The news lookouts from BluesNews lit a beacon signalling that the Civ 5 expansion pack, Gods & Kings, isn’t far away now, with a release date of a startlingly nearby June 19th. Firaxis have sat down to make their developer men talk a bit about what’s going on with the new races in a developer diary, which you can see below. The nine new factions come along with reworked diplomacy mechanics that will now encompass a fresh take on religion and espionage. There are a bunch of faction-specific abilities detailed in there, too, such as Carthage’s Alp-surmounting mountain leaping. Good work, Barca boys.(more…)