What are your plans for this weekend? Pint in the sunshine? Booking a summer holiday? Simulating the effects of the industrial revolution on the global economy of the nineteenth century? If it's the latter, that's tremendously specific. But I have good tidings for you anyway, as Paradox's grand strategy Victoria 3 is free to play until Monday.
Victoria 3 does for macroeconomics what Crusader Kings 3 did for dynastic fratricide. It's an enormously intricate global simulation where you take a pre-industrial nation and guide it through the rapid mechanised march of the nineteenth century, shaping everything from its political infrastructure to its trade routes in the process. At its heart is a dynamic trade market that shifts with the tide of supply and demand, and you can attempt to surf its financial waves by investing in your nation's own industry and production, changing your own trade laws, and much more.
Though Victoria 3 has its detractors, I found all of this to be thoroughly engrossing when I played it a few years back. Jonathan Bolding likewise sang the game's praises in his Victoria 3 review. "If your fantasy is to take control of a nation and set your own goals, build your own society and play around with complex, interlocking systems, it will fulfil that brilliantly," he wrote back when it launched, though he pointed out the game was weaker when viewed at the international level (a criticism I agree with).
And while it doesn't have the raw, madcap charisma of Crusader Kings, it still has plenty of personality. Joshua Wolens discovered this when he attempted to simulate Donald Trump's Liberation Day tariffs, leading to two wars with Canada and the President beating a man to death with a stick.
But since it costs nothing to try for yourself, you don't need to take our word for it. As well as being free until Monday, Victoria 3 is also currently 70% off, bringing the price down to $15 (£12.50). That discount lasts until Thursday, so if you find yourself taken with its extravagant economics (and occasional fiscal fiascos), you can grab the game proper at a significant discount, which is both thrifty and thematically appropriate.
