Space race sim Mars Horizon comes out on November 17

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If you've ever wanted to launch a dog into space and leave it there, you'll be pleased to hear that Mars Horizon, the game in which Fraser did exactly that, is now just a month away. A new trailer released today revealed that the space agency strategy-sim will be out on all platforms on November 17.

Mars Horizon puts players in charge of a NASA-like agency at the dawn of the space age, a time when anything was possible and humanity's ambitions seemed destined to carry it to the stars. Your ultimate goal is somewhat simpler, at least in a relative sense, as you must manage time, science, public support, and money in order to assemble missions and ultimately become the first to put an astronaut on Mars.

"There's some overlap between Kerbal Space Program and Mars Horizon, but where the former is an elaborate sim with realistic orbital physics and a hardcore bent, Horizon is more of an easy-going management game where scientific experimentation takes the form of a rubbish minigame that's incredibly simple but presented in a fairly confusing way," Fraser said in his April preview.

Despite misgivings about the minigames, Mars Horizon sounded promising overall. While it isn't as complex as Kerbal Space Program, there's still plenty to do, and plenty of things that can go wrong. There's also room for shenanigans, such as the time Fraser lied to the press about weather balloons and UFOs in order to whip up public support, and thus increased funding, for his program. Then he blew up a dog. Progress!

If you don't want to wait until November 17 to take your shot at Mars, a demo that includes the game's first Era, covering the launch of your first satellite to sending your first human into orbit, is available on Steam, and there's a website with more info at aurochdigital.com.

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.