It’s Amplitude Studios’ 10th anniversary, and they’re celebrating by making a bunch of their games free for the weekend. That includes fantasy 4X Endless Legend, space 4X Endless Space 2, and dungeon crawler Dungeon Of The Endless. All of their games are also deeply discounted on Steam.

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You’ll ocassionally find someone on the internet sounding off about how the strategy genre is dead. If you see such a person in the future, send them this list of the best strategy games ever made.

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Amplitude Studios may be working on a new Civ-ish 4X strategy game retelling human history, the recently-announced Humankind, but they’re not out of wild and fanciful sci-fi histories either. Today they released a new Endless Space 2 expansion adding an interesting new faction named the Nakalim. They’re a once-great empire who went dormant after their gods were killed and are now trying to secure their galactic position in anticipation of their gods returning. I do appreciate how Amplitude create factions who are more than your usual “they’re Klingons – but bugs!” or “they’re Borg – but less 90s!” Come meet the Nakalim.

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Humankind, the latest and most ambitious 4X strategy game from Endless Legend creators Amplitude Studios, looks to revitalise the historical 4X genre and nab the crown from the titanic and venerable Civilization series. And look damn pretty while it does so, too.

But it’s not just looks that Amplitude are hoping to win out on with Humankind. We’ll go over everything we know about Humankind below, from release date information to our first glimpses of gameplay in trailers and screenshots, and what we can glean about how everything will work when it’s released.

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Valve are joining all those great internet thought-leaders and telling you to clean your room, or at the very least to play the games that you’ve bought on Steam. Running this weekend until May 28th, 6pm GMT, the Steam Spring Cleaning Event provides a front-page checklist of games to try or return to, and rewarding the diligent with goodies to decorate their account page with.

All fluff, really, but as good an excuse as any to dust off something you might have picked up a few sales back. Of course, undermining this push, there’s also a bunch of free weekend trials open on discounted games which also count towards your total. The list includes action RPG Grim Dawn, four-on-one competitive horror game Dead By Daylight and stylish 4X sci-fi strategy game Endless Space 2.

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I’ve always liked how Amplitude set their games in the same universe. From Endless Space to Endless Legend, whether their games are flavoured sci-fi or fantasy, each one forms an act in a space opera that spans millennia.

Surprise! The latest act came out yesterday. It’s a free visual novel where you play as a fresh clone in the Horatio empire, a people born from an eccentric trillionaire determined to reforge the galaxy in His image. You fancy Him, obviously.

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A calamitous crossing of worlds has occurred in Two Point Hospital, the spiritual successor to Bullfrog’s Theme Hospital, with Half-Life headcrabs glomping onto heads and all manner of decorative doodads from Sega PC games scattering around hospitals. If you’ve not yet played the wacky hospital management sim, hey, you’re invited to try the whole thing for free this weekend on Steam. The trial weekend has just started, so hop to it. Well, don’t hop if you’re suffering from Hurty Leg, Premature Mummification, Night Fever, Lazy Bones, or Mucky Feet, in which case the doctor will see you now.

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Spectral space-spies and mushroom people have arrived today in Endless Space 2 and Endless Legend. The two expansions – Penumbra and Symbiosis, respectively – each add a new playable faction to the already-massive 4X strategy games, plus a major game-changing new feature that can impact everyone. Below, a developer stream taking an hours-long dive into both expansions.

Those new to the Endless universe (a sprawling sci-fi setting shared by all of Amplitude’s games, including Endless Space 1 & 2, Dungeon Of The Endless and Endless Legend), all the games in the series are free to try on Steam for the weekend, along with discounts to keep. Endless Space 1 is forever if you sign up and link your Steam account over on their Games2Gether site here.

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The Endless universe continues to live up to its name – both Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 are expanding once more next week. On January 24th, Endless Space 2 bulks out its espionage options in Penumbra, while Endless Legend’s Symbiosis expansion will let players control a race of sentient mushrooms and tussle with giant roaming crab-beasties. It’s nice to see Amplitude Studios still pouring time, love and vision into these two rather lovely games, even if only the maddest of players will have the time to master both. Trailers for the expansions below.

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It’s a busy day for 4X fans. Announced just last week, new expansions have launched today for both space-empire builder Endless Space 2 and its more gravity-bound cousin Endless Legend. They’re both excellent games (Endless Legend was RPS’s Game Of The Year of 2014) that have only gotten better over time due to constant expansion & patching. Now seems a good time to give them a look if you’ve passed on them previously, as on top of the two new expansion releases, Amplitude’s entire Endless series is free to try for the weekend, and steeply discounted to boot.

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