Brad Wardell and his team are taking Galactic Civilizations III to the next frontier - the 64-bit frontier - as the team want much bigger galaxies than previously possible. GalCiv II was "bumping up against" 32-bit limits. He's not worried either as the "vast majority" of users are already using 64-bit hardware. With a grand strategy like Galactic Civilizations the whole galaxy is kept in memory.
During our interview with Brad Wardell the Stardock boss has claimed multiplayer in Galactica Civilizations III 'wouldn't be possible' without Valve's Steamworks, which used to be a rival to Stardock's Impulse. Since selling Impulse to GameStop, Wardell and his studio has embraced Steamworks as it let's them do "a lot of interesting things" otherwise unavailable. It's a single-player game first.
Fleet battles in Galactic Civilizations III will be making up for the "hollow" feeling from GalCiv II, says Brad Wardell, although it's never going to be about individual commands for each ship - that's not GalCiv. Stardock aren't going to turn the series into Masters of Orion, but Wardell wants to revisit their approach. To compliment that, ship designing is "one of the most upgraded parts."
Gone are the black and white days of good vs. evil in Galactic Civilizations as Stardock are introducing "ideologies" in their place. Statistically most preferred "neutral or good," said boss Brad Wardell. The ethical scale was 'limiting' and Wardell prefers the Sith vs. Jedi approach where it becomes a 'matter of perspective'. The sandbox is also more important than campaigns.
Hidden Path Entertainment has just released The Forgotten expansion for Age of Empires 2 HD, which adds five new civilizations to the real-time strategy. It's available through Steam for $9.99. Italians, Indians, Slavs, Magyars and Incas are all gearing up for war. There are also four new campaigns to choose from, as well as new modes, techs and Twitch.tv streaming.
Prepare to swoon PC gamer as former Civilization series devs who formed Oxide Games are now showcasing their 64-bit game engine Nitrous, and have gone straight for the jugular with space battles. This isn't just any battle wots in space, but a mighty conflict between hundreds upon hundreds of units. They're all calculated individually, including their weapons turrets. It's powered by AMD's Mantle.
Think your project is ambitious? How about using "small civilian drones" to map out the world? Julien Cuny and Louis-Pierre Pharand have formed indie studio Pixyul and are making a survival action RPG. They want to "recreate the entire planet" one kilometre square at a time, using these autonomous drones. These HD images will recreate the world in 3D.
Gold Edition? Pfft. You want the Complete Edition, my friend. 2K Games and Firaxis has announced Civilization V: Complete Edition which rustles up every last scrap of DLC for $49.99. The 2010 turn-based strategy has two expansions to its name as well as many little packs for new civilizations and scenarios. The Complete Edition will retail this Friday.
Polish developer 11 bit studios has announced This War of Mine which explores a city under siege between armed forces, but it's not the soldiers we'll be playing. We will have control over the civilians. It's a "dark survival game" where refuge is constantly under threat. 11 bit wanted to make something that "moves people and make them think" - this could happen anywhere.
Developer Stardock Games has just released the first gameplay footage of turn-based 4X Galactic Civilizations III, which is narrated by the studio's Adam Biessener. This is alpha footage cut and edited 'for drama'. Speaking of alpha, your life will embrace a more turn-based outlook this Thursday as Galactic Civilizations III becomes available through Steam Early Access on March 27th. End Turn.
If you love the Galactic Civilization series, and have $126 to spare, then you might be interested to hear that the Founder's Elite Edition of Galactic Civilizations III is out now on Steam Early Access.
By the end of next month the matchmaking services of GameSpy will be switched off, and that means a number of PC titles won't function properly or at all online. Exactly how far-reaching is the GameSpy service? Reddit has put together a doomsday list that includes the likes of Halo, Star Wars: Battlefront, Stronghold, the Battlefield series, Crysis, Tom Clancy titles and Quake.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Civilization developer Firaxis will be announcing a "new AAA game" tomorrow, according to 2K Games teaser for their PAX East 2014 'pre-show checklist'. More XCOM or Civilization? The 'Firaxis Games Mega Panel' will commence tomorrow at 4:30pm BST for one hour at the DragonFly Theatre. 2K promise an "exciting sneak peek" at their latest project.
So this is pretty exciting for fans of Alpha Centauri, the beloved space strategy game released back in 1999. Civilization: Beyond Earth, announced this weekend at PAX East by developers Firaxis, is a spiritual successor to that title, and will take the series' signature hex-based empire-building into space.
Ars Technica has sifted through public data from Steam to build a list of the most popular games owned on the platform. The most popular? DOTA 2 with around 25.9 million users. Playing second fiddle is Team Fortress 2 with 20.3 million. The top twenty games are dominated by Valve, although Skyrim and Civilization V squeezed in. There's another interesting stat.
Borderlands, Civilization III and Civilization IV will all migrate their multiplayer over to Steamworks after the closure of GameSpy's extensive server lists.
Lead designer Soren Johnson of Civilization 4 is now co-founder of indie Mohawk Games and they've just announced their first project. It's a real-time strategy based on economics called Offworld Trading Company. Money "is the heart" of the RTS, where we sell excess resources and then buy low on what we need. Trade prices and stock fluctuate all in real-time.
In an interview with Space.com, Civilization: Beyond Earth designers Will Miller and David McDonough discuss the scientific basis behind the game's tech trees and background lore. In Beyond Earth the human race is desperately in need of new resources, and as a result needs to colonise as many habitable planets as possible. Without getting devoured by aliens, if at all possible.
The Early Access beta for Stardock Games' space 4X Galactic Civilizations 3 is now available, and is far less ludicrously expensive than the alpha was. Hooray! Rather than shelling out for the alpha price of $100, you can now grab the beta version for $44.99. So the more complete the game gets, the cheaper it is to buy. There's something weird about that.
Pre-ordering Firaxis' turn-based sci-fi strategy Civilization: Beyond Earth will net you six new maps to explore, all of which are "inspired by real-world exoplanets." The game's already available for pre-order through various retail outlets, and ordering from any one of them will net you the Exoplanets Map Pack.