The previews for the upcoming console version of Civilization are trickling in, available at all the usual places. I’ll link you to Alec Meer’s over at Eurogamer because, first, it’s the usual high quality of writing you get at that place, and, second, it answers some important questions about what’s the same and what’s different […]

[Read more →]

While trying to use propaganda posts in Sins of a Solar Empire last week, I started thinking about cultural control in strategy gaming, how culture assimilation is an either/or proposition, how an homogeneous culture is assumed to be better than one with spillover from neighbors, how rival cultures bring nothing with them but trouble.
Then I […]

[Read more →]

IGN is reporting that 2k Games has put the Wii version of the upcoming console Civilization on hold “indefinitely.” The DS version goes on, though it looks a lot like other turn-based strategy games on that platform, only more crowded and a little uglier. Plus, it has ninjas.

[Read more →]

Soren Johnson is also good for a quote, so it’s only natural for Rock, Paper, Shotgun to hit him up for an extensive interview about the PC market, game design and inspiration.
Some highlights:
On the shrinking range of AAA titles:
[T]here’s still a few blockbuster Triple-A franchises that are still cranking out… but if you look back […]

[Read more →]

It’s the second link to Soren Johnson’s blog in a week, but he’s answered a question that people have been asking for while. Alpha Centauri had a unit creation tool, but this feature was not included in Civ 4, even though the latter drew many lessons from the scifi title. Apparently Firaxis thought the tool […]

[Read more →]

Fellow Civ Fanatic Tom Chick’s review of Beyond the Sword is up at Yahoo Games. It gets top marks even though he agrees with me that the espionage stuff is “a mess” and corporations are “a crap shoot.” (I disagree that all the new naval stuff makes the sea matter; in my opinion, it’s still […]

[Read more →]

The problem with expansion packs is having to relearn everything because they’ve messed with some pretty familiar mechanics. This is my big issue so far with Beyond the Sword. While I love the scenarios and mods I’ve tried, the new techs and espionage system really mess with my mojo. You know how it is when […]

[Read more →]

For those of you who missed my thumbnail sketch of the entire series in the Civ Chronicles, Benj Edwards from Vintage Computing has done a bang-up job on the original game for Gamasutra. Edwards contacted me early in his research, wanting to make sure that he was covering the bases and that he wasn’t […]

[Read more →]

2k Games has announced Civilization Revolutions, a next gen console title based on the Civ series. From the press release:
Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution is a watershed game, offering players a chance to experience the epic empire-building world of Civilization in an all new accessible, visually immersive, and action-packed world specifically designed for the console and […]

[Read more →]

Jason Bergman has the skinny on the Chinese version of the only game I still play at least twice a week. They get a shirt.
Apparently some changes needed to be made to get around censors, but he doesn’t say what they were. My guess is removal of religion and nerfing the Japanese. And maybe rice […]

[Read more →]