Stardock Entertainment is currently holding a free weekend on Steam for their popular space 4X, Galactic Civilizations III.

Gamers can play the game for free until Sunday, and the base game is currently 84% off, bringing it down to $4.79. The discount lasts until August 19th. There’s also a few discounted bundles that include some of the more popular DLC packs.

Here’s a rundown on the game:

What if one day, humans woke up to find that they weren’t alone in the galaxy? They make their way into space and discover other alien civilizations with their own histories and motivations looking to make a name for themselves. Choose your race – Human, Drengin, Altarian, and so many more – and lead your civilization into a golden age in one of the largest 4X strategy games ever made!

Research new technology, design starships, and colonize new worlds as you face threats and conquer challenges from new and mysterious sources. Negotiate trade and treaties, wage wars, spy on your enemies, and promote outstanding citizens. And when you’ve finished that, play again as one of the many included alien civilizations each with its own history, technology tree, ship components, and more.

Galactic Civilizations III now bundles in the Crusade expansion and Mega Events add-on content for an even greater gameplay experience! Join the ranks of galactic leaders today, and answer the question: how will you rule your galaxy?

Each new game offers an array of options as you set it up – choose your map size, abundance of planets and resources, frequency of events, and more for a unique play experience every time. Galactic Civilizations III also removes linear victory conditions and offers you multiple objectives that you can choose to pursue in order to win, such as military conquest, cultural domination, technological ascension, or political alliances. The new multiplayer capabilities also allow you to expand your challenges and fights beyond an AI in order to face off against fellow players. All of this, topped with a rich and in-depth custom ship designer ensure an immersive and exciting experience as you decide how to rule your galaxy.

Key Features:

• The ultimate sandbox experience: Each game has a unique map, worlds, and challenges to face — all on a massive scale. Play against 16 to 100 opponents.
• Multiple paths to victory: Win through military conquest, cultural domination, technological ascension, or political alliance.
• Create your own history: Each sandbox game lets you create a new future history for your civilization.
• Story-based campaign: Learn the ancient histories of the alien civilizations and one possible future for the human race.
• Massive technology tree: Research a technology tree with immense breadth and depth. Each playable faction has their own unique specializations. Your choice determines how you play and win.
• Faction & Ship Customization: Create a civilization with its own look, ships, technologies, and even options for how the AI will use them.
• Multiplayer: Play online with friends with full support for custom civilizations, saved multiplayer games, and much more.
• A deep economy: Every world is unique with many different resources that can change the course of your strategy each game.
• Planetary Governors: Utilize individual planetary leaders to govern your worlds, deciding what improvements to build and when, which leaves you to focus on larger strategic goals.

Galactic Civilizations III has been available for Windows PC, via Steam. In case you missed it, you can find our thorough review for the game here (we highly recommend it!).