Sins Of A Solar Empire: Rebellion and Geneshift free on Steam until tomorrow
Two for the price of none
Here's a double giveaway to snap up now before it disappears early tomorrow. Available until 2pm GMT on Wednesday are a pair of good games that couldn't be more different - Sins Of A Solar Empire: Rebellion by Ironclad Games is - depending on how you look at it - a mega-scale space RTS or a small, real-time 4X strategy game. Geneshift by Nik Nak Studios is a multiplayer (with bots) bit of knockabout fun inspired by the rather cyberpunk Grand Theft Auto 2. Both are free and if you snag them on Steam here and here now, you can keep them forever.
Update: The giveaway is over. Hope everyone that wanted them grabbed the games in time.
I'll be the first to admit that 'vanilla' Sins Of A Solar Empire: Rebellion never really grabbed me. But you'll want to pick it up, because the game has a thriving mod scene, and as far as I'm concerned, the absolute best out there is Star Trek Armada 3. This massive total conversion mod envelops the game so thoroughly you'd think it was a Star Trek game from the start. While already enormous, there's another expansion's worth of stuff still in production - take a peek at some of it in the trailer below, although the mod as it stands now is no slouch. Grab it on Mod DB here.
While a decent game in its own right, Sins also has a bunch of DLC available, including the recently released Minor Factions add-on. While nice to have if you want to play the base game, I don't believe any of the expansions are required to play Star Trek Armada 3, so feel free to just dive straight into that as soon as you've got a handle on the basic Sins controls and interface. Just don't go trying to play the Borg on your first try - they're a bit weird, as you'd expect.
As for Geneshift, it's a big ol' tribute to Grand Theft Auto 2's combat and cyberpunk strangeness, but with a bit of a genre shift. The currently-free version (still technically in early access) is multiplayer-centric, and focused solely on its quickfire arcade Battle Royale mode. Rounds are just two minutes long, although there's no downtime - dead players respawn as glider-equipped zombies, and killing a 'living' player gets you back into the match. Jay took a look at it here. Take a peek at it in the trailer below.
Geneshift does have a single player campaign mode (complete with online co-op) and some additional longer-form PvP modes, but unless you got the game earlier in its early access life span, you'll need to pick up the Complete Edition DLC for that. The free version is effectively a cut-down multiplayer edition, but it should at least be lively for some time, and it's a fun (if messy) game. Not many remember earlier GTA games, let alone the second. It's good to see someone who does.
You can grab Sins Of A Solar Empire: Rebellion (published by Stardock) here on Steam, and Geneshift here. Don't forget the Star Trek Armada 3 mod here.