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Civilization: Beyond Earth Announced

Posted by Soulskill on from the montezuma-takes-over-the-universe dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Today at PAX East, Firaxis announced Civilization: Beyond Earth. It's a new Civ game inspired by their sci-fi strategy classic Alpha Centauri. Beyond Earth is currently planned to launch this year on the PC. According to Game Informer: 'Beyond Earth presents an opportunity for Firaxis to throw off the shackles of human history and give players the chance to sculpt their own destinies. Civilization games typically have a set endpoint at humanities modern age, but Beyond Earth has given Firaxis the opportunity and the challenge of creating a greater sense of freedom. ... The five different victory conditions that represent that next major event in human history are tied to the new technology web. At the start of the game, players will choose leaders and factions (no longer bundled with one another) and choose colonists and equipment to settle the land. Once descending from orbit, the technology web allows players to move in a number of directions.'"

12 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Trailer by JohnSearle · · Score: 4, Informative

    Civilization: Beyond Earth (Announcement)

  2. Alpha Centauri 2 by Ottawakismet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know they say its not Alpha Centauri 2, but thats all it has to be. The original had so much depth and fun, just keep that intact, and don't mess it up, and it will be a brilliant game. Alpha Centauri remains one of the best games in the Civilization world

    1. Re:Alpha Centauri 2 by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Try the Planetfall Mod for Civ IV BTS. If you play it on a fairly modern system with a fully patched game it might not even crash before you finish a moderate-length game.

      You don't get to design your own units. But they do get upgrades reminiscent of AC.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Shut up and take my money by mseeger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's says "Civilization" in the title, so i will buy it anyway... ;-)

    1. Re:Shut up and take my money by TFlan91 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've always hated the end game of Civ's. It's always felt... dissatisfying. Early/Mid game was always fun but if it lasted to the end game, I usually ended up quitting and starting over.

      This newly announced game has so many paths it could take and the possibilities are truly endless, if the dev's decide to make it so that is. I had faith, but after Civ V, the Sid Meier's brand has faltered in my eyes.

      (i've been playing his games since Sid Meier's Civilization (holy shit that was a long time ago), my favorite, to this day, is still Gettysburg)

    2. Re:Shut up and take my money by khallow · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The original Civ V release was terrible. Sure, it had some nice tactical flavor to it (which the computer players are completely incompetent at BTW), but it loses a lot of the fun of Civ IV.

      For example, there's a lot more restrictions in play - especially the penalties on placing more cities. They dropped the health mechanic of Civ IV for growing cities and population, but they replaced it with a bogus penalty to culture and research from additional cities. It just doesn't feel right. The tech tree is bogus and it's clear that they structured the tree as they did for game balance rather than any sense of realism. Even worse is the culture trees. They don't feel even remotely realistic.

      Subsequent releases have helped balance that stuff out somewhat (Civ 5 does have a better religion system an the ideology conflict in the late game is nice) and add more to the mid and late games, but it still needs a lot of work. For example, in the latest variant of Civ 5 there are three different ways to trade.

      The city state mechanic needs work too. A more realistic mechanic would be that the barbarians eventually settle down and form the city states (as they adopt the civilization ideas of the core civilizations). But that would mean a lot more city states than are presently in the game and a whole new mechanism for dealing with trade and city state alliances is required.

    3. Re:Shut up and take my money by AuMatar · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because Civ is a single player game. It isn't meant for multiplayer, and multiplayer has always been a terrible experience. I'd prefer if they dropped it entirely and spent more time on polishing the AI or released it earlier. Because they shove in a half baked multiplayer we get a worse game.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  4. What graphics card will be enough? by ChefInnocent · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is the NVideo GTX TITAN Black or Radeon R9 295X2 going to be enough GPU for the game? Will I have to 3-way SLI or CrossFire them? It seems all the last Civ games have really pushed the graphics envelope which never made much sense to me since I find them to be almost spreadsheet games. I love Civ (particularly 2 & 4), but the video requirements seem excessive. I remember buying a GTX 8800 for Civ 4, and GTX 580 for Civ 5.

  5. With Linux Support! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not even a single person that mentioned it will support Linux?
    This fall on Linux, Mac and Windows PC for $49.99, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth will [...]"
    This is incredible news.

  6. Here's a better (and cheaper) game by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Here's a better (and cheaper) game:
    Banished
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  7. Do I need a 12 step program for Civ? Or is it OK? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been playing this series since the first came out when I was 9. Steam tells me the last few games have claimed man years of my time. No other series has ever captured my attention quite the same way with the feeling of epic strategy.

    but... The way I half-assedly justify this vice to myself is that Alzheimers runs in my family on both sides and cracking out on Civ hopefully gives me a decent brain workout, e.g. researchers and those asshats at lumosity saying people doing crosswords, puzzles, etc... stave off the disease longer.

    There are worse vices right?

  8. Produced by Team Fail by kolbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The game is being produced by the same group that put out the failed Civilization V ala Lena Brenk, Dennis Shirk and Lisa Miller. They can pay off all the game reviewers they want, but the simple fact remains that Civilization V sucked when it came out. It might as well have been an expanded version of Civilization Revolution!

    For me an countless others out there @ CivFanatics, I am heartbroken that this series has lost its way and any games they have put out since Civilization IV lack any merit as they play like garbage.

    I truly hope Sidney Meier actually puts his foot down and ensures this game is done right without the constant pressures from the asshats @ 2K Games & Take-Two shits, but I highly doubt it considering the current industry trend of releasing unfinished games and then gouging their supporters by forcing them to buy DLC and fixes.