Sid Meier's Demo For Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth

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 released a demo. Click that 'Download Demo' button over on Steam. I'll give it a go too, actually.

I've made a huge mistake. Beyond Earth, it turns out, is nothing to do with Beyond Thunderdome. Or if it is, I can't make head nor tail of the damage it does to the Rockatansky canon. This Beyond Earth is a turn-based strategy game with nary a glimpse of a Pursuit Special or sawn-off shotgun.

The demo offers 100 turns playing as Brasilia. You can choose starting perks like your colonists and cargo, but game options deeper than the difficulty are locked - it's a Standard pace game on a Duel-sized fungal Protean-style map (Pangea, in Civ: On Earth terms). You can play it over and over to try different things, of course. And it has a robot tutorial buddy.

We still have a review in the works, but for now y'all can at least see for yourselves how Beyond Earth begins.