Among many other features, the upcoming expansion will bring with it three new Origins to play around with: Cybernetic Creed, Synthetic Fertility, and Arc Welders. The expansion also comes with Gestalt Machine Intelligence Empires, and Individualistic Non-Gestalt Machine Empires.

On the deeper side of gameplay, a host of new Civics will be available for players: Guided Sapience, Natural Design, Obsessional Directive, Protocol Droids, Tactical Cogitators, and Augmentation Bazaars.

A core theme of The Machine Age will be the nature of the relationship between living creatures and machines. Expanding on these themes, the expansion will bring with it related new Species Traits for Cyborgs, Machines and Robots, as well as offer new Ascension Paths for Machine Empires.

Wrapping things up, the expansion will also bring with it two new mid-game buildings in the form of the Arc Furnace and Dyson Swarms. There will also be new crises for players to tackle, including a mysterious new end-game crisis.

First Contact features new origins, as well as new options for interacting with civilizations, and other features, including a new cloaking technology. The new origins also emphasize the theme of the First Contact pack, revolving around how coming into contact with a space-faring alien civilization lead to your own species figuring out space flight for themselves.

The First Contact pack takes quite a bit of inspiration from a concept like the Prime Directive from sci-fi fiction like Star Trek, which discourages space-faring civilizations from contacting species that haven’t yet achieved space travel for themselves yet. The addition of the new cloaking device for space ships seems like it was designed with this concept in mind.

Unfortunately, the First Contact DLC doesn’t yet have a release date. The studio has revealed, however, that it will be released alongside the Canis Minor update for Stellaris.

Taking place in the same universe as Stellaris, Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game tasks players with the search of the titular Ghost Signal. Players will get to meet mysterious aliens, fight planet-sized creatures, and take part in space battles.

Players can also take time off from their grand adventure to fill out their logbook with details about exotic creatures that can be scanned, or conduct research in multiple tech trees.

Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game is going to be a roguelite game, featuring randomised maps with daily challenges and leaderboards, and a variety of weapons including heavy artillery and powerful upgrades like atomic missiles.

Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game doesn’t yet have a release date. The game will be coming to the Meta Quest 2 some time in early 2023.

Toxoids introduce new gameplay choices for players by presenting them with the option to gamble the future of their planet for short-term gains. The Species Pack features new origins, civics, and cosmetic options.

The Toxoids Species Pack will be released alongside a free update for Stellaris that includes general improvements to gameplay and stability.

New origins introduced in Toxoids include Knights of the Toxic God and Overtuned. Knights of the Toxic God involves the species digging up the toxic sludge in its homeworld to look for the secrets of its past. Overtuned has the species gain more and more traits while trading off its lifespan.

The new traits and civics all play into the Toxoids’ themes of pollution and the effects it might have had on the fictional species.

There is currently no word on whether the Toxoids Species Pack will make its way to the console versions of Stellaris.

For February, subscribers of the service can claim Paradox Interactive’s 4X strategy game Stellaris. Apart from that, players can also claim the resource management roguelike game As Far As The Eye, among others. The full list of games offered in February is down below.

AMAZON PRIME GAMING JANUARY 2022 LINEUP:

• Stellaris
• As Far As The Eye
• Ashwalkers: A Survival Journey
• Double Kick Heroes
• Golazo Soccer League

The games are currently free to claim on the service, and an active Amazon Prime subscription is required for the same. Apart from the games, subscribers can also claim rewards in other games, such as the Rubicon Phase Bundle for Rainbow Six Extraction, seven Gold rare players for the Ultimate Team in FIFA 22, GTA$400 in Grand Theft Auto: Online, and a content pack for PUBG: Battlegrounds.

Check out the webpage for Prime Gaming to learn how to claim these rewards.

Paradox Interactive has announced Expansion Pass 2 for Stellaris: Console Edition, bringing three more DLC packs to PS4 and Xbox One owners. These are the Synthetic Dawn Story Pack, Humanoids Species Pack and the Apocalypse Expansion. Check out the trailer below.

Synthetic Dawn introduces the Machine Empire and allows players to have a civilization composed entirely of robots (which is great for production). Humanoids brings in new portraits and ships while Apocalypse lets you build some powerful super-weapons to use against the opposition. Expansion Pass 2 hasn’t been priced yet but it will become available on May 12th.

The Synthetic Dawn Story Pack will release on the same day – release dates for the other DLC have yet to be confirmed but Apocalypse will be next. Of course, those playing on PC can access all of the above DLC and much more. The latest expansion for PC is Federations which introduces Senates and many more diplomacy options.

Microsoft’s Game Pass service is continuing on, bringing with it more and more games for those who subscribe. Of course, October is going to be no exception, as a new batch of titles is primed and ready to go. The game undoubtedly leading the charge is the brand new RPG, The Outer Worlds. 

The list this month is populated by quite the variety of titles, from the open world title Saints Row IV: Re-elected to the fast-paced racing sim F1 2018. It’s got plenty of smaller scale titles too, with the likes of State of Mind, Minit, Stellaris, and Lonely Mountains: Downhill. But it’s hard not to see the shining star as The Outer Worlds, which will release day and date on Game Pass with the game’s full-priced physical/digital release. 

As of now there’s no confirmed dates for when the games will roll out, outside The Outer Worlds being said to be day and date with the full release on October 25th. Keep your eyes peeled for those dates.

Paradox Interactive’s Stellaris has seen its fair share of revamps and changes since it first launched in May 2016 for PC. However, due to the sheer size and scale of the game, it’s often felt restrained in terms of scale. With update 2.3, “Wolfe”, the development is looking to solve this by migrating to 64-bit.

The update will go live with the next DLC, Ancient Relics, and will ensure that Stellaris is no longer limited to just 4 GB of memory. Not much will change in terms of performance. As the developer notes, “Some things go faster because you handle more data at once, some things go slower because you have more data to handle. In the end, our measurements have shown no perceptible difference.”

That being said, those who play with large galaxies, numerous empires, and tons of mods will benefit tremendously. Shifting to 64-bit means that Stellaris will no longer run on 32-bit PCs or operating systems. Keep that in mind if you want to continue investing time into the 4X grand strategy title. Update 2.3 “Wolfe” and Ancient Relics currently don’t have a release date, but stay tuned for more information in the meantime.

Following its recent free to play weekend, Paradox Interactive has announced new story DLC for Stellaris. The Ancient Relics story pack will see players investigating Relic Worlds to eventually find out what caused the decline of certain civilizations. Check out the trailer below, with the first look video providing a more detailed explanation.

The story pack brings Relic Worlds with abundant archaeology sites for players to either analyze or loot. Each site offers a story that varies between one to six chapters and can provide different benefits. For instance, there are relics that provide “significant” benefits for one’s empire, and Minor Artifacts, which are a new resource type.

There are other secrets to discover as well. You’ll learn about the Baol and Zroni, two Precursor civilizations that went extinct, and what led to their downfall. No release date has been provided, but Ancient Relics is “coming soon” for PC. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime. Head here to learn more about the game’s last major expansion, MegaCorp.

In 2016, Paradox Development Studio released Stellaris, a grand strategy title set in space. Now, three years later, the title is celebrating its various changes, updates, and downloadable content with a free weekend on PC. You can download and play Stellaris on Steam for free right now, until May 12th, 1 PM PDT.

If that weren’t enough, the base game along with its DLC are currently discounted. You can get Stellaris for a whopping 75 percent off with DLC seeing discounts ranging from 50 percent off (Utopia, Apocalypse) and 20 percent off (MegaCorp). As with any Paradox Interactive title, there’s lots of additional DLC, but if you really like Stellaris, it’s advisable to pick up the Utopia DLC above all. Stellaris is also available for Xbox One and PS4.

Paradox Development Studio has been busy supporting Stellaris with updates, but also recently released Imperator: Rome. The grand strategy title sees players managing their nation during the establishment of the Roman Empire. You can read more about it in GamingBolt’s official review here.