Woohooheeheehahah. First Beyond Good & Evil 2 and now this. It’s been quite a month for shock returns.
Yes, my favourite Civilization game that isn’t a Civilization game is returning: as a Civilization game. Civ IV: Colonization is to be a standalone expansion for, clearly, Civ IV. Once again, the aim is the turn-based establishment of the New World, and freedom from the money-grabbing motherland, by conquest, trade or diplomacy and… well, pretty much no more details so far. Well, except for one more screenshot, a release date and a typically chipper Sid Meier quote, which are all beneath the cut.
It’s not out until the Autumn, which, while actually very close, is hugely annoying as this unexpected return to my gaming past strikes me as exactly what I want to lose in myself in while I get over splitting up with my girlfriend last week. Oh well – more absurdly heavy drinking it is, then. Still, the FreeCol guys must be even more annoyed.
“We’ve received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that. The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game.”
Sid Meier
Click through for larger versions of both of these shots.
Yeah, it might look visually exactly like Civ IV – but I can’t tell you how excited seeing the phrase ‘Expert Tobacco Planter’ once again has made me.
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Meh, well, that’s the excuse they gave at the time, anyway.
If they were so trade-friendly, then they’d be a lot like the Dutch/French instead, surely. Also, what Dean said.
Did slavery really seem like such an omission to that many people? I’m just curious – I’d never even considered it until reading some comments on here the last time the game came up.
Eeeeeeee! ^^
Anyhow, I’m certainly surprised that Portugal is still absent and expect the game to be budget-priced (anywhere but Finland, that is).
on the mention of space based 4x games and how sid can’t touch his original property, how about we petition firaxis to approach the two jeffs and offer them money to get Stars! Supernova Genesis resurrected?
I’d LOVE for stars! to be back with the sequal that died a death :D
Now *that* would put a grin on my face!
Did slavery really seem like such an omission to that many people? I’m just curious – I’d never even considered it until reading some comments on here the last time the game came up.
Well, you can exploit foreigners through the medium of religious conversion in Colonization, I guess. Or maybe the phrase ‘indentured servant’ was a euphemism.
Awesome Flakes!
In response to Gap Gen, I seem to remember there being penal colonists as well, one step below indentured servants. That being said, yeah, I figured ‘indentured servant’ was a polite way of saying slave.
As for bringing back SMAC, there would need to be some interesting work done on the AI in Civ to reflect just how ‘individual’ the alternate factions in SMAC approached the game. Remember the giant cities of Yang’s Human Hive? The focus on research from Pravin Lal, who despite being an egg-head rarely crumbled when you threatened him?
This is great news… but.. I want Alpha Centauri 2! I did get the original Civilization, and I’ve played Colonization before, but I never really became that interested in Civilization before 3, and then even more so at 4. SMAC, though, I’ve been enjoying for a long time. It’s… great!
As long as there aren’t any American Spearmen or Club-Warriors or whatever, I’m there.
Yeah, the joy of SMAC was always that the factions weren’t characterised by the units they had (since every faction had the same units) but the way they behaved – Miriam had massive low-tech armies that were invincible in the early game but could be wiped out by a late-game tech opponent like Lal or Zakharov, while as you say, Yang just built massive sprawling hive empires and Morgan built tiny, super-rich nations.
I think there *is* (or was) someone trying to mod Colonization into Civ IV. But I expect Firaxis’ll have a much easier time of it.
This is the very worse timing ever. I’ve just plunged back into Colonization, in the form of the (increasingly excellent) FreeCol mentioned.
As for SMAC its all about Zakharov, but i loved all the factions. Getting behind the philosophy rather than the ‘racism’ inherent in Civ.
Col is a different beast though, the ‘racism’ is at its core, you dont trust your homeland government by the end, and they dont trust you its very much like rome: total war.
Col totally covered slavery, they keep it vauge though, defeat an enemy army and put them to work growing crops or mining?
About SMAC and Col together, i walways felt SMAC should have had the potential for a “earth ship” to show up midgame, fresh with a new colony and tech the likes you could barely dream of, expecting everyone to instantly bow to it much like the anti independance armies of col.
Well, that was part of the remit of Alien Crossfire, but it wasn’t done exactly like that – I agree that it would have been interesting, though. And yes, I do like the choose-your-own attitude to government and the consequences it entails. Must play Civ 4 some time and find out if it’s any improvement on SMAC in that area.
The moment they release another Alpha Centauri -I’m going to buy whatever it takes to get that game. Civ. IV -or five or 1001, all it’s expansions -the ones that exist, the ones that haven’t been made and the ones that just exist only in the game developers imaginations- and the game developers grandmothers if it’s required -just to get that game. But before that, colonization is a pretty damn good bargain -it’s the first civ type of game I ever played and I was pretty young back then. Ah, the nostalgia.
Anyway I have to say I agree with Sucram, the Civ IV in front of the colonization makes it sound like a mod in some way or a cheap adaptation. It would be hard for such a trifle to live up to my expectations, as they are of galactic magnitude. Sorry if my English is a bit off I’m not a mother tongue speaker.
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