When it comes to kicking off a campaign of wholesale world domination, there really is no time like the present. Actually, there's doubly no better time than the present, as both Civilization 4: The Complete Edition and Civilization 5: The Only Edition are on sale today through Amazon.
#pc
I loved Civilization V, but it was not a game without its problems. The longer you played it, the more it became apparent that the AI wasn't quite as sharp as it should have been. This enormous patch should help. More »
#aspyr
Sid Meier's deeply addictive Civilization series is coming back to the Mac platform later this year, thanks to publisher Aspyr. The company confirmed its plans to bring Civilization V to Apple computers "this holiday season." More »
#dlc
Two more mighty empires rise in Civilization V come October 25, when 2K Games releases the once Digital Deluxe-exclusive Babylonians for $4.99 and unleashes the Mongolian hordes for free. More »
2K Games has revealed quite a big list of fixes coming to Firaxis' stellar Civilization 5. The rather large update addresses several of the most common complaints, like those pesky game-crashing bugs, but goes deeper to fix other issues involving the AI, UI and gameplay.
The patch notes, which we've listed after the break, do not represent everything that's in the update. According to 2K, it's just what the developers have been working on for the "past couple weeks." There is currently no estimated time of arrival for the update, so there could still be plenty of more things addressed -- we certainly like what we see so far.
#pc
As we did with the Halo Reach Briefcase Edition and the StarCraft II More Expensive Edition, Kotaku is exposing the Civilization V Comes With Statues Edition (aka the $100 Civ V Special Edition) to the glare of sunlight. Here, unboxed. More »
#review
Previous games in the long-running Civilization series have been, ironically, prisoners of the past. Forced to improve the series via baby steps, for fear of upsetting an apple cart twenty years in the making. Civilization V doesn't do baby steps. More »
Civilzation 5 is the love child of a clandestine tryst between Civilization 4 and Civilization Revolution. It is a game that shares genetic markers of both the PC and console iterations of the franchise, luckily receiving the best elements of both -- with a couple good mutations. Civ 5 has the grand, epic feel we expect from the series on PC, but so much of it has been streamlined for the better that Revolution's influence is undeniable.
I'm going to try something different in this review. Civilization has been around for almost two decades and the most divisive moment in the franchise's history was the creation of the console-based Civilization Revolution. With that in mind, I'm going to divide this review into three parts, with sections for [1] Civilization PC veterans; [2] those who enjoyed Civilization Revolution; and [3] "the uninitiated." Read all three perspectives and find out if this latest Civ unites the tribes.
#preview
Strangely-detailed hypothetical situation: You are a video game reporter, you have an early build of Civilzation V and you have a couple of hours to play the game against three people. You're playing as the Arabs, at Prince difficulty. You will start slowly. But you will win. More »
#demo
Firaxis, the developer of Civilization V, said yesterday the game;s playable demo will be available on Sept. 21, the same day the title releases in North America, a reversal of promises it would be available before launch. More »
#pc
Triple-A games have standards, you know, and Civilization V has made its clear. Not just anything can run 400 turns of this game. So check 'em out to see if your PC measures up when the game hits Sept. 21. More »
#preview
This preview of Civilization V is incomplete. It takes more than nine Earth hours, you see, for the great Arabian empire — land of Mecca, Rio De Janeiro and Beijing — to assume dominance of the globe. More »
#pc
I'd imagine most people picking up Civilization V will know exactly what they're getting themselves into, but just in case you don't, you can always check out the demo that will be released in September ahead of the game's release. More »
#specialedition
PC strategy fans love them some Civilization, but do they love it enough to spend double retail price for the game plus collector swag? More »
#pc
While the last Civilization V trailer got us hot and heavy with menu footage, this one hits a little closer to home, dealing with the trauma and tragedy of Civilization addiction. More »
#pc
All the bombastic trailers, third-person shooters and celebrity actors in the world couldn't stop this from being my most anticipated game of 2010. More »
#interview
During this week's broadcast of our Kotaku Talk Radio podcast, legendary game designer Sid Meier explains how the new hex-based map enriches Civilization V, and why it took so long for the series to go six-sided. More »
#gdc10
Firaxis Games co-founder and Civilization creator Sid Meier expanded the minds of GDC attendees by talking about the psychology of game design and breaking some bad news to us. Everything we know, Meier argues, is wrong. More »
#gdc10
Civilization was never the most realistic game, and those who enjoyed battling against a nuclear-armed Gandhi have not minded. The next one, Civilization V, though may be the most natural one thanks to some crafty tweaks. More »
#gdc10
Civilization games teach us to respect culture and science, to honor learning and the sharpness of swords. But roads? This series would make you think that progress equals covering one's kingdom with ugly tangles of roads. Civ V changes that. More »
We already told you that Sid Meier's Civilization IV was finally getting a sequel with Civilization V later this year, and then we showed you the trailer that contained absolutely no gameplay. But now we've actually seen an early build of the game, and we can tell you how hexy it is. That's right, forget about old Civilization games which only had four cardinal directions to choose from when moving your units; this installment ramps that up to to six. That's right! Two whole new directions! It's a brand new game!
In all fairness, it is Civilization but Firaxis made plenty of substantial changes to it. Besides hexing it up, they've also added ranged units (think archers, artillery, ICBMs, etc) and taken out the ability to stack units up into an army. Also, only one unit can occupy a spot at any given time, meaning you won't be able to bulldoze your opponent from one hex. They've also built an entirely new engine for this game, meaning you'll see some really nifty stuff ... provided you have a DX11 card and a multicore processor.
The trailer for Civilization V features what's quite likely the opening cinematic for the game. We can sort of feel 2K Games and Firaxis on the decision not to show in-game footage, as clips of the venerable turn-based strategy game don't really deliver a very sexy initial impact; however, some videos exploring the hextreme overhaul of the map and other changes implemented in the stalwart series' gameplay would be nice for the future.
Now to console some of the guys on staff. They were really hoping for Civilization Revolution II this year.
With 18 civilizations playable from the start, Civilization V also features a new combat system, hexagonal tiles, a new engine, and full-screen diplomacy.
