of War, Neptune's Pride, Northgard, Offworld Trading Company, Panzer Corps, Sacrifice, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Sid Meier's Colonization, StarCraft II: Wings Of Liberty, Stellaris, supreme commander 2, Surviving Mars, Surviving Mars: Green Planet, The Banner Saga, The Settlers, Total Annihilation, Total War: Shogun 2, Total War: Warhammer, Total War: Warhammer II, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Unity of Command, Warcraft III, Warhammer 40000: Mechanicus, XCOM 2.

A lot of genres have had a resurgence over the past five years, but none more successfully than management games. There are now more ways to direct trains, lay conveyor belts, coral visitors and profit, profit, profit than you could play in a lifetime. The question is: which of these famous timesinks is worth your time, and which of the whipsmart new hires can compete…

Tagged with best games, best management games, bestest games, feature, management games, RPS Recommended, rps-ultromegafeature, Banished, Cities: Skylines, Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, Evil Genius, Factorio, Frostpunk, Planet Coaster, Prison Architect, RimWorld, Stardew Valley, Startopia, Surviving Mars, The Sims 2, Tropico 5, Two Point Hospital, Zeus: Master of Olympus.

My body betrayed me last month, trapping me in my bed when it wasn’t sending me rushing to my poor, overworked loo. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t work and so I turned to management games to take my mind off the virus squatting inside me. Juggling budgets, disasters and production chains might not sound particularly relaxing, but there’s also a swathe of low-pressure sims that…

Tagged with feature, Banished, Cities: Skylines, Frostpunk, Megaquarium, Parkasaurus, Planet Coaster, Reigns, Reigns: Game of Thrones, Reigns: Her Majesty, Stardew Valley, Surviving Mars.

We're just about halfway through 2018 (which has somehow taken both too long and no time at all). As is tradition, we've shaken our our brains around to see which games from the last six months still make our neurons fizzle with delight. Then we wrote about them here, in this big list feature that you're reading right now this second. And what games they…

Tagged with 11 Bit Studios, Amanita Design, Arc System Works, Big Bad Wolf, Deconstructeam, Demimonde, Evan Rogers, feature, Haemimont Games, Harebrained Schemes, Level-5, Matt Makes Games, Mega Crit Games, Subset Games, Unknown Worlds Entertainment, BattleTech, Celeste, Chuchel, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, Frostpunk, Into the Breach, Legendary Gary, Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, Octahedron, Paratopic, Slay the Spire, Subnautica, Surviving Mars, The Council, The Red Strings Club, Yoku's Island Express.

John is elsewhere this week, squeezed into Brendan's luggage for a flight to San Francisco and the Game Developers Conference, so I'm here for the regular rundown of last week's top-selling games on Steam. This week, the letters R, A, and S are well-represented with strong showings from both Mars and rats.

Tagged with Steam Charts, charts, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, NieR: Automata, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, Surviving Mars, Warhammer: Vermintide 2.

The cubes are black, and shiny, and mobile. They hover in a neat, impossible stack outside one of my colony's larger domes, clicking delicately about one another, always returning to the same overall shape, harming nobody. My robot rovers form a cautious circle around them while my scientists scratch their heads and bicker. I look at the cubes, one of the many Mysteries of Haemimont's…

Tagged with feature, Haemimont Games, Paradox Interactive, preview, Surviving Mars.

As we lay 2017 to rest, let us remember all of the wonderful games that flickered across our screens and occupied our hearts and minds. But now we must promise never to think of them again because times have changed. This is 2018 and if we've learned one thing from the few hours we've spent in it it's that there are games everywhere. Every firework…

Tagged with 2018 preview, feature, A Way Out, Anthem, Ashen, BattleTech, Cyberpunk 2077, Darksiders III, Far Cry 5, Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, Frostpunk, Griftlands, Into the Breach, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Metro Exodus, Mineko's Night Market, Monster Hunter: World, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, No Truce with the Furies, Ooblets, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Pathologic, Pathologic 2, Pathologic HD, Phoenix Point, Spelunky 2, Stardew Valley, Surviving Mars, Tunic, UFO 50, Untitled Goose Game, Wargroove.

The people living in my new habitat dome have jobs to do, that's what brought them to Mars in the first place, but when they finish work they have two choices: they can either go to the casino or the bar. I could have built a gym or some other kind of leisure facility, but I went with the casino and bar combo. It's what…

Tagged with feature, Gamescom 2017, Haemimont Games, Paradox, preview, Surviving Mars.

During the opening hours, you won't see a single person in Surviving Mars [official site]. It's a bold choice, having impersonal robots out there laying the groundwork of a colony, but the benefits are immediately obvious when watching the game in action. There's a certain Factorium-like mechanical satisfaction to the flow of metal, creating supply chains that stud the surface with structures. The great advantage…

Tagged with feature, Haemimont Games, Paradox Interactive, preview, Surviving Mars.