civilizationbeyondearth
Latest
Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth: The Joystiq Review
Viewed through the idea that it's a standalone expansion to Sid Meier's Civilization 5, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth streamlines gameplay in the long-running strategy series to enhance the pace of the historically-strapped franchise. As a spiritual successor to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, however, it's a cut-rate disappointment. Beyond Earth is best described as an epilogue to the events of Civilization 5. Humanity has ruined the planet and must commit itself to starting all over again on another rock and potentially making the same mistakes. And so, various nations make conglomerate factions and shoot for another spherical mass to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate (4X) on in the strategy game. Why I wish Firaxis had never mentioned Beyond Earth as a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri is that this game doesn't look like it was given the financial resources to kick off a new franchise. It feels like it had the budget of a Civ 5 expansion, where asset creation went into making a visually interesting game world, but not its overall presentation. The characters are painfully dull and inarticulate. The tech and wonder voiceovers are all done by one person, but in many cases are attributed to faction leaders within the game (who do have their own voices). The experience doesn't feel luxe. Firaxis has been the benchmark in accessible strategy games and it's owned by triple-A publisher Take-Two Interactive, but I've seen stronger production values from independent European competitors. Click here for more
Civilization: Beyond Earth ships October 24th with maps based on real planets
If you're eager to play the first Civilization game set in space (not counting Alpha Centauri), you now have a date to mark on your calendar: Beyond Earth will reach Windows-based PCs on October 24th. That's a long time to wait, although Firaxis is sweetening the pot with astronomy-themed bonus content. If you pre-order the space colonization game from certain stores, you'll get a map pack based loosely on real, potentially inhabitable exoplanets like Kepler 186f and Rigil Khantoris (aka Rigel Kentaurus) Bb. It's hard to say if the extra terrain will be worth plunking down cash in advance, but we suspect that you've already pulled the trigger if you're a die-hard Civ fan -- this is just icing on the extraterrestrial cake.
