The stars have called you for millennia and now you walk among them. A universe of possibilities is open to your species as it takes its first fitful steps into the great unknown. Here you can turn your back on the divisive politics of the home planet. Here you can build something new. Here you can unify your people and build that perfect society.

Only in space can you build Utopia.

Utopia is the first major expansion for Stellaris, the critically acclaimed science fiction grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studio. As the title suggests, Utopia gives you new tools to develop your galactic empire and keep your people (or birdfolk or talking mushrooms) happy. Push your species further out into the galaxy with new bonuses for rapid exploration or stay closer to home before striking out against all who would challenge you.

Feature List:

• Megastructures: Build wondrous structures in your systems including Dyson Spheres and ring worlds, bringing both prestige and major advantages to your race.
• Habitat Stations: Build “tall” and establish space stations that will house more population, serving the role of planets in a small and confined empire.
• Traditions: Collect Unity points and adopt ideas and bonuses that will ease your species’ expansion across the stars, unlocking special perks for completing a set.
• Rights and Privileges: Set specific policies for which of the many species under your thumb will have the rights and privileges of full citizenship.

IKEA VR Experience is a thought-provoking creation that depicts the uncertain nature of existence and explores what it means to be human.

Enter.

Life in the kitchen is efficient; conventional. But dare to gaze outside, beyond your patio: an infinity awaits you. It has been watching since the moment you were born; ready to steal you away like a desirable pencil. And, it would at first seem that as long as it exists, a person cannot truly be themself. This infinity is death.

IKEA VR Experience incited my reevaluation of reality.

As members of society, we are conditioned to fixate on the False Kitchen of the material world in order to ignore the inevitability of death and the consequent futility of life. Though we may not discuss it, this is a trap that we all fall into.

What Ikea has endowed upon us is a gift: something to define our existence. It favours not the wealthy, nor the poor, but everyone. The answer is beautiful minimalistic furniture that exceeds this material realm: it is a visual gateway to the transcendent civilisation of Scandinavia, a place of unconditional equality, where life has meaning. Each time I enter my Ikea-furnished home, I feel as free as the Swedish wilderness. Though my passport is British, in my heart I am Scandinavian.

Ikea has granted me purpose.

No longer am I a meatball in a bowl, waiting to be singed by the frying pan of mortality. We all live; we all die. Accept it. Only then will the True Kitchen be revealed to you. Within the True Kitchen, I am not only myself, but I can become anyone I choose (including a cat!); do anything I choose. Here, the restrictions of society are not present. Suddenly, the infinity outside doesn't matter any more.

If you feel depressed, if you feel compelled to resort to drugs, or if you feel incomplete, I recommend to you this masterpiece. After all, IKEA VR Experience is not a game, nor is it an essay in philosophy. As evinced by the title, it is an "experience".

My body is the same, but my soul is different. 10/10