OK, I know this is my second Have You Played…? to find an excuse to start by talking about Age Of Empires 2, and I imagine Alice Bee is making a proper wolf noise out of frustration as she edits this. I am almost sorry. But like a smug schoolboy proclaiming he’s “home” in a game of “it” by touching a tree, I’ve got a cast iron excuse here. Because Offworld Trading Company‘s lead developer Soren Johnson told me himself that this cracking solar-system economics-’em-up was directly inspired by the simple yet robust supply/demand modelling behind the market building in AoE2.

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Economic space strategy game Offworld Trading Company will be far easier to play with friends soon – as of February 28th, the game’s multiplayer will be available as a free, standalone game. Mohawk Games’s extraterrestrial number-cruncher is still expanding, with more DLC due along with the multiplayer client, but the chance to play for free against other humans strikes me as the bigger deal here. With any luck it’ll help put the game back on the radar for folks looking for a new kind of RTS – destroying your foes without building any tanks is a hard sell, admittedly.

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If you go on Twitter, where every second image is of a dog being cuddled, rated, or dressed up as a Star Wars character, it’s a reasonable assumption that every> year is the year of the dog – however Valve, not to mention the ancient Chinese zodiac, are here to tell you that’s not the case. As of today, it legitimately is> the year of the dog, which is why Valve’s latest sale is adorned with images of famous game pups including Okami’s Amaterasu, Half-Life 2’s DOG, and I, er, don’t recognise any of the other doggos.

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Following a few wee DLC packs, Offworld Trading Company [official site] is getting its first proper expansion. Named Jupiter’s Forge, it’s due later in spring. The swell sci-fi economic strategy game’s expansion will visit the harsh Jovian moon of Io, where Martian rules of business don’t apply. Players will get to eke out a spaceliving with new factions, a new campaign, a new challenge mode, new events, new buildings, and no water. That’s the perils of spacecapitalism for you. Here, check out how much Io sucks in the Jupiter’s Forge announcement trailer: … [visit site to read more]

When Elon Musk reaches Mars and founds the capital city of New PayPal, we ll all be packing our bags*. But in the meantime the closest you can get to a corporate Martian future is Offworld Trading Company [official site], the RTS game that eschews tanks and troops for market manipulation and corporate espionage. Today that dark vision of the red planet is getting a big expansion in the form of The Patron and the Patriot DLC, which is bringing new game modes, stories and CEO characters. … [visit site to read more]

Soren Johnson’s ace outer space economy sim, Offworld Trading Company [official site], has some new DLC this week. Titled The Ceres Initiative, it adds a fresh location with some extra challenges. The DLC is set on a frozen asteroid, where a new colony is being developed. It’s a promising money making venture, if the colonists can survive the er…rocky conditions.

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Our Adam was awfully fond of Offworld Trading Company [official site], making kissy faces as he called the real-time financial strategy game “an exceedingly intelligent game” and “one of the smartest strategy games I’ve ever played.” Smitted. If you also sent a big fluffy teddy bear to designer Soren Johnson (formerly of Firaxis) and his studio Mohawk Games, you may well like to know that it now has a map editor. You might be a touch less pleased to hear it’s paid DLC. But what do I know about you?

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Offworld Trading Company [official site], the new game from Civ IV lead designer Soren Johnson and his team at Mohawk Games, is a strategic simulation of a sci-fi Martian economy. It’s also one of the smartest strategy games I’ve ever played.>

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Offworld Trading Company [official site] is the combat-free, trading-centric sci-fi RTS from Soren Johnson, best known as the lead on the beloved Civ 4. It’s been kicking around in Early Access for a while now, and both Adam and I rather liked it. If you’ve been holding off because you fear the unfinished, you may be glad to know that the Mars-set building’n’business game gets itself a full release on April 28th. … [visit site to read more]

Last week I visited Mohawk Studios to speak to Soren Johnson. His short but impressive CV has one standout entry – he was the lead designer of Civilization IV, a game which I hold in very high regard. His latest project is a short-form sci-fi strategy game with no military component and, in fact, no combat whatsoever. Offworld Trading Company [official site] is an economic strategy game and it’s about as far from Civ as a strategy game could be.

… [visit site to read more]