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3 years ago
While Adam is larking about in XCOM 2, I'm replaying XCOM: Enemy Within to demonstrate how totally fine and unbothered I am that he has access and I don't. It's still really fun! Last night I ordered a cyberlady to punch a robodino so hard it exploded. If you want to join in with not feeling bitter, the latest Humble Bundle is a cracker. It's…
4 years ago
Alpha Centauri is one of the best strategy games ever made. It casts a long shadow, such that a game like Civilization: Beyond Earth [official site] cannot escape comparison, even though it wasn't intended to be the direct spiritual successor many saw it as. But how would you improve on Meier and Reynold's sci-fi masterpiece? Keegan Chua has some ideas. His Alpha Centauri Redux project…
Oh, Civilization: Beyond Earth [official site], how sad you make me. You work so very hard to make me love you but... well, maybe you're fundamentally unlovable. The Rising Tide expansion, that was a good try. You became more alien, less like your dad trying to wear a spacesuit, but gosh, you made a pig's ear of Diplomacy, didn't you? Bugs and bonkers design decisions…
When our Alec told us wot he thinks about the Rising Tide expansion for Civilization: Beyond Earth [official site], he grumbled about a nasty bug in its overhauled diplomacy system - a very playground bug. When you declared war on someone, your allies might not back you up. "Yeah, go on, I've got your back," they'd say, "go on, 'it 'im!" Then you'd 'it 'im.…
In our initial preview of Beyond Earth's Rising Tide expansion [official site], Firaxis were keen to make it clear that the expansion would have a heavier sci-fi focus than the base game. They also spoke about the new diplomacy system, in which you interact with the leaders of opposing factions in hopefully more realistic ways. That's what has been detailed in not only a new…
A rising tide lifts all boats, it's said, and there's some hope that the watery Rising Tide expansion will lift all of Civilization: Beyond Earth's [official site] systems and not simply provide a new shimmering surface for the same old ideas. Find out whether that seems likely via a video demonstrating some of the oceanic mechanics below.
Civilization: Only Very Slightly Beyond Earth, more like. While perfectly serviceable, Firaxis' sci-fi themed strategy spin-off proved far too reluctant to step out of Civ V's shadow for my tastes, and I haven't been at all tempted to go back. Conventional wisdom had it that an add-on might add the verve and variety it needs, but it turns out there's a 2.0 update planned which…
Do you worry you'd call Sid Meier "dad"? A half-hour stream over the weekend with the Civfather showing off Sid Meier's Starships (not anyone else's) has been saved for posterity under the name 'Sid Meier shows you how to build a Starship' and I can't help but imagine you, dear reader, sitting on his knee. "Can we put cannons there?" you ask. He smiles, a…
Sid Meier and Firaxis' new thing, Starships, was announced last week, but all we got to see was a cinematic. Fortunately, Unca Sid did a talk at PAX South a couple of days back, in which he showed off the game proper. Those who could not drag themselves to a sweaty hall in Texas may now be similarly indulged. There are some bits and pieces…
There's few game designers whose names alone perk my interest, but Sid Meier is one of them. He's the videogame industry's avuncular Werther's Original dispenser, popping sugary, plastic-wrapped hexes into the hands of young designers everywhere. I met him once and I can't remember if he was sat in a rocking chair, but let's assume that he was. I am now rocking because Firaxis have…
5 years ago
Civilization: Beyond Earth does have a demo, but it's limited to 100 turns - not many to feel how a Civ game ticks. Given lukewarm responses to it, you might want to see more. Here's your chance: the full game is free for everyone to play on Steam until Sunday evening. Saints Row IV is also running a free trial weekend but surely you already…
Civilization: Beyond Earth is, as I understand it, an alternate ending to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. What happens after the kids reach Tomorrow-morrow Land? Does Aunty Entity rebuild civilization? Will Max return? And what about supposed sightings of Ironbar Bassey with a gentle brute bearing more than a passing resemblance to Blaster? You can find out now, if you aren't already playing, as Firaxis have…
It's time to wrap up warm, RPS - thank goodness you've got just so many fetching scarves. The winter months are rolling in, which makes for the perfect excuse to build an intricate blanket fort around your chair and go into a weekend games-hibernation. It'll be a tough life of hot chocolate and mince pies, but I believe in you and think you'll come out…
A science victory in Civilization is awfully anti-climatic. Thousands of years of research, exploration, art, diplomacy, trade, war, survival, and human progress, and all you have to show for it is a little spaceship popping out your city then flying off the top of the screen. It's nice, but lacks drama. That's where Civilization: Beyond Earth begins, exploring what happens after humanity reaches the stars,…
It hasn't quite struck home for me yet that Civilization: Beyond Earth is only two months away, but this video helps. It's 50 minutes of lead designers Pete Murray and David McDonough playing and talking through civilization creation at the start of the spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri: selecting the sponsors who can fund and define your reason for travelling to the stars, the spaceship…
Joking about booking time off work for a video game's release is awfully hackneyed, but I have known people to do it for two series: Grand Theft Auto and Civ. So, just so you know, Civilization: Beyond Earth now has a release date so WINK you might want to WINK book time off work or WINK consider laying the dramatic groundwork for a WINK illness…
By which I mean, eight minutes. Yes. I'm not entirely sure of the provenance of this video, and how much of it has or hasn't been seen before because, y'know, YouTube but in any case I am more than down for a decent stretch of footage'n'chat from Firaxis' upcoming alterna-Alpha Centauri, Civilization: Beyond Earth.
Perhaps I'm unfairly stereotyping Civilization fans, but I broadly imagine that they're the type who'll eagerly watch a panel of developers talk about the next game for half an hour, then perhaps rewatch it, wringing every last fact and morsel of information into their dry eyes. What I'm trying to say is, the panel discussion where Civilization: Beyond Earth was revealed is now online in…
This is news worth working on a weekend for. Firaxis have announced Civilization: Beyond Earth, a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri. There's an announcement trailer below, which doesn't show any of the game but does set the scene. (The scene is of me, rubbing my thighs at all the spaceships). Also, it's due out this "Fall/Autumn" which i) is not far away at all and…
