Great news game geeks. Sid Meier’s Civilization is back this autumn with the fifth instalment of the multi-million selling PC franchise. Firaxis is currently developing the game, due for release “Fall 2010″. No definite date yet, but there are plenty of interesting pieces of information, as well as some gorgeous screenshots.
For those of you who don’t know, Civilization is a turn-based strategy-game for the PC where you take control of an empire (including the mighty Celts), and try to conquer the world/become UN leader/send a manned mission to Alpha Centauri/etc. There’s tonnes of ways to win, but even more ways to get to that goal. Civilizations 2 through 4 have taken many, many hours of my life. If it weren’t for them, I probably would have gotten an A in every uni assignment. They really do take control of your life. That’s why I’m looking forward to this one so much. I’ll probably disappear from the internet for about three weeks.
Civ5 (that’s what us geeks will be calling it, CivV is too unwieldy) has been totally redesigned, and implements hexagonal tiles, adding for greater movement. There’s also a much better game engine for more elaborate leader animations and battles. These battles have been improved vastly, with the addition of ranged bombardment and many new units.
The AI has also been overhauled. You can now do joint research alongside an AI ally, giving them money to help develop technologies to aid both parties. The AI is also much more clever, and will realise if you are building an army along their borders (in past editions of the game, players would move all their units to the border before declaring war, allowing them to easily overrun enemy territory.)
That’s the redesigned US leader George Washington. Looks pretty snazzy right? Other changes to the game include the abolition of the Religion mechanic as well as Vassal States. Expect more news and additions to be announced over the coming months.
In addition to the announcement of Civilization 5, Firaxis is also developing the facebook application Civilization Network, which will be about twenty million times better than Farmville or Mafia Wars. Just be prepared to have your inbox flooded with requests when that launches.
More info:
http://www.civilization5.com/
Is the launch of Civ5 due the same time as the FaceFook game / app release?
Given that that is just FBML, is there a chance of Civ for mobile devices soon (or has that already happened?)
Love Civ, love it.
@Will The Facebook game will most likely launch in the next few months. Civilization Revolutions, the watered down console version is available on the iPhone.
No release date for either yet, so they could well come out at the same time. There’s no news of an iPhone version, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
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