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Description
The image above is from Stellaris by Paradox Interactive

Name: Stellaris
Developer/Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Platform: PC, PS4
Released: 2016
Price - Base: $40.00
Price - All DLC: $178.85

If you've ever wanted to create and rule your own pan-galactic empire, then this is probably a game worthy of your consideration. Stellaris allows you to create your galactic civilization from the ground up, deciding what kind of race they are, their style of government, their policies, flag, homeworld, and more before putting them into a procedurally generated galaxy where, from there, you have to gradually expand your empire while making sure you've plenty of resources to keep things running. You also make sure your fleets are properly armed and ready to defend against whatever threats might arise against you.

The sheer scope of the game is incredible as you can play practically any way you want. Be a despotic xenophobic Empire, a democratic federation, religious zealots, or combinations of the three and more. You can even create a race of synthetic robots and play as them (Yes, you can be the Borg from Star Trek). You also set what kind of planet they originate from and what kind of star system it is (1 star, binary, or trinary) and can even set the race to originate from the Sol system (Our system, complete with Pluto #9Planets4Ever ). No 2 games are going to be the same with this as, the maps are procedurally generated and even the number of "hyperlanes" (paths connecting systems to each other) can be different. It's not uncommon for your faction to be right on the borders of another empire and yet for there to be only one hyperlane linking you two to one another. You also have to watch out for other stellar phenomena such as wormholes that can be used by yourself (or enemies) to travel across the galaxy in seconds.

Balance is key in this game as you have to maintain a number of resource incomes to make sure your empire is capable of functioning. Colonies are going to be your main sources of income but you can have outposts in numerous systems to harvest resources from the planets in that system if no habitable or terraformable planets exist. You can even construct massive dyson spheres and superstructures or powerful superweapons that can destroy planets (yes, you can build a death star or a super-star destroyer). Or you can go a different route and form an intergalactic mega-corporation that quite literally owns everything. The options are quite numerous.

Stellaris is available on Steam for $39.99. Now, if this were the final price i'd argue it might be worth the price, but it's not. $39.99 is for the vanilla game only. There is also $178.85 worth of DLC that adds new species options, new story options, as well as the megastructure, doomsday weapon, megacorporation, and Federations aspects to the game. There is also the game's soundtrack and an E-Book telling an original story. There's also a couple editions that grant you some bonus goodies such as an exclusive race portrait, an icon for their forums, and the soundtrack (Nova Edition $49.99 base or $10.00 upgrade DLC) or the latter three items plus the ebook, a wallpaper, a digital collector's book, and a couple items meant for the game's forums (Galaxy Edition $69.99 base or $30.00 upgrade DLC). So I strongly urge waiting for a sale before purchasing this game or any of its associated DLC.

However this game does have quite an active modding community which adds a lot of new content to the game, including the addition of new ships, races, even alternate AI Assistant Voices (one of which is HK-47 from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic). Still, this is a fun game and if/when it gets discounted, is worth the investment. There is one word of warning though for modders. Whenever the game updates, even small patches and bug-fixes, installed mods tend to fubar, making it where mods are only good until the next update. So mod with caution.

Description
The image above is from Stellaris by Paradox Interactive

Name: Stellaris
Developer/Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Platform: PC, PS4
Released: 2016
Price - Base: $40.00
Price - All DLC: $178.85

If you've ever wanted to create and rule your own pan-galactic empire, then this is probably a game worthy of your consideration. Stellaris allows you to create your galactic civilization from the ground up, deciding what kind of race they are, their style of government, their policies, flag, homeworld, and more before putting them into a procedurally generated galaxy where, from there, you have to gradually expand your empire while making sure you've plenty of resources to keep things running. You also make sure your fleets are properly armed and ready to defend against whatever threats might arise against you.

The sheer scope of the game is incredible as you can play practically any way you want. Be a despotic xenophobic Empire, a democratic federation, religious zealots, or combinations of the three and more. You can even create a race of synthetic robots and play as them (Yes, you can be the Borg from Star Trek). You also set what kind of planet they originate from and what kind of star system it is (1 star, binary, or trinary) and can even set the race to originate from the Sol system (Our system, complete with Pluto #9Planets4Ever ). No 2 games are going to be the same with this as, the maps are procedurally generated and even the number of "hyperlanes" (paths connecting systems to each other) can be different. It's not uncommon for your faction to be right on the borders of another empire and yet for there to be only one hyperlane linking you two to one another. You also have to watch out for other stellar phenomena such as wormholes that can be used by yourself (or enemies) to travel across the galaxy in seconds.

Balance is key in this game as you have to maintain a number of resource incomes to make sure your empire is capable of functioning. Colonies are going to be your main sources of income but you can have outposts in numerous systems to harvest resources from the planets in that system if no habitable or terraformable planets exist. You can even construct massive dyson spheres and superstructures or powerful superweapons that can destroy planets (yes, you can build a death star or a super-star destroyer). Or you can go a different route and form an intergalactic mega-corporation that quite literally owns everything. The options are quite numerous.

Stellaris is available on Steam for $39.99. Now, if this were the final price i'd argue it might be worth the price, but it's not. $39.99 is for the vanilla game only. There is also $178.85 worth of DLC that adds new species options, new story options, as well as the megastructure, doomsday weapon, megacorporation, and Federations aspects to the game. There is also the game's soundtrack and an E-Book telling an original story. There's also a couple editions that grant you some bonus goodies such as an exclusive race portrait, an icon for their forums, and the soundtrack (Nova Edition $49.99 base or $10.00 upgrade DLC) or the latter three items plus the ebook, a wallpaper, a digital collector's book, and a couple items meant for the game's forums (Galaxy Edition $69.99 base or $30.00 upgrade DLC). So I strongly urge waiting for a sale before purchasing this game or any of its associated DLC.

However this game does have quite an active modding community which adds a lot of new content to the game, including the addition of new ships, races, even alternate AI Assistant Voices (one of which is HK-47 from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic). Still, this is a fun game and if/when it gets discounted, is worth the investment. There is one word of warning though for modders. Whenever the game updates, even small patches and bug-fixes, installed mods tend to fubar, making it where mods are only good until the next update. So mod with caution.