Surviving Mars is now free on the Epic Games Store
Colonise 'em up
The latest game giveaway on the Epic Games Store is Surviving Mars, 2018's city-builder about raising Martian colonies from dust. Yes, absolutely this process involves a large number of potatoes. The Space Race expansion is free too, as is the wee musical Marsvision Song Contest DLC (sadly just more soundtrack songs, not an actual contest - I wish!). You've got one week to get onboard before the freebies blast off without you.
Surviving Mars is pretty good fun, according to our former Alec (RPS in peace) with his Surviving Mars review at launch. He said it "has broadly done its job – to hook me deeply into its construction and maintenance, rather than to repel me with jank and grind, as is forever a risk with a game of this sort." A year later, after some updates and add-ons, our new boy Nate reviewed the Green Planet expansion and declared it "the game Surviving Mars should have been in the first place." No, Green Planet is not included in the giveaway.
Update: while I definitely got Marsvision Song Contest free shortly after the giveaway started, it seems it's no longer free.
It's made by Haemimont Games (the gang behind Tropico 3 through 5) and published by Paradox.
Surviving Mars and those two add-ons are free for keepsies if you grab them on the Epic Games Store by Thursday the 17th. (Do also grab the Mysteries Resupply Pack, which has always been free but is awkwardly a separate DLC pack because reasons.)
Paradox this week announced a post-apocalyptic follow-up, Surviving The Aftermath. We don't know much of anything about that right now, though it's not hard to imagine. Paradox are due to announce more details on October 19th.
The next weekly freebie, from October 17th, will be a double-bill of Observer and Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Epic pay for these freebies, by the way, so markers do get cash if you claim them.