Surviving Mars: Space Race adds a competitive twist to life on the red planet

Surviving Mars, a colony-building and management game akin to Sim City except the entire planet is a disaster that never stops happening, will get its first expansion later this year. Called Space Race, it puts the greatest nations and most powerful corporations on Earth against one another in a competition to acquire and control the Red Planet's limited resources. 

Players will compete with AI-controlled colonies backed by Earth-bound sponsors to become the dominant power on Mars. You can trade with them, render aid, or jerk them around by luring important colonists to your side. Each sponsor has its own unique vehicle and building, as well as different challenges to be fulfilled on the road to colonization. And there will be new "narrative events" cropping up, "that help reveal the realities of life in the dome and challenge your management skills." 

Surviving Mars: Space Race is available for pre-purchase on Steam for $12/£9. Owners of the Surviving Mars season pass will get it automatically. 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.