Civilization V Announced!

[jph139]

Yes, the next installment in Sid Meier's much-beloved (and time-stealing) franchise has finally been announced for a Fall 2010 release. For details check the following press release...


2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, today announced that Sid Meier's Civilization V, the newest entry from the genre-defining strategy-based franchise, is currently in development at Firaxis Games for PC. Civilization V reinvigorates the classic turn-based strategy genre with an astonishing new engine built from the ground-up for this flagship edition of the Civilization franchise. Players are introduced to an entirely new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features that deliver a fully immersive experience providing hours of entertainment as players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known.

Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.

"Sid Meier's Civilization franchise has been recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all time with millions of units sold worldwide," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Civilization V takes the franchise further by offering players a more immersive experience with deeper strategies; heightened tactical combat; vast, realistic landscapes to explore, battle over and claim as their own; and an in-game community hub where Civ fans can share content and compete against each other without leaving the game. This marks a new era that will forever change the franchise responsible for sleep deprivation and reduced productivity for nearly two decades."

"Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team," said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. "Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series."

In addition to Civilization V, Firaxis Games is also currently developing Sid Meier's Civilization Network, a Civ game for Facebook. With Sid Meier leading design, Civilization Network will offer yet another option for world domination to both the casual gamer and the biggest fans of the series. It's another way to access the famously addictive world of Civilization.

...and, of course, the OFFICIAL WEBSITE (http://www.civilization5.com/)!

Yup, this has DEFINITELY been a long time coming. I'm eager to try out the new hex-based system - people have been chatting about that for a while, and I'd like to see how well it works compared to the classic grid - and the NEW LEADERHEAD STYLE (http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/107/1070111/civilization-v-announced-20100218060533837.jpg) looks just plain awesome.

Too bad all of my CivIV mods are gonna be obsolete, though. I mean, yeah, I can still play them, but all of the modders are going to need to relearn the new system and all.

[GWOtaku]

Nooo! I'm still mastering IV! ;)

Needless to say, I'm all in for this game. The replayability of the Civilization series simply can't be beat. I doubt I'll retire IV entirely, but for my money they always do a great job rebuilding and updating the game while keeping the core of what makes it good.

The wait isn't even that bad either. This is a great and pleasant surprise. Between this and Starcraft II, this strategy lover is very happy.

[Anyone00]

Awesome: great to hear.

It looks great and I like that they've gone hex-based.

I hope that the world is a bit more dynamic (well with an option to toggle it off and on before a game) with things like storms of the centuries, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc. (yes there was some of that in past games) and bigger stuff like the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period.

[Mr. Obsession]

Oh crap. My life, I can already see it disappearing. :p

Those screens are absolutely gorgeous. And I've found that hex based strategy games have always offered a far deeper experience.

Any word one which leaders are going to be in the game? Besides Washington (per the screenshot).

[jph139]

There's a shot of Bismarck HERE (http://www.firaxis.com/images/civ5/screenshots/civ5_4.jpg), from the Firaxis website, so that confirms Germany, as well. And THIS (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=8912518&postcount=157) post on CivFanatics has a great chart of various civilizations through Civilization history.

http://mproud.com/images/civilizations.png

(The stars mean it was in the game under another name; the darker green under V, the more likely.)

So, in addition to America and Germany, the Aztecs, China, Egypt, England, France, Greece, India, Japan, Persia, Rome, Russia, and Spain are the most likely. Mongolia, the Zulu, Babylon, and Arabia are pretty up there, too - we'll probably get, eh, two or three of those, and then one that's relatively unexpected.

It's a pipe dream, but I'm pulling for Austria, myself.

[Juu-kuchi]

Nooo! I'm still mastering IV! ;)
This.

I should probably have played that more often, but now that time may be spent on V now.

Can't wait.

[The Huntsman]

I still prefer Civilization II for some reason. Maybe it’s the nostalgia. I still have a copy of Civilization IV lying around but the only thing that I really loved about that one was the start menu song: Baba Yetu. I’ve always played these games being diplomatic and building as many wonders as I can, so I hope the wonder videos are better than they were in IV. I liked Civilization II’s little movies. The advisor videos were also one of my favorite features. Why did they remove them?!

[Anyone00]

New trailer (http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/62125/sid-meiers-civilization-v/videos/civilization5_trl_announce_022510.html). Just some prerendered scenes but I think the voice over might be in the final game.

[Mr. Obsession]

Just some prerendered scenes but I think the voice over might be in the final game.
I think the voices in the trailer come from the actual civilization leaders that will be in the game. The earlier press release did state that the leaders would have voiced dialog in their native languages. If so, my first civilization in the game will be lead by Keith David! :D

The trailer also confirms that Egypt, Japan and the Vikings will be in the game. There was also a Middle Eastern (not Egypt) and a nomadic (though that may just represent every civ’s start) that I didn’t see enough detail to recognize.

[Anyone00]

I think the voices in the trailer come from the actual civilization leaders that will be in the game. The earlier press release did state that the leaders would have voiced dialog in their native languages. If so, my first civilization in the game will be lead by Keith David! :D

The trailer also confirms that Egypt, Japan and the Vikings will be in the game. There was also a Middle Eastern (not Egypt) and a nomadic (though that may just represent every civ’s start) that I didn’t see enough detail to recognize.

Gargoyles mod incoming:p

Egypt is a no brainer even without the trailer with Japan almost as much as one but keep in mind there are city states and probably barbarians in the game so the trailer confirms nothing in terms of player civs.

[jph139]

The trailer also confirms that Egypt, Japan and the Vikings will be in the game. There was also a Middle Eastern (not Egypt) and a nomadic (though that may just represent every civ’s start) that I didn’t see enough detail to recognize.

The nomadic civilization looked a lot like Mongolia to me. Seems to me like this was the opening video (or something like it), so it certainly gives some points to Egypt, Japan, Vikings, and so forth... but, I mean, the Beyond the Sword opening had JFK in it, so there's no certainty. The addition of city-states mucks things up a bit, too.

I do love that trailer, though; no real gameplay, but, still. I think we'll be getting some hands-on stuff at GDC next month, so, look forward to that.

[Jackson54]

WOOHOO! One more turn! :D

[Anyone00]

Well the info is filtering into the various Civ forums from the GamePro and Swedish PC Gamer previews:
-Germany, China, Japan, and Arabia have been confirmed and England/Britain implied.
-religion is gone
-No tech trading

[jph139]

And that's not all! The biggest news, I think, is one unit per tile - no more stacking units and seiging cities. Personally, the necessity of building huge armies has always been a big drag to me, so, yeah, I don't really mind.

In addition, unlike Civlization IV, there is only one leader per civilization. Which, y'know, is what it is. I'm a bit disappointed with that, actually; it allows civlizations to be played in different ways, depending on the leader chosen.

And for those who'd like to know about the civilizations, these are the ones that have been (mostly) confirmed...

Arabia ~ Harun al-Rashid mentioned
America ~ Washington confirmed
Aztec ~ Jaguar Warrior on the official website
China ~ Wu Zeitian mentioned
England ~ Elizabeth mentioned
France ~ Napoleon mentioned
Germany ~ Bismarck confirmed
Inca ~ A leader speaks in the Quechua language
India ~ Gandhi mentioned
Japan ~ Oda Nobunaga mentioned
Mongolia ~ Genghis Khan mentioned
Rome ~ Caesar (one of them) mentioned
Russia ~ Stalin mentioned
*Egypt ~ Pyramids seen in trailer
*Vikings ~ Berserkers seen in trailer
*Ottomans ~ Istanbul (with minarets on the Hagia Sophia) seen in trailer

The last three, of course, are up for debate. But I'm fairly certain Egypt will get in. This leaves FOUR civilizations still up for debate. Of course, we can assume Greece will get in, leaving three. And if the trailer is any indication, the Vikings and Ottomans are in. Spain is likely going to get the last spot, in that case.

Personally, though, I'd prefer Babylon. Mesopotamia IS the cradle of civilization, after all...

[GWOtaku]

Combat has been very irritating in Civ at times, so I hope these changes mean a more balanced yet challenging experience. Before, it seemed almost required to stack a bunch of siege units and use overkill tactics just to make sure that chance wouldn't do you in. Civ Revolution was much more tolerable, but even on Deity the game could be trivialized by zerging the AI opponents properly with some proper naval support. To be fair I lost some games straight up anyhow, but it was still a bit too much the other way. By limiting one unit to a tile and letting siege units bombard from more than one tile away, this hopefully means a much greater emphasis on tactics that could serve the game really well.

Religion was an interesting angle in Civ IV, but I don't mind them removing it and streamlining the experience in general. Besides, it could be really tough to actually discover one without basically teching straight toward it from the beginning. On higher difficulty settings, I'm not sure how anyone would do it.

No tech trading is a huge deal if it stays. I guess they want us to use all of our resources to improve our empires, as opposed to hoarding gold and compensating for being outplayed by the AI via bribes.

World leaders: well, of course Washington is in. I'm sure the inevitable expansion will fill in any gaps. So far as Civs go, I loved the variety that IV ended up with in the long run. I mean, you could play Carthage for goodness sakes. Hopefully V gets there too.


I still have a copy of Civilization IV lying around but the only thing that I really loved about that one was the start menu song: Baba Yetu.

...yes. That song is awesome. I deliberately take a long time setting up a new game just so I can listen to it. It's epic and perfect for Civ.

[Maxie Zeus]

Combat has been very irritating in Civ at times, so I hope these changes mean a more balanced yet challenging experience. Before, it seemed almost required to stack a bunch of siege units and use overkill tactics just to make sure that chance wouldn't do you in. Civ Revolution was much more tolerable, but even on Deity the game could be trivialized by zerging the AI opponents properly with some proper naval support. To be fair I lost some games straight up anyhow, but it was still a bit too much the other way. By limiting one unit to a tile and letting siege units bombard from more than one tile away, this hopefully means a much greater emphasis on tactics that could serve the game really well.

I hope they know what they're doing. They usually do. But my first reaction is to quail. At least with stacking you could move a bunch of units at once. I sure hope this doesn't mean we have to waste a lot of time moving a lot of individual units.

Actually, I've never been fond of combat in Civ, though it has steadily improved with each iteration. I've never understood, though, with Sid Meier and company never took a hint from "Call to Power" and let you form units into actual armies. That was far and away the best thing in CtP, IMO. Much more realistic than moving isolated siege, cavalry, or infantry units around; much more efficient for the player; and (in the right designers' hands) would allow a distinction between grand strategy (how to structure armies and where to place them and move them) and battlefield tactics.

This "spread armies all over the map" sounds like a real mess, and historically gravely inaccurate. I believe it wasn't until the French Revolution (in the West, at least; in the East it was probably a different story) that armies were large enough that they actually took up significant geographical space as they marched.


Religion was an interesting angle in Civ IV, but I don't mind them removing it and streamlining the experience in general. Besides, it could be really tough to actually discover one without basically teching straight toward it from the beginning. On higher difficulty settings, I'm not sure how anyone would do it.

I don't mind seeing religion disappear. It could be diplomatically useful, but there wasn't much difference in the game between a corporation and a church. The cynics might say "So?" but I think the religions were mostly superfluous.


No tech trading is a huge deal if it stays. I guess they want us to use all of our resources to improve our empires, as opposed to hoarding gold and compensating for being outplayed by the AI via bribes.

Yeah, this is huge. I wonder why it's disappearing.

[GWOtaku]

It seems that something you can do with technology is partner with another Civ to research a specific goal. So while you can't trade for tech, you can research it effectively if you have a good alliance going.

[Anyone00]

The new combat system makes me wonder if they're going to have things like Skirmishers (like slingers, horse archers* , Sharpshooter/Snipers groups, Tank destroyers) or slow moving specialized heavy hitters (War Elephants* , Mark V Tanks) or will there be light siege units that can keep up with infantry and slower moving heavy siege units.

*Yes, I know there in earlier games I'm just thinking what might be used for those roles.

[jph139]

IGN PREVIEW! (http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1075587p1.html) Lots of information and a very nice read, so, go digest it.

The one-unit-per-tile thing seems more and more interesting; I mean, one of my favorite memories from Civilization IV (Colonization, yeah, but still) was a BUNCH of Native American units crossing the landscape to aid me. One on every tile. The idea of huge fronts like that moving across the board... man, exciting.

The city-states, too, look great. The tiny little Barbarian cities made for interesting targets in IV, but the ability to talk to them, trade with them, help and protect them... I'm looking forward to it, frankly. Probably the feature that has me most excited at the moment.

And for all who are interested, here's our confirmed list of Civilizations...

Arabia ~ Harun al-Rashid
America ~ George Washington
Aztec ~ Montezuma
China ~ Wu Zeitian
Egypt ~ Ramesses II
England ~ Elizabeth
France ~ Napoleon
Germany ~ Bismarck
Inca ~ ???
India ~ Gandhi
Japan ~ Oda Nobunaga
Mongolia ~ Genghis Khan
Ottomans/Turks ~ Suleiman the Magnificent
Rome ~ Julius(?) Caesar
Russia ~ Catherine the Great
Songhai ~ Askia Mohammad

Bolded ones are freshly confirmed. Again, we can pretty much assume Greece is in, leaving one slot. Lots of options... Babylon, Spain, Vikings, Zulu, Persia. Wonder who gets it. Honestly, Babylon would make for a good city state (though eventually "upgrading" it to a full one in an expansion would be great), the Songhai seem to be replacing the Zulu for the moment, and frankly, Spain seems like a bit of an afterthought at the moment.

Persia or the Vikings. I'd bet on one of them.

[Anyone00]

Too bad taking over a city through culture is gone it was my favorite part of Civ IV.
It's interesting to see cities are auto-garrisoned.

If they're going to have another African civ I would prefer Ethiopia over the Zulu. I'm also hoping for Portugal. I know: both long shots.

[Maxie Zeus]

The city-state thing sounds interesting, though given the way so many wars in Civ (at least in my games) quickly escalate into global slugfests, the AI is going to have to be very subtly written, and diplomacy is going to have to have a lot of options. It's not going to be fun to constantly having a choice between abandoning some pissant city-state on your border or starting a war that has a 150% chance of engulfing every single empire on the planet.

I also have to say that the description of one-unit-per-tile combat sounds even worse after reading that description. The current system, thanks to terrain bonuses and promotions, makes it pretty easy for defensive units to stave off powerful attacks, which is the reason you put your armies into stacks of doom in the first place--so you can at least take the strong defenders out in a single turn. What little info we're getting makes it sound like it will take multiple turns and LOTS of annoying unit management to do the same thing. There had better be more to it than this, or I'm going to be a very sad panda.

I also wonder what this "losing a capital city ends the war" thing means. Does it mean the entire empire folds up? Or only that a peace treaty is imposed? It could be nice if it were the former--a much easier objective than the usual, tedious, conquer-every-single-city-because-thats-the-only-way-to-keep-the-[bad word]-down strategy. But again, it would have to be coupled with some pretty intricate diplomacy if it just means that the war ends--otherwise, it could just be an aggravating, unwilling "suspension of hostilities" things, like those horrible Senate resolutions in Civ I.

In case you can't tell, I'm not a warmonger, and regard anything that makes fighting more tedious and time-consuming (and likely) as a big step in the wrong direction.

Graphics look beautiful, though, and the hex-grid layout is really rocking.

[Anyone00]

Again, we can pretty much assume Greece is in...

Yup, Greece is in:
http://gdc.gamespot.com/story/6253246/civilization-v-impressions-first-look

[jph139]

Rumors abound of Persia, Siam, Spain, and others. But that's not why I'm bumping. In a recent magazine article they had this picture, from what I assume is Montezuma's diplomacy screen.

http://www.weplayciv.com/files/civ5/monty.jpg

And that is the BEST. THING. EVER. Man, I can't wait to play against that.

[Ookamikun]

There's already a semi complete list (http://www.weplayciv.com/wiki/Civilization_V#Civilizations).

Also, you guys have already seen these two (http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1075587p3.html) articles (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/sid-meiers-civilization-v-preview)?

[GWOtaku]

So Civ V's digital release will be exclusive (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/54678/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-V-Exclusive-To-Steam-Civilization-IV-On-Sale) to Steam, and there are some benefits to ordering it on that service. For starters, a Mesopotamia map pack:


Gamers who pre-order any version of Sid Meier’s Civilization V from Steam will receive the downloadable bonus content, Cradle of Civilization Map Pack: Mesopotamia, for free when the game is available. The map pack will let players experience the traditional Western and Middle Eastern “Cradle of Civilization.” The pack will include the Fertile Crescent with the Nile River valley to the west and extending east down the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys to the Persian Gulf. Leaders will be able to explore new terrain, cultures and conquests.There's also a "deluxe" edition for $60 that will offer the Babylon Civ (leader: Nebuchadnezzar II), a Behind the Scenes/Making of video feature, and the game soundtrack.

I might actually use this method. I don't care about the video feature, but I have doubts the soundtrack and the Babylon Civ will make it onto a future expansion. I'm less certain about the exclusivity of the map pack in the long term, but who knows.

Some other links: A long GamePro feature (http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/215018/civilization-5/) that focuses a lot on lead designer Jon Shafer, an April 26th video interview (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationv/video/6260116/civilization-v-interview-pete-murray) about the game, and a short Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5532853/casting-a-hex-on-civilization-v) article about Civ V's shift to the Hex-style map.

[jph139]

Ah, yes, that. I'm rather peeved, frankly - I'm not a fan of digital downloads at all, and making an ENTIRE CIVILIZATION download-exclusive doesn't sit well with me. Plus, charging ten dollars for that, the soundtrack (again, not even a physical copy - why bother?), and a video... I'm not a fan at all.

I'm very torn. I hate the idea, but I really want Babylonia... it'd be horrible to go years, get all the expansion packs, and all that, and be missing one empire. Sucks, flat-out.

Hopefully future DLC isn't this expensive.