gods-and-kings
Latest
OnLive now streaming Civ 5, free with Gods and Kings purchase
If you don't own Civilization 5 yet, have heard good things about the Gods and Kings expansion, and have a steady Internet connection to play games on, then streaming service OnLive has a deal for you. It's offering the Civ 5 core game PlayPass for free when you buy Gods and Kings, essentially giving you the entire critically acclaimed title and its add-on for $29.99.What you're buying here is the chance to play them on OnLive, however, which gives you the benefit of running the game as if you're on a high-end PC (even if you're on a Mac or a low-end PC), as long as you have an Internet connection with the bandwidth to stream it. As long as you've got the pipes for streaming HD video, this is the way to jump on the Civ 5 wagon, as the same deal on Steam will currently run you $60. OnLive says the door's closing on this one at the end of this week.
Civilization 5: Gods and Kings review: March of progress
The board game Clue (Cluedo to those in Europe) was created in 1949. About 40 years later Clue Master Detective was created, leaving the core game intact, but adding more suspects, weapons and rooms. Civilization 5: Gods and Kings follows a nearly identical model. Seemingly a response to criticism that there wasn't enough going on in Civilization 5 as there was in Civilization 4, the Gods and Kings expansion tosses a bunch of balanced mechanics into the game simply to give more.To understand the present we must look to the recent past. Civilization 5 already had its "Game of the Year Edition" launch last year, normally marketing's indication that a game's development has come to a conclusion. Yet, here we are with Gods and Kings, a $30 expansion that adds new civilizations, wonders and buildings; with two big game mechanic additions being religion and espionage.I appreciated Civilization 5 for being a better game than any of its predecessors, opening up the series to more players, instead of creating the strategy game feedback loop that only builds mechanics for the hardest of hardcore, thus leaving newbies locked out or working eight times harder to understand what's happening. Civilization 5 streamlined nearly every mechanic in the series and made combat tactical for the first time, only allowing one unit per hex instead of a "stack of doom."Boiled down: Civilization 5: Gods and Kings takes two years of patches and adds religion and espionage to the mix for those who felt the game wasn't busy enough. Oddly, and not in a negative sense, the new mechanics actually simplify the game in many ways, with religion and espionage supplying bonus options that can be used to devastating effect by those with a strategic mind.%Gallery-152923%
Learning religious proselytizing from Civ 5's 'Gods and Kings' expansion
Perhaps the biggest addition in Civilization 5's upcoming Gods & Kings expansion is religion. But don't go thinking it's some innocuous cultural addendum – as the Firaxis folks above explain, religion in Civ 5 is all about subjugation.
Firaxis takes a walk through time with Civ 5's Gods and Kings expansion trailer
When Civilization 5's Gods & Kings expansion launches next week, it'll have more than a few extra civs and that whole religion thing. Allow the fine folks at Firaxis to walk you through exactly what to be prepared for in this handy – and heavily informative – video, just above.
