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6 years ago
Feature: The joy of limitations
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Scenario Generator is a tool that creates random restrictions, goals and startup settings for a variety of games, and it's the reason I've become happily lost in Crusader Kings II [official site] and Civ V [official site] again. Reinvent an old favourite with the click of a button, as you find out precisely…
Feature: Deadly colonisation
A whole new world. A new fantastic point of view....I'm so sorry.However, I am pleased to report that sci-fi strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is not simply Civ V with green face paint on. It has the same hexes and it does have much of the same infrastructure as its historical-themed predecessor, but its transformation into something alien goes far more than miasma-coated…
Feature: Of Civilization and its contents
While visiting Firaxis to play Civilization: Beyond Earth, I spent a couple of hours talking to members of the team and learning how the company works. As the current creators and curators of two of my favourite series of games, Firaxis rank among the most interesting studios in existence, and their history is also a large part of the history of PC strategy gaming. With…
7 years ago
Feature: Mohawks And Martians, Pt 2
Once upon a time, Soren Johnson was the main brain behind Civilization IV. Now he has a mohawk. An indie mohawk. Also, he's making a game about managing a crazy intricate (yet disarmingly accessible) economy on Mars. Last time around we talked about how a Mars economy simulator even works, boardgames, and the current state of strategy gaming, and today we continue that discussion with…
8 years ago
I am saddened to admit that I am not a Civilization player. My brain does not work in that way. No matter how much I try, I just bounce off the game, and then I'm pushed out the way by mean Civ bullies who mock my tactical and diplomatic failings. It's like home economics all over again. But I'm a bigger man than those meanies,…
Feature: Alliance and Industry
I’ve started more games of Civilization V than a hundred men could ever finish and that’s not only because I enjoy discovering new worlds more than I enjoy conquering them. Civilization doesn’t have a compelling end-game, lacking the peaks and troughs of grand strategy, and instead taking a predictable course once the pieces are in place. Brave New World attempts to fix that by overhauling…
Feature: Beep beep beep
There's going to be a second major Civilization V expansion. It's called Brave New World, it introduces 9 new Civs, the concepts of tourism, ideologies, international trade routes and archaeology, and basically it sounds like it's pretty huge on an under-the-hood front. I had a big chat with Firaxis lead programmer Ed Beach and senior producer Dennis Shirk on what's in there, why, how it…
9 years ago
How often do you find yourself looking at Civilization V and thinking, 'all this science and culture is fine, but there simply aren't enough deities knocking about the place'. If the answer is 'very often' you might already have bought the Gods and Kings expansion. If not you could read my thoughts on what it does for the game or you could even try it…
Civ V is integrating with Steam Workshop with the intent of making the use of mods much more user friendly. Create mod collections, browse what's available through Steam and then fall to your knees in anguish because Fall From Heaven is nowhere to be seen in this version of the game and never will be. I haven't explored the modding scene for this one a…
What happens when you play a single game of Civilization II across ten long years? Well, carpal tunnel syndrome and a lifelong fear of pixels smaller than than the size of a fist. Also, an in-game world which is "a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation", riddled with nuclear fallout and caught in a terrible stalemate between three ultra-nations which have been at war for…
Crush the weak, spare the weekend! Sid Meier and Some Other Peoples' Civilization V is open to all-comers for a bit, from now until some point on Sunday (1PM PDT, whatever that means in real time), making it the perfect time to give its hexy new style a shot. If you like it, you can buy the full game for 75% off, and have plenty…
I liked Civilisation V, which sometimes causes long-time fans of the series to hurl detritus at me in the streets, but I would never argue that it wasn't lacking features that I craved. Foremost among them was a decent application of the cultural and historical force of religion, so I'm extremely pleased to see that the just announced expansion, Gods and Kings, will bring all…
Feature: Civ V's redemption?
Sometimes the work that goes into a mod is breathtaking. Civilisation V NiGHTS is such a thing, born perhaps equally out of admiration and frustration. The team, led by Markus Beutel, have looked at Civilisation V, stripped it down and rebuilt it from the ground up. They describe the mod as a total conversion but that doesn’t mean it gives you fantasy units, adds magic…
Civ V's one of those games I've somewhat taken my eye off since launch. While lovely to point my ocular organs at and with a natty new take on Civly combat, it seemed to lack the identity and variety of the evergreen Civ IV. Importantly, however, it's apparently been a continuing slow-burn success, given the steady trickle of new patches and DLC over the last…
10 years ago
When we first heard about the Facebook version of Civilization a couple of years back, the prospect was enormously exciting - a persistent online Civ, played from any PC, any time. Of course, back then we perhaps weren't fully aware of the route Facebook games were broadly taking - the pay/spam friends/wait model popularised by FarmVille. There's absolutely nothing to say that model can't be…
Wow! It's a good day for passable games getting additional modes. Civilization V, which Alec and I both saw eye to eye about, will be getting updated with a hot seat mode within the next couple of months (hotseat being a multiplayer mode where several players take turns taking... uh, turns on the same PC). Which might seem like a long time to wait for…
Big Download note that the patch that makes significant balance changes to Civ V (as well as adding a range of bugfixes and a new building, the Aquaduct) has landed just in time for the Polynesia pack hitting this Thursday, and dutiful Steam might just have updated your game already. You can read the full patch notes here.Guess what I've got waiting for you beneath…
VG24/7 has word that a Polynesia Pack will be available for purchase for Civ V this Thursday, adding a new Civilization and a new scenario for the tidy sum of £2.99. Firaxis are releasing a free map pack on the same day, too. You'll find all your precious details and some ukulele music after the jump.
Wow, just looking at the above screenshot has bumped a cache of memories up into my conscious mind, memories containing lovely sound effects and tense wars. Is Civ V still installed? I need to hear that button-click sound effect again. "Bink," it would say. "That's a good idea, menu button," I would reply. "I should exerminate the infidels."Anyway, Gamer's Hell has noticed a post over…
A gift! A gift, straight from Mr. Sid Meier himself. If you're quick, you might even get a whiff of mothballs and superglue off it. A couple of DLC packs have just been made available for Civ V- the first, the Mongol Civilization Pack, is completely free, and introduces the Mongols as a civilization and Genghis Khan as their leader. The second, Babylon, which introduces…
