Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Should we be covering more social network-based gaming? Oh, probably – it’s something of a gateway drug for folk who are traditionally non-gamers, which makes it fascinating. It’s also a big Woo! PC! battlecry, a grand statement of how even the most bottom-end machine is a gaming device with something to offer most anyone. No console will ever be that, because they’re always bought as a result of someone wanting a games console. In the PC’s case, people are accidentally becoming gamers as a result of something that’s already in their homes. It’s a big deal. Firaxis/2K have also spotted this.
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I had a play with an early version of Civilization Revolution on Xbox 360 the other day, my optimistic thoughts on which can be found here. (Don’t worry, this post is PC-relevant). Inevitably, a few readers quickly expressed dismay that the tech tree had lost several branches, some micromanagement (e.g. city health) had evaporated, and all-told it has a greater sense of rapidity and accessibility than the PC Civ games. I’m sure some of our readers feel the same way. A shame, as the game’s bold intention is to non-patronisingly bring the core 4X values – the values that made us love it in the first place – of Civ to an audience that otherwise would run screaming. So, dismissing what CivRev is trying to achieve outright because you’re saddened it only has one type of religion seems a little short-sighted. This is a companion piece to the PC Civs and not the death of them, but presumably that’s scant consolation if your desire is simply for Civ 4 on a gamepad and HDTV.

Anyway, MTV Multiplayer’s Patrick Klepek thought to ask the question I didn’t – partly because of my 6am-train-dulled wits, but mostly because the answer was abundantly obvious within seconds of playing the game. Will this cartoony, minimal-buttony new take on Sid Meier’s most-milked cashcow come to PC?
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Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal writes that he managed to ask Firaxis’ Sid Meier about the possible EA take-over of their owner Take 2. To which Sid responds…

“We worked with Electronic Arts ten years ago. We respect them highly as a company. They’re a great company. We enjoy working with Take-Two. We’ll let them sort that out [laughs]. Take-Two has been very good about giving us the creative freedom to do the best games that we can, and I think what Electronic Arts is saying is really along the same directions. That’s really our priority, to really be able make the best games that we can. And both those publishers would give us that opportunity. We’ll let them work that out.”

He also talks about thinking EA does have a commitment to great games, and that’s the important thing. Whole thing can be read here. N’Gai, continuing to embarrass us by doing proper big-boy journalism while we’re busy writing about Wuthering Heights being nifty, also talked to EA about Take 2 and Take 2 about EA.

From our ‘Putting Words In Sid Meier’s Mouth’ desk.

Newish community-written site Gamersglobal chucked up an exclusive interview with cuddly ol’ Sid Meier over the weekend. He was there primarily to talk about Civilization Revolution, the upcoming console reimagining of the strategy daddy, but dropped in this intruiging bombshell:

“I certainly would like to play around with a MMO concept in the future… I enjoy the idea of doing something I haven’t done before, so a MMO would fit perfectly, but I really can’t say if that would be the next game we do or if it’s still a couple of games down the road before we come to that. Because I have new single player games I want to do, as well.”

Start your speculat-o-engines now. A confirmation it isn’t, but it’s a generous amount of fuel to the gossip fire. Sid’s major franchises, Civ and Pirates, both seem brimming with potential for a massively multi rebirth (though Pirates of the Burning Sea has already had an unofficial crack at the latter). Of course, we’d all love to see Alpha Centauri revisited too. So which will it be? Or will it, in a shocking break with Firaxis tradition, be a new IP entirely?