Good Finds

One of the best Mars simulators is on sale for only $10 right now

It's way cheaper to get to the Red Planet than Elon claims now that Surviving Mars is over half off on Steam for the next few days.

Surviving Mars Paradox game screenshot
Paradox Interactive

There are quite a number of reasons we haven't made it to Mars yet, and despite Elon Musk's enthusiastic plans to die up there, we're still a ways off from stepping foot onto the Red Planet — at least in real life. Virtually, it's obviously a whole other story. Right now, it's never been easier (or cheaper) to travel 45 million miles across the cold, uncaring vacuum of space with Paradox Interactive's Surviving Mars, currently 66 percent off on Steam for just $10.19.

Paradox is known for quite a few turn-based strategy builders, including Stellaris, Europa Universalis, and City Skylines. 2018's Surviving Mars is one of the simpler offerings from the developer, but trust us when we say it's still not easy to make a go of it on an inhospitable wasteland planet.

Players chose a space agency backer (ranging from international coalitions to religious movements), and then build out their habitation units by harnessing the planet's resources and environments. From there, you can construct a sprawling Martian city while dealing with all the expected problems that come with trying to live on a foreign planet.

One of the more fun aspects of Surviving Mars is the random storylines you can pursue over the course of your campaign that pull heavily from sci-fi legends like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. There's also an extensive modding community, so there are all kinds of customization to find through like-minded colonists.

At $10.19 through November 10, it's cheaper than pretty much anything Elon Musk has produced over his career. There's also a couple of larger Surviving Mars bundles with various expansions for the more dedicated explorers among you. The world is a mess right now, so why not get ahead of the curve and plan out our future for dirt cheap?

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