- Borderlands, Civilization 3 & 4 will survive GameSpy shutdown - 22 April 2014
With GameSpy's online services set to shut down on May 31, 2K Games has stepped forward and announced which of its online-enabled multiplayer games will survive the closure. Borderlands , Civilization III , and Civilization IV , and their respective expansions will all begin making the transition from GameSpy servers to Steamworks in the coming days, while several other games will see their multiplayer servers go down with the GameSpy ship.
- Humble Sid Meier Bundle celebrates the Civilization creator - 4 February 2014
2K Games has a lot of love for Sid Meier and they're proving it through a new collaboration with Humble Bundle. The latest Humble Bundle will collect some of Meier's best games, including the recently-released Sid Meier's Ace Patrol . But if you're feeling particularly charitable, you can also come away with Sid Meier's Civilization V and both the Gods and Kings and Brave New World expansions.
- Why Sid Meier's name is on his games - 26 June 2013
Sid Meier's name is well known in gaming circles for the addicting "just one more turn" mentality associated with his strategy games. Of course, there is never any mistaking what his games are because his name is usually in the game's title. It can't be because of ego, as colleagues say Meier is a very soft-spoken, unassuming man. "In the years and all the people I've worked with at Firaxis," said designer Jake Solomon, "there has never been anyone who's had a personality issue with Sid, 'cause it's not possible. He's such a wonderful person." So just how did it happen that the brilliant strategy designer's games get that title treatment? It started in Meier's days at MicroProse with partner Bill Stealey, as Meier was pitching the idea for a pirate game. "Bill said, 'When's my next flight simulator coming out?' And I said, 'I'm not doing a flight simulator; I'm doing a pirates game,'" M…
- Civilization Online in development “for the Asian market” - 25 October 2012
Take Two have dropped word that a 100-strong team of developers in South Korea are building a dedicated online version of Civilization. It's being built for release in Asia, but if it does super-well there's always a chance it'll travel. The XLGames team is headed up by ex-Lineage designer, Jake Song. "A genius? That would be nice to hear, but I'd rather be called a craftsman," he says on XL's comically po-faced front page. XLGames' last project was a CryEngine 2 powered MMO called ArcheAge. The size of the current team and the studio's knack for turning out pretty environments suggests that Civ Online will likely be a presentable, polished experience (the header image is of Civ 5, not Online incidentally), but will they be able to retain the depth of the Civilization series without becoming a Lineage-esque grindhouse? The Facebook game, Civilization World, was the last attempt to take…
- Community heroes: we talk to the man behind Civilization II’s Eternal War - 17 July 2012
James ‘Lycerius’ Moore played a single game of Civilization II off and on for ten years, extending far into a dystopian future that he described as “a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation”. The story caught fire, spreading from reddit to the specialist games press and national media before returning to reddit as /r/theeternalwar, where fans trade fiction, music, and art. Last week, I spoke to James about his experience of the game, the rationale behind playing the same campaign for a decade, and what it’s like to have your cool gaming anecdote capture the imaginations of so many people. You can check out our previous coverage of The Eternal War here. You said in your initial reddit post that the campaign is about ten years old? Yeah. Do you know exactly...? It’s about nine and a half, something like that. Presumably there must have come a point when you decided that you were j…
- Ten year game of Civ 2 results in “hellish nightmare” planet, permanent nuclear war - 12 June 2012
How would a Civilization 2 map look after running for nearly ten years? Redditor, Lycerius , has found out, and has posted the current status of humanity in the year 3991 AD. Things are NOT GOOD. "The world is a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation," says Lycerius. "There are 3 remaining super nations in the year 3991 A.D, each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands." A 1700 year war has wiped out 90% of the world's population in a nuclear holocaust that seemingly has no end. The polar ice caps have melted and reformed 20 times. Land that isn't rock or mountain has been reduced to festering, irradiated swampland. Every nation's resources are devoted to pumping tanks to the front line, where they bash out an everlasting stalemate, and are occasionally nuked. Large cities a…
- Help get Civilization 4′s Baba Yetu into Classic FM Hall of Fame - 1 February 2012
Classic FM's Hall of Fame is alright. Sure, Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2 in F Major shows some promise, and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini truly is a piece of music about something. But we can't help noticing that Civilization 4 theme, Baba Yetu, is nowhere to be seen. As the most uplifting composition ever attached to a game about crushing your enemies, it deserves recognition. Okay, so it's already won a Grammy. But it needs MORE recognition. Who could fail to be moved by immortal lines like "Baba yetu, yetu uliye, Mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina!" It really is a lovely bit of music, as you can hear above. Classic FM are currently holding an open online vote for new submissions to their Hall of Fame, kicking off a campaign to get as much videogame music as possible into the list. A Facebook page has been started, which you can join and "like" to show support, and you c…
- Civilization V Game of the Year edition incoming - 15 September 2011
CVG bring news that a game of the year edition for Civilization V is just around the corner. It'll include all of the DLC packs that Firaxis have put out since launch, adding Polynesia, Inca, Vikings, the Mongols, Babylon and the Spanish, along with a batch of new maps and scenarios tailored to each civ. The bundle will cost $49.99 and will come out on September 27 in the US. There aren't any details of a European release yet, but if you missed Civ V the first time around, the GOTY's a good way to grab it with most of the additional units and leaders, though last month's Korea and Wonders of the Ancient World DLC seem to be absent from the list. Read on for a summary of the bonus DLC that's included, and check out our Civilization V review to find out why we heartily recommend it. Sid Meier's Civilization V (standalone game); Civilization and Scenario Pack: The Mongols; Civilization Pac…
- PC AI sucks at Civilization, reads manual, starts kicking ass - 13 July 2011
The Massachusetts institute of technology have been experimenting with their computers' AI. Specifically the way they deal with the meaning of words. You might think that the best way to analyse this kind of thing would be with a human to PC conversation, like in Short Circuit. That's not the case. Instead, the boffins handed over PC classic, Civilization, and let the AI get on with it. They sucked - winning a mere 46 per cent of the time. The difficulty setting the machines were playing on has not been specified. Then the researchers handed over the instructions and taught the PCs a "machine-learning system so it could use a player's manual to guide the development of a game-playing strategy." They didn't teach the PC how to play Civ, but they taught them how to read about it. The system had no pre-programmed notion of turn-based strategy or even what the objects in the world represent…
- Civ World trailer brings Civilization to Facebook - 17 May 2011
The trailer above is our first look at Civ World, the upcoming Civilization Facebook game that's trying to put an accessible spin on one of the most complex and detailed empire-building strategy games ever made. Have they succeeded? Trading with friends to achieve a collaboratively could be fun, but my favourite bit is the little crown icon you get for being the most successful empire. Who doesn't want to be king of all their friends? The game's currently in beta, but you can find out how to join on the Civ World Facebook page.
- Civilization on sale this weekend - 18 February 2011
Steam are throwing a Civilization sale this weekend. Civilization 5 is available for £17.99/$29.99 and the Civilization 4 complete pack is available for £3.75/$7.50. The Complete Pack comes with Civ 4's three expansions, including Beyond the Sword, Warlords, and Colinization, which is a massive slice of top strategy gaming at an excellent price. If you've always wanted give Civ a go, now's as good a time as any. The games are on sale on Steam now. Recently, Civilization 4 became the first game to win Grammy with an award for its theme music. For more on Civilization, have a look at our pick of the ten best Civ 5 mods, and our guide to making your own maps.
- Civilization 4 wins grammy for Baba Yetu six years after release - 14 February 2011
Civilization 4 has become the fist game ever to receive a Grammy. The prestigious prize was awarded to one track from the game's soundtrack called Baba Yetu. You'll find the music video for the piece above. Baba Yetu was composed by Christopher Tin for his album Calling All Dawns, but was originally used in Firaxis' brilliant 2005 strategy game Civilization IV. The song scooped the prize for the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists category at yesterday's Grammy awards.
- Civilization Facebook game to launch alpha next week - 8 January 2011
The long dormant Civilization World project has suddenly sprung to life. A Facebook message from Sid Meier has announced that the project will now be called Civ World, and a playable alpha of the game is set to start next week. Next Wednesday, January 12th is the day the alpha is set to launch. If you'd like to get invovled registration for the alpha is now open on the official Civ World registration page, but in order to take part, you'll have to put a team of between 5 and 50 people first. Meier explains why teams are necessary, saying that "to win in Civ World, you’ll need to collaborate with your friends in order to do well in the game and become ruler of the world, so in our early Alpha testing, we’re grouping people together to simulate how the game will work when it’s available to the world at large. In the final game, you’ll be able to sign up individually (although we’ll love i…
