Matrix Games (www.matrixgames.com) and Code Force (www.codeforce.co.nz) are excited to release a major new update for their award-winning space strategy game, Distant Worlds. The comprehensive 1.0.7.0 update includes all the bugfixes, mod advances, and AI improvements found in version 1.5.0.8 of the expansion, Return of the Shakturi, but without the actual expansion content.

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said "The 1.0.7.0 update is almost like a dry run for Distant Worlds owners still on the fence about buying the expansion. Although there are a huge number of fixes and improvements brought with 1.0.7.0, this update is just the tip of the iceberg for Return of the Shakturi!"

Distant Worlds is a vast, pausable real-time, 4X space strategy game. You can run the game as slow or as fast as you like, with intelligent advisors and many different settings for warnings and auto-pause triggers to help you manage your empire at your own pace. Experience the full depth and detail of large turn-based strategy games, but with the simplicity and ease of real-time, and on the scale of a massively-multiplayer online game.

Vast galaxies are made to order: up to 1400 star systems, with up to 50,000 planets, moons and asteroids. Galaxies are so deep, fun and immersive that you won’t want to finish the game… Build, expand and improve your empire endlessly. The galaxy is packed with life and activity. Encounter other empires, independent alien colonies, traders, pirates and space monsters. Explore star systems, asteroid fields, gas clouds, supernovae, galactic storms and black holes. Discover evidence of civilizations long since past, uncovering secrets about the galaxy’s troubled history…

Best of all, you can play the game your way: enjoy a quick, intense game in a crowded galaxy or take your time in an epic game spread across a vast galaxy!