There's an email thread from 2K's public relations in my inbox with the subject: "So you want to touch Civ V, huh?" It's an ongoing joke I've got with the company -- how can you get a grasp of the latest entry in the epic Civilization franchise without actually touching it? Every hands-off demonstration we've seen of the game so far looks great, but touching Civ, spending eight hours with it, is the only way to get a real idea of the game players are in for. With that said, here's some of the stuff we saw in the latest hands-off presentation during E3 2010.

Although the most diehard Civilization players refuse to acknowledge the console-based Civilization Revolution as a real entry in the franchise, Firaxis certainly took several lessons from the console game and quietly implemented them in Civ V. One such lesson is the user interface, designed by the same person who did Civ Rev's, that cuts or pushes everything it can to the sides of the screen, making the main screen the star, rather than a co-star to the menus.