Many new games, including NieR Replicant and Civilization VI, are joining the PlayStation Plus Extra October 2023 lineup, as per the PlayStation Blog. Some retro games, including the Star Ocean series, will be available for PlayStation Pl?us Premium members as well. All of these ti??tles can be downloaded to your PS4 and PS5 on September 19.

20 titles have b?een announced to join th??e PlayStation Plus Extra October 2023 lineup. They include the following:

• NieR Replicant
• 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
• Civilization VI
• Star Ocean The Divine Force
• Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2
• Odin Sphere Leifthrasir
• Unpacking
• Planet Coaster Console Edition
• This War of Mine Final Cut
• Cloudpunk
• Contra: Rogue Corps
• Tails Noir
• Cult of the Sea
• West of Dead
• Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness
• PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls

The PlayStation Premium classics lineup for Oct??ober 2023 are:

• Star Ocean First Departure R
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
• Dragon's Crown Pro
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope - 4K & FHD Remaster

Note that PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium may be difficult for some to access due to the recent price hike. PlayStation Plus Extra is now $134.99 and PlayStation Plus Pre??mium is $159.9??9.

Thankfully, some of these new games are highly rated. NieR Replicant, for example, earned an 8.5 from Destructoid's Chris Carter. Meanwhile, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has garnered critical acclaim for its strong writing and a beautiful art style. Destructoid gave it an 8.5/10 as well.

PlaySta?tion Plus subscribers can check out these games on Septem?ber 19.

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And... PARTY ON, DUDES!

Following on from this weekend's leak, developer Firaxis has officially announced the Civilization VI Leader Pass, which will see the coming months roll out a who's who of famed leaders, dictators, and visionaries to t?he grand strategy sequel.

The first DLC drop, "The Great Negotiators" will launch on November 21 and will bring with it diplomatic masters Abraham Lin??coln (United State??s) Queen Nzinga Mbande (Kongo), and Sultan Saladin (Arabia). Each leader brings to the table bespoke skills and abilities to help players grow and expand their presence within their home territories as well as in the global political picture.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=luWyFMwgQoc

The remaining five packs, which are yet to ?be dated, contain the following DLC leaders. All packs will be released by spring 2023.

• Great Commanders Pack: Tokugawa (Japan), Nader Shah (Persia), and Suleiman the Magnificent (Ottoman Empire).
• Rulers of China Pack: Yongle, Qin Shi Huang the Unifier, and Wu Zetian (All China).
• Rulers of the Sahara Pack: King Ramses (Egypt), Ptolemaic Cleopatra (Egypt), King Sundiata Keita (Mali).
• Great Builders Pack: Theodora (Byzantine Empire), Sejong (Korea), and Ludwig II (Germany).
• Ruler of England Pack: Elizabeth I (England), Varangian Harald Hardrada (Norway), and Victoria: Age of Steam (England).

Note t??hat some of the included leaders will require their respective scenarios and expansions in order to play. (For example: Nader Shah requires the previously releases Persia & Macedon Scenario Pack).

The Civilization VI: Leader Pass is included as part of the Civilization VI Anthology. It will also be available to purchase separately on Steam and Epic Game Store. A price was not revealed.

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A long time coming

Mobile gaming may not be suited for every genre out there, but if there is one type of game that's perfectly suited for mobile platforms, it's the strategy game. And not those damn free-to-play strategy games like Clash of Clans and its ilk. I'm talking real strategy games, like Civilization VI. Back in 2018, Aspyr Media ported the best-selling game to iOS, giving Apple Cult members like myself a chance to take over the world on the go and also see just how quickly the batter??y on our iPads can drain.

Of course, when a game launches for an Apple product, the first question anyone asks is, "Android?" Well, after nearly two years, Android users have their shot at world domination as Civilization VI is available on the mobile platform today.

Like with the iOS version, you can download Civilization VI on Android for free and play 60 turns before having to pay. The full version of the game can be purchased for $19.99 with DLC available, including the Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm expansion passes as well as the va??rious Civil??ization and Scenario Packs.

Civilization VI [Google Play]

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Through May 28

The wild summer of? free stuff continue?s, as Epic has just revealed the next Epic Game Store promotion: and it's a big one.

Civilization VI is now on the docket, which somehow still retails for $59.99 on marketplaces like Steam. You have from now through May 28 at 11AM ET to grab it, and I suggest you do so. While the Civ series has had its ups and downs, Civ VI is a great series entry and a source of endless afternoons either solo or with friends. If you haven't ventured into the 4X genre yet (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate, the basic tenets of how you approach a 4X game), now is the time with the recent and user-friendly Civ VI.

But since this is 2K after all, the situation isn't circumstantial. The mega-publisher just recently ann??o?unced a massive year-long season pass for the game, which goes for $39.99, on top of the existing "Platinum Upgrade" that has prior DLC packs in tow. If new folks get sucked into this nearly four-year-old game, they'll probabl?y shell out. It's genius.

For now, enjoy the freebie!

Free Games [Epic Game Store]

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'New Frontier Pass'

Civilization VI has been slowly trucking a??????????????????????????long since its late 2016 release on PC, adding platforms and updates here and there. In 2017 it hit mobile devices, in 2018 it arrived on Switch and in 2019, it hit PS4/Xbox One. That's no??t normally the order of operations, but Firaxis and 2K are trying some different approaches here.

That includes this brand new, outta nowhere season pass, called the "New Frontier Pass." Distilled, it'll add six new modes, nine leaders "and more" throu?gh six DLC packs on a "bi-monthly basis," starting with May 21, 2020 and running all the way through March 2021. It'll run you $39.99 (PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch are all confirmed, with mobile comin??g "at a later date"), and thankfully items in the pass can be purchased piecemeal; but if you buy the pass, it'll come with the "Teddy Roosevelt and Catherine De Medici Persona Packs."

2K also shared some details for the first pack arriving on May 21. It's the Maya and Gran Colombia pack, w?hich also bundles in an "apocalypse mode," as well as new resources, wonders and city-states. Leader confirmation is coming later. According to Firaxis, free updates will arrive in the?? months that the paid DLC doesn't: so expect one next month.

Given how packed Civ already was, DLC through early 2021 is? a big surprise. Hopefully it'll all measure up, but the first pack, which has the aforementioned extra mode, seems fairly meaty.

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Sean Bean is back

Civilization VI tore onto the scene in 2016, and gave us the first mainline Civ in six years. We need way more simulation games in our lives right now, so I was more than happy to receive it, despite some issues and downgrades compared to past?? entries.

I had ??the ??chance to check the game out on PS4, and it seems like up to the task, similar to have the Switch port was in 2018.

I've been jumping in and out of Civ VI on PC for a while now, but I think I'll be playing on consoles for the foreseeable future: at least when it comes to solo play (my old Civ mates wouldn't be caught dead playing on anything but PC, but I'm kind of ready for a new experience. Brilliantly, there's a tutorial for brand new Civ players, brand new Civ VI players and those "new to the platform."

If you've never played a Civ game before, you're basically taking control of any number of different civilizations in a turn-based setting under the guise of explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate (otherwise known as the "4X genre") with the endgame of achieving a Civ VI-specific win condition (commonly refer??red to as "win cons"). In Civ VI, you can declare victory through religion, science, domination (military), culture (tourism) or a pre-determined amount of points/stopping point.

People love Civ because it can essentially morph into any number of different tabletop games, spanning Eurogames and worker management. If you want to play it as a pacifist (which has varying degrees of efficacy depending on the game), you can do that. Or aggressively, or isolationist, and so on. On consoles, hitting L1 (LB) or R1 (RB) will swap between menus with ease, and moving about the hexagonal map with the analog stick is a cinch. Given that Civ is a methodical strategic series at heart it makes a whole lot more sense ??even without?? a keyboard and mouse.

Even just for pure historical value Civ VI is worth playing. There's an innocent joy to accomplishing a new in-game goal and unlocking a real-life factoid for the founding of Kraków, or hear Sean Bean's dulcet tones teach you about Teddy Roosevelt. It's just a relaxing game on any platform: something you can pick up and put a few turns into on an easier diffic?ulty setting, or really challenge your brain on a higher one.

The console editions are also launching with optional expansion bundles (Rise and Fall/Gathering Storm) which offer 18 new leaders and 16 civilizations in total, as well as new literal win and failure conditions for the former, and a host of natural disasters for the latter. Alone Rise and Fall is a bit middling, but when combined with Gathering Storm it augments Civ VI nicely. There's a reason why Firaxis Games is low key one of 2K's best studios, as they're still churning out hits like XCOM 2 and Sid Meier games in recent years.

Civilization VI is out on PS4 and Xbox One on November 22, 2019, priced at $60 for the base game and $50 for the expansion bundle. Note that the "platinum edition," which includes all lesser scenarios and both expansions, is $120 on Steam. Gathering Storm is $40 and Rise and Fall are still separa??tely $30 on Steam, but the base game is pretty packed enough.

_{[This assessment is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Three years after initial release

[Update: It's coming to Xbox One too, also on November 22. Additionally, the Exp?ansion Bundle will release on Switch on the same?? day.]

One of the most popular strategy franchises is finally debuting on one of the most po??pular consoles.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is getting ported to PlayStation 4. The base game will be bundled with the Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm expansions. It's coming on November 22 -- a little le?ss than two months from today.

This isn't the first Civ VI port. It appeared on Nintendo Switch lat?e last year.

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Last society standing

I think battle royale may finally be diverse enough to call its own genre. In a surprise bit of news, 2K Games and Firaxis have announced that their popular strategy game Civilization VI will be getting a free battle royale update. Titled Red Death, the mode is honestly more like last man standing than PUBG, but it still features an ever? diminishing play area with opponents racing to be the first perso??n to a space ship.

You and 11 other opponents will be fighting with the last survivor's members of your civilization to escape from a decaying planet. Thanks to nuclear warfare, Earth is no longer inhabitable and a red cloud of death (hence the name) is slowly closing in. While you can attempt to avoid conflict and sneak your way to the spaceship, only one civilization will be allowed off-planet. It's kill or be killed, quite ??literally as the player with at least one remaining unit at the end will be declared the winner.

Accommodating sizes of between 2-12 players, you can sample Red Death online or against AI opponents. It is currently available in Civilization VI on PC (sorry, Switch owners) for free in the September 2019 update. You do not need either expansion to try it out. A full breakdown of the mode is over on the official Civilization website.

Civilization VI – September 2019 Update Available Now [Civilization]

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Downgrade

While Civilization VI mixed-up quite a bit about the mechanics of the series, one of the more contentious changes among fans dealt with the visuals. Some people were turned off by the cartoonish look of the game and longed to have something similar to its immediate predecessor, Civilization V. While I had no problem with the art style, even I have to admit that the more realistic tone of V almost fits Civilization better.

Thankfully, we can now have the best of both worlds. A new mod, called "Environment Skin: Sid Meier's Civilization V," swaps all of the environment textures to a style reminiscent of Civilization V. Created by Brian Busatti, art director for the series, the mod came about as a challenge from his fellow devs. "I was challenged by the team to create an expansive mod using Mod Buddy," reads the description on the Steam workshop, "and this was ??the end result. It's an example of how much you can change the visuals and I hope it provides inspiration to try your own modifications."

The mod works with all versions of Civilization VI, regardless if you have one expansion, both, or none. It should also seamlessly work with any save games you have, being a texture swap instead of a gameplay tweak. You'll just need to add it to your Steam queue and enable it in-game from the mod menu. I may give this a go since I have been dying for a Civ fix lately.

Environment Skin: Sid Meier's Civilization V [Steam Workshop]

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Is this a monkeypaw wish?

As if we needed an excuse to sacrifice even more of our free time to Civilization VI, the time-sink strategy game now ha??s cross-platform saves on Steam and Nintendo Switch. You can start playing hunched up real close to the warm glow of your monitor and continue building your empire on the go.

Civilization VI now supports cross-platform cloud saves on Steam and #NintendoSwitch. Link your @2K Account, tick the ?multi-p??latform cloud save box in options, and you're good to go!

Get your 2K Account: //t.co/HX0bxwgmnt pic.twitter.com/LxYdxG7hbp

— Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (@CivGame) April 2, 2019

As the tweet says, all you need to do is get your 2K Account situated over here, link said account to Civilization VI, and then check the box for cross-system cloud saves. Unfortunately, only the base game is supported, though there's hope that the Switch will get Gathering Storm before long.

This is a really user-friendly feature and I'm all about it, especially for a game as long as Civ.

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Great deal if you got the game on sale

Civilization VI on iOS is one of the best examples of how to translate a hit PC title to tablets and phones, as well as one of the most expensive. The $60 asking price for the mobile port is far beyond what most other apps charge upfront and may h??ave been a turnoff for some potential buyers. But for those of you who did take the plunge, prepare to get some goodies for Christmas.

Aspyr Media, the developer of the mobile port, has announced it is giving away all Civilization and Scenario packs for Civ VI on iOS for free. Ea??ch free pack will only be available for 48 hours and you need to ?have purchased the main game to download them. The schedule for the giveaway is as follows:

• December 20 - December 22: Poland Civilization and Scenario Pack
• December 22 - December 24: Vikings Scenario
• December 24 - December 26: Australia Civilization and Scenario Pack
• December 26 - December 28: Persia and Macedon Civilization and Scenario Pack
• December 28 - December 30: Nubia Civilization and Scenario Pack
• December 30 - January 1: Khmer and Indonesia Civilization and Scenario Pack

Once downloaded, the pack will be yours to keep forever. Each new pack will go live at 10:00 am PST on the listed days above. I haven't made the plunge in any version of Civ VI yet, but it looks like it's time f??or me to finally add this game to my wonderful collection of simulators on my iPa??d.

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Coming next February

In a live stream just minutes ago, Firaxis has announced that a new expansion will be coming to Civilization VI next year. Titled Gathering Storm, the big?gest addition to the game will be the inclusion of natural disasters. Firaxis is?? also talking about tweaks done to obtaining energy sources in the game along with the inclusion of different energy types.

The "World Congress" system from Civilization V will also be making a return. They will appear every 30 turns (at normal game speed) and give you a chance to vote on critical issues in your game. Those choices will then influence things about the ecosystem of your map and could have devastating effects for everyone playing. It will also? play into the new "Diplomatic Victory" condition.

Civilization VI: Gathering Storm will launch for PC on Februa??ry 14, 2019. No ??price has been mentioned yet.

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It'll be $60 once the launch discount wears off

The iPad port of Civilization VI turned out well enough that we're also getting a miniaturized iPhone version of the enduring strategy g??ame. If you want to give it a test run, the first 60 turns are ??free.

Aspyr Media is currently charging $23.99 for Civilization VI on iPhone, which sounds pricey until you learn that the normal off-of-sale price will be a full $59.99. Granted, it's Civ -- people will pay. The sale runs until October 16 and the game is compatible with iPhone 7 and newer models running iO??S 11.

Civilization VI will also find its way onto Nintendo Switch in mid-November.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI [App Store]

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An empire in your jacket

[Update: As part of today's Nintendo Direct presentation, we got to see the trailer for this exciting new port. Yo??u can check it out at the foot of the article. Amazing how the epic title is being scaled down for Nintendo's baby.]

The award-winning, world-building strategy series Sid Meier's Civilization is set to conquer the Switch, with the announcement that Civilization VI is headed toward Nintendo's hybrid-console in just a few short mo?nths.

Civilization VI for Switch will see the epic strategy title scaled down for play in portable form. Reserach technology, build armies, visit new lands, trade goods, meet interesting people and go to war with them. All of the Civilization gameplay that has made the decades-long series a success will be arriving on?? Switch November 16.

The Switch release will also include four extra packs of new civilisations and scenarios, including Australia, Poland, Persia and even the marauding Vi??kings of yore. The new port will also allow four wannabe world-leaders the opportunity to team up or fight it out in co-op or competitive multiplayer.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI, already available on PC and iOS?, launches on Nintendo Switch Nove??mber 16.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI for Nintendo Switch [Official]

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NO SURPRISES!

Ever since the announcement late last year, I've been eager to find out what new stuff is coming in Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. Obviously Firaxis was going to include new leaders, but what gameplay tweaks were coming to fix some of the issues from the core game? Was there anything the series hasn't already touched that could ??even be expanded on?

Turns out we won't even have to wait for launch, because this new trailer basically explains everything about the game. While you won't get a feel ?for how these changes work in the minute-to-minute gameplay, you won't need to guess how the new "Heroic" and "Dark" ages work or what new policies are on offer.

The biggest thing that sticks out, for me, is the art style. While Civilization has never gone for a purely realistic look, this new expansion seems to double down on the already exaggerated expressions tha?t the base gam??e had. I think it looks neat, but it also feels a little out of place. That will just have to be something that grows on me.

Since the new expansion launches on Fe?bruary 8, it won't be long before we get our hands ?on this new content.

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The world is yours

New frontiers ahoy for Sid Meier's Civilization VI. After spending the past year or so on PC, Mac, and Linux, the renowned 4X strategy game is c?oming to a more mobile format (if we ignore the invention of laptops, of course.)

Today, Civ VI is available on newer iPad models. The exhaustive list of compatible Apple tablets is: iPad Air 2, the?? 2017 model of iPad, and any iPad Pro. Also, it has to run iOS 11. That's the equipment you need before you even think about the cultural nir?vana you want to create.

To help ease the resource burden, 2K is launching Civ VI at a discounted rate. Through January 4, the iOS version will be $30; afterward, it jumps back to the regular $60 price. For those unsure folks, the free 60-turn demo is in effect -- although you can't accomplish a wh?ole heck of a lot in 60 turns. And, for anyone concerne??d about storage, this takes up 3.14GB of space.

It's probably also worth noting that this is only the base game without any of the expansions. So those extra civilizations like the Vikings and the Aztecs aren't included. But, it's still an important development leading up to Civ VI's Rise and Fall add-on releasing next February. Chalk this on?e up as a victory.

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More Sean Bean narration!

Early next year, Civilization VI is going to get bigger. Announced just today (with a CGI trailer), Firaxis is going to expand its premiere strategy series with Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. Launching February 8, 2018, this new expansion will focus on "Great Ages" and introduce a new concept where your empire can go through a dark period. A new city based loyalty system also means your cities are at a constant threat from your misdir?ection, so ??you can't rest on your laurels and expect to win.

"Rise triumphantly from a Dark Age and your next Golden Age will be even stronger – a Heroic Age," says 2K Games. "With the new Great Ages system in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Rise and Fall, ??players can experience the ebb and flow of building empires amidst the challenges of history, either to lasting greatness or the dust of antiquity."

In my review, I found Civilization VI to be one of the most feature complete launches in the series' history. I honestly couldn't picture what an expansion would even add, but Rise and Fall seems to be going in the right direction. Hopefull??y it fixes some of the lingering AI is??sues that the core game still has.

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Say two 'Hail Mary's' and an 'Our Father'

While Civilization VI is an excellent game, its not without some flaws. The most noticeable shortcoming as with the religious victory path. Not only was the combat pretty brain dead, bu??t it was far too easy to amass a small convent of priests and have them convert other cities to your creed. The tile based nature of the game map also meant that religious units often occupied spaces that your army would travel on, thus making military action harder to accomplish.

While not everything is changing about how religion works, the system seems to be getting tweaked for the better. In the upcoming Fall update, religious victories will be getting ex??panded with new beliefs and units. The coolest sounding of these is the Warrior Monk, which makes me want to create Shaolin and take over the world with Ip Man. There will also be a Guru support unit that can heal your priests, which was definitely lacking before.

Firaxis is also improving the AI to be more aggressive on the oceans, a factor tha??t was lacking on lower difficulties. Before, if you sieged an ocean based city, the AI often had no comeback for your units. It loo??ks like naval ships will now play a stronger role in their strategies, which should make for more intense battles.

Wrapping it all up are some UI tweaks, specifically the Diplomacy screen. The amount of info on screen in vanilla Civ VI could be a bit staggering, so I'm all ??for streamlining some of the information. Hopefully this all improves the game, as I've had a blast playing it over the last year. I could always go for one mo??re turn, even when I'm hyper busy.

Religion Gets a Reboot in the Civilization VI ‘Fall 2017 Update’ [Steam Community]

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Kushy

It has been almost half a year since the last DLC pack for Civilization VI was released, but the wait is finally over. The Nubian kingdom of Kush will b?e coming to the game with Amanitore leading the cause. She's here to walk like an Egyptian and kick some ass while doing so.

Amanitore's unique unit is the Pitati Archer, a specialized ancient era unit that is faster and stronger than traditional bowmen. Their exclusive structure is the Nubian pyramid, which is a tile improvement that leaches bonuses from adjacent tiles (such as getting m??ore food from a farm or faith from a temple/church). Amanitore also has increased productivity towards creating districts and all ranged units will ha?ve faster experience gain (as well as shorter production queues).

No release date has been announced, but this new civ will be automatically unlocked for anyone who owns the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game. Nubia is the fifth civilization being adde?d to the game, so there should only be one more that? was promised in the deluxe bundle. Maybe we'll see an expansion next year, or possibly later this year.

I'm not really sure what else you could add, though. In my review, I found the game to be pretty well balanced and feature rich, almost feeling like Civilization V with its three expansions integrated. Apart from fixing up lag issues with online play, I don't even have a wish list for what I might add. Maybe an expansion?? of the faith victory and combat to be more than just lightning bolts striking from the heavens, which is about the only shallow aspect of the current game.

Civilization 6 introduces Nubia as next civ [Eurogamer]

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New DLC and a scenario pack

The trickle feed of new civilizations continues with Alexander the Great being the next new ruler to be added to Civilization VI. Along with Macedonia getting representation will be Persia with Cyrus the Great. Together, they will make a great combo. Alone, they will be great riva??ls. Greatness awaits is the point I'm making (suck it, Sony!).

In addition to those two new leaders comes the announcement of a scenario pack. Dubbed the "Double Civilization" pack, I can only imagine it entails some co-op mode or the ability to run two civs in a solo campaig??n. The details for that pack wil??l be unveiled when the Spring 2017 update lands.

While I love the production quality put into each of these extra civilizations, I still don't understand why 2K is dead set on going the route of piecemeal DLC along with full scale expansions. I waited for a good two years before buying into any of Civilization V's DLC and I was reward??????????????????????????ed with a Special Edition upgrade for $5 that contain?ed everything. Why not just save these new leaders for the inevitable expansion pack?

Double Civilization & Scenario Pack Coming Soon to Sid Meier’s Civilization VI [Steam Community]

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Worth a peek

How much can you get done in your first 60 turns of a Civilization campaign? If you're anything like me in Civ VI and are prone to oh-so-tempting b?arbarian distractions, not a whole heck of a lot.

Firaxis Games has a Windows-only Civilization VI demo on Steam, and it's exactly that: 60 turns with which to get things started for China as Qin Shi Huang. Crucially, there's also a tutorial. It won't be entirely sufficient for all-new Civ players, but this installment is re?latively approachable.

As tends to be?? the way, the full version of the game is currently discount?ed.

Civilization VI [Steam]

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Dennis can now play!

One of the most-requested features for Civilization VI will soon be upon us. In an upcoming free update, Steam Workshop support will be going live alongside some new team options and the Australian Civilization DLC. While I've sunk more time than I care to admit into the core game, finally having official mod support will be huge for the longevity of Civ VI. It did wonders for Civilization V, which I still occasionally play to this day.

As for the new DLC, this marks the first time Australia is officially in a Civilization game. Australia will feature John Curt?in, Prime Minister of the country during World War II. Firaxis also detailed some of the unique units and buildings that Australia will have, i??ncluding "The Digger" and "The Outback Station." Looks pretty neat.

While I think Civilization VI is great, I haven't actually purchased any of the additional content. I think $5 for a single civilization and scenario is a bit much. Still, I'm sure there will be plenty of people happy that Australia is now? finally in the beloved fra?nchise, even if they are locked behind a paywall.

Civilization VI: John Curtin Leads Australia [Steam Forums]

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Best Civ prices since the Winter sales

Update: Civ deals are GamersGate have ended but the sales have moved onto other retailers at the same price range for Civilization VI. Deals listed below.

The Sweden-based PC digital retailer GamersGate has launched a Civilization midweek sale slashing prices on Civilization VI to prices we haven't seen since last year's winter sale. The Civ sale really isn't overly comprehensive, but does get you 26 percent off Civ VI and 30 percent off the Civ VI Deluxe Edition.

Civilization Sale

• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Digital Deluxe (Steam) -- $58.39  (list price $80)
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Steam) -- $44.99 (list price $60)
• Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth (Steam) -- $10.89  (list price $40)
• Sid Meier's Civilization V: Complete Edition (Steam) -- $10.50  (list price $50)
• Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World (Steam) -- $6.60  (list price $30)

GamersGate has a few other titles on sale like Civilization: Beyond Earth and Civilization V Complete. In terms of a discount, Civ V Complete generally goes on sale for $12.50, so this is sligh?tly better ??than the usual 75 percent off deal.

Civilization VI has been as cheap as $39.34, so for a non-holiday sale price it's not a terrible time to pounce on one of the most popular games of 2016.? The sale ends rather quickly, tomorrow February 10 at 6pm Eastern??????????????????????????.

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Rip and Tear!

2016 wasn’t the best year for gaming, at least in my opinion. We definitely saw some solid titles come out (along with the end of a decade-long wait for two games!), but a lot of t??he major releases this year were retreads of tired themes and genres that ?haven’t seen a mix-up since the last console generation. While I typically don’t play a lot of games released in a particular year until the following year, I can’t even make a top 10 list for 2016 as I just didn’t play enough quality titles.

Still, I want to honor the games that really did wow me with something, so I’ve opted for a top five games of 2016. To me, these rep??resent some of the best games from this tumultuous ye??ar that I played, even if others are “objectively” better.

Honorable Mention – Super Rad Raygun

I don’t have much more to say about this title over what my review did, but I want to throw this into the list as it barely missed making the top five. The game is a love letter to the classic Game Boy along with?? containing a really well-thought-out plotline. The character of Rad is super adorable and his evolution into a wiser machine echoes a lot of what I’ve gone through in my own life.

There is also the fact that Capcom has failed to make a Mega Man game for six years now and Super Rad Raygun nearly fits the bill. It may not have the copy ability that Mega Man does, but the open-ended world map and basic gameplay design strongly mirror the seminal Capcom series. Super Rad Raygun i??s a must-play for old-school fans and a pretty solid title in its own right.

5. Watch Dogs 2

Quite honestly, I’m surprised I enjoyed this game as much as I did. While I hadn’t played the first Watch Dogs until after getting this (as a friend thought it was necessary), I was quite taken with how unrestricted your arsenal of tools was. I suppose you could go in guns blazing and solve every mission with several magazines of ammo, but the true joy of Watch Dogs 2 is how no one answer is the correct one.

You can melee all of the guards, fly your quadcopter through some air vents, jump from camera to camera and hack computers, or ??some combination of everything. The ??only way this game let me down was in the general story, which lacks any kind of motivation or central villainous character. I appreciate Ubisoft trying to make a more realistic tale of script kiddies causing havoc, but it becomes super difficult to remain invested when every mission is mostly a “fuck the man!” type message.

That is made up for with how strongly the characters are written, including a transgender politician and a pudgy, bald lady with an unconventional style. No one is called out for their looks or their gender, but on how their a??ctions are hurting the society around them. Basically, this game puts the “don’t judge a book by its cover” idiom into practice. It makes for a remarkably grounded?? and joyous game that is easy to get sucked into, as long as you ignore the basic narrative.

Also, you can call cops on random people, then call gang members on the cops, and ?then call cops on the gang members you ordered in. That is just a??wesome.

4. Clustertruck

This is one of the few titles that came out of nowhere for me. I had never heard of it until TinyBuild sent us an e-mail with a review code and it just looked crazy to me. Usually first-person platform games have problems with identifying depth, making jumps feel almost impossible due to the perspective. Somehow, Clustertruck nails the idea of movement and creates some truly awesome scenarios that feel straight out of Hollywood action f?ilm.

Clustertruck also follows the winning pattern of Braid by introducing a simple, core concept a??nd then building upon it with varying level designs. While there are special abilities you can unlock, the entire game is possible with just your starting skills. As you get better at the game, you learn to think on your feet and identify patterns with lightning speed, making for some narrow escapes and death-defying jumps that will have your butt clenching in fear.

The final boss kind of throws all of that out the window, but the game includes Steam Workshop support and has more then enough levels before the final confrontation to remain enjoyable for the four or so hours it takes to beat. I highly recommend this if you were a fan of Mirror’s Edge, but hated how the combat mec?hanics took center stage in s?ome levels.

3. Alone With You

Point-and-click adventure games have definitely made a resurgence ever since Telltale Games signed on to revive Sam & Max. Its early portfolio is loaded with some really ?good retro-style adventure titles, but its more recent work has taken a step towards cinematic narratives. While I can’t fault them for changing up the formula, I missed the quality titles they were making in the vein of LucasArts.

While Alone With You isn’t exactly an adventure game, it?? contains a lot of the same gameplay loops that the classic LucasArts titles did. You get sent on a quest to discover the downfall of scientific research base that was looking for life on another planet. At the same time, your discoveries lead to your AI companion being able to temporarily bring back the memories of some of the key staff that perished along with the outpost you’re stationed at.

What really makes this game work is how well-written everything is, but I was mostly taken with how beautiful the “love” story at the center of the title is. The?re are multiple paths and endings to this game, allowing for unique stories between playthroughs and players, but opting to stick with the AI and watchi?ng as it grows a personality and becomes concerned for your safety nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Sure, there may not be the most in-depth?? or original gameplay, but puzzles that require logic and memorization are always a plus in my book. The wonderful music and fantastic art style also make this a joy to be engaged with, even if you get a bit lost.

2. Doom

Growing up in the '90s, I was a pretty big fan of shooters. The genre had started to take hold of the gaming landscape with the release of GoldenEye 007 and it hasn’t let up since. While I don’t care for the majority of shooters released in the last five or so years, Doom had my attention due to the nostalgia factor. That it ended up being a solid, fast-paced, and bloody throwback to simpler times was ?as big a surprise to me ?as it was to anyone.

While Doom isn’t exactly “classic” in the sense of level design or progression, the gunplay that drives each encounter feels like a natural evolution of the ??original game’s concept. You’re given an extremely varied and chaotic arsenal of guns to dispatch enemies with and the game speed is cranked to 150% to keep you moving. If you stand still, you will die!

What initially stopped me from truly loving the title was the emphasis on collecting secrets to power-up your guns. The original Doom handled secrets by giving you temporary boosts to your health or armor, but this new game throws a bunch of random tasks at you to improve the damage output of your guns or permanently increase your health and then bombards you with pop-ups about new weapons, hidden collectibles, and “rune” abilities that grant you passive bonuses. Aren’t I the Doom guy? I’m supposed to ??be a?? badass without any help.

Thankfully, an “Arcade” mode update was released that doe??s away with any secret finding and just gives you everything from the start. Now, you get to experience the game in a manner that feels truer to the original title while also allowi?ng you to unload with ultimate dominance at every moment. Sure, the main campaign is solid enough, but there is too much in the way of downtime if you opt to scour each inch of every level for all of the secrets. It doesn’t help that there doesn’t seem to be a way to turn off those pop-up boxes that lead you to the dry and pointless flavor text.

Also, the boss battles are too damned easy. While I finished the campaign on “Ultra-Violence,” my bigge?st hurdles were with the larger rooms loaded with dozen?s of enemies. Every time you get to a boss, you basically dodge a super telegraphed pattern and unload on him. It is boring and kind of anticlimactic. Isn’t the Spider Mastermind supposed to be the toughest bastard in hell?

1. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

I’m not exactly the biggest fan of real-time strategy games, seeing as how I somehow lack the ability to micromanage my troops or think about actions a few steps ahead of the competition. Without the ability to stop and think, I tend to make gut-reaction moves that cost me precious units and time. For that reason alone, I’ve always loved the pacing and style of the Civilization series. I also like how carefree the game treats history, allowing you to feel smart for having studied Western/Eastern Civ in school while also manipulating ?the past to make your own perfect empire.

What Civilization VI brings to the table after five? prequels is a lot more strategic depth. I can’t deny that I like just plopping a city down and calling it a day, but having to strongly consider where you put certain districts or even found your cities? makes every small decision feel a lot more impactful to the game. You can no longer settle wherever you want and make weird designs on the map, since certain areas are going to leave your city desolate and vapid.

The reintroduction of religion with a stronger emphasis on making it a core part of the gameplay is also great. While I know Gods & Kings for Civilization V did bring back theology to the series, it never felt as realized as what Civilization IV attempted to do. Now, though, you can actually win a game wit??h an entirely pacifist route by simply converting all of your neighbors to your?? faith.

Not everything about VI works as well as its fully expanded predecessors, but this is basically the strongest base Civilization game the series has ever seen. What you get already feels like a well-thought-out and developed game that could realistically see one expansion before being perfect. Being a fan of the series for a little over a decade now, I couldn’t be happier with what we&rsq??uo;ve gotten.

The post Peter Glagowski’s personal picks for Game of the Year 2016 appeared first on Destructoid.

Paid DLC alongside the free Winter Update

Ah, Civilization VI. The game I love and, thankfully (for the sake of my free time and general well-being), I keep forgetting I have installed. "Don't believe its lies. It will eat your weekend."

The so-called Winter 2016 Update is out this week, an??d with it comes Good Changes (you can set up an alert for units to sleep until they spot an enemy; production costs for Space R?ace Projects are down by 40 percent), further balancing, AI tuning, fixes, and a pair of DLC packs, including a new civ.

As detailed in the overview video above, the monarch Jadwiga can now lead Poland in Civilization VI. Her standout benefit, and the one that has me seriously considering plunking down five bucks for access to the add-on, is this: when you complete an encampment or fort inside friendly territory, you gain adjacent tiles -- even if that means stealing territ?ory right out from under another civilization.

That sounds really? useful. And this,?? too, looks awesome:

That said, I'm unsure if I'll pay for the privilege (it costs $5 for Poland and the Jadwiga's Legacy scenario bundled together), or just hold out for some eventual DLC package at a reduced ?rate.

Firaxis is also offering a similarly-priced Vikings Scenario Pack with six new city states, three more Natural Wonders, and "the most detailed scenario released yet for [Civ VI]."

Civilization VI: King Jadwiga Leads Poland [Civilization]

The post Poland joins Civilization VI and it’s here to steal your tiles appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm glad he's not dead

As if Sean Bean doesn't already joke about dying in nearly every one of his films, he makes a crack about being "replaced" in the next Civilization, creat??ing a canon death for his character, the narrator. It's heartbreaking!

More triumphantly, you can get a little behind-the-scenes look at this pr??ocess, in which he low-key says it's easier than making films because you have the lines in front of you. Oh, and the brief footage of the chorus that perfor??ms live music? Wonderful.

I wis?h there was hours of footage of Sean Be??an smiling in a sound booth.

The post Watch (a very much alive) Sean Bean’s soothing voicework for Civilization VI appeared first on Destructoid.

Well, when you put it that way Gandhi

Here's an offer you can't refuse, and it isn't because Gandhi's force?s are just chilling at the border. You know, relocating his forces. No big deal.

One of the best Civilization VI deals for the Black Friday season has just appeared on Green Man Gaming. If you don't want to wait for GameStop's Black Friday deal of $40?? (plus tax), this is as good as it gets without havin??g to deal with an out-of-stock notice.

The 27% off discount spans the Digital Deluxe Edition too, which is technically at 28% off now that it's been dropped to $57.59. If you're a die-hard Civ VI fan, t?he extra conte?nt/map from the Deluxe isn't a bad deal either.

Black Friday Deals for Civilization VI

• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Steam) — $44.99 (list price $60)
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Digital Deluxe (Steam) — $58.39  (list price $80)
• Use coupon: WINTER10

Prices above now updated to new round of Winter Sale deals.

A??s a side note, besides GameStop's deal, there is also a Best Buy deal of $45 on Black Friday. If you have GCU, you should definitely consider waiting for Best Buy's deal as that'll tack on another 20% off.

This deal is set to expire on November 29, but we've seen digital titles "sell out" before (at their sales price) and at times p??ublishers may intervene and end a sale early too, so apologies in advance if you're reading this days later and missed the deals.

Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.

The post Black Friday deal?? for Civilization VI is 27% of?f for digital copies appeared first on Destructoid.

Watch out for mightier AI militaries

As a novice-at-best Civilization player, I tend not to get these games at launch. I know I'll enjoy them, but the discounts will e?ventu??ally come and so too will updates and expansions. I'm usually not in a rush!

With Civilization VI, though, I caved. I caved hard. But I don't regret that decision. The base game has been a treat so far and if this is only the starting point, I'm hopeful for where an eventual "game of the year" edit?ion might end up. Today is just one small step toward reaching that point.

Firaxis has an update out now on Steam that adds two maps, the "Cavalry and Cannonades" scenario in which units have low??er maintenance costs and ??no strategic resource requirement, DirectX 12 support, and the usual balancing, tuning, and refining you'd expect to see.

There's a lot o??f user interface work in particular, like more shortcuts to the ever-helpful ??Civilopedia and a clearer depiction of where your cities are sourcing their amenities. That pleases me.

Fall 2016 Update

[NEW]
• Maps
- Added a balanced six player map.
- Added a balanced four player map.
• ‘Cavalry and Cannonades’ Scenario Added
- Combat scenario with reduced unit maintenance costs and no strategic resource requirement for units.
- Larger starting army and additional starting techs.
- Time limit: 50 turns.
- Goal: Possess the largest territory.
• DX12 Support
• Complete Logitech ARX Support

[GAMEPLAY UPDATES]
• Added additional notifications.
• Added a “time defeat” for running out of time. This is always disabled if a Score Victory is available.
• Added additional Hotkey support (next unit, next city).
• Added the ability to rename cities.
• Added UI to show the next tile a city will grow to.
• Added a visual cue for Barbarian Scouts that are alerted to your city.
• Changed Dan Quayle rankings.

[BALANCE CHANGES]
• Added prerequisite project (Manhattan Project) for Operation Ivy.
• Added Metal Casting as a prerequisite for Economics tech.
• Adjusted religious pressure when a religion is first founded to give them more resilience and convert the city.
• Adjusted relationship decay rates.
• Reduced the effectiveness of cavalry production policies.
• Reduced Warmonger penalties in most instances, and adjusted how this reacts to returning versus keeping a city. The last city conquered from a player now provides a heavy warmonger penalty, even if you have a Casus Belli against this player, because you are wiping out a civilization.
• Reduced border incursion warnings if the troops are within their own borders.
• Increased the number of Great Works of Writing slots in the Amphitheater to 2.
• Increased Counterspy operation time.
• Increased the cost of Religious units and applied additional charges.
• Units may no longer be deleted when they are damaged.
• Deleting a unit no longer provides gold.
• Updated Island Plates map to have more hills and mountains.
• Units may no longer remove features from tiles that are not owned by that player.
• Fallout now prevents resource harvesting.
• Barbarian camps must spawn fu??rther away from low-difficulty players’ cities.

[AI TUNING]
• Adjusted AI victory condition focus to increase their competitiveness in Science and Tourism.
• Adjusted AI understanding of declared friendship.
• Adjusted the AI approach to beginning and ending a war based on potential gain and loss.
• Increased AI competitiveness in building a more advanced military.
• Increased AI usage of Inquisitors. Especially Phillip.
• Increased AI value of upgrading units.
• Increased AI use of Settler escorts.
• Tuned AI usage of units that cannot move and shoot, like Catapults.
• Tuned AI city and unit build planning.
&bu??ll; Improved the ability of city-states to maintain ??a strong military.

[BUG FIXES]
• Fixed some production Social Policies, Great People, and Pantheon bonuses that were not applying correctly.
• Fixed Royal Navy Dockyard not getting the right adjacency bonuses.
• Fixed some issues with how the Great Wall was built by players and AI, including proper connection to mountains and removing other players’ Great Walls as potential connection points.
• Fixed a unit cycling error with formations.
• Fixed a bug where the first military levy that expired would return all levied units (including those levied from other city-states) to that city-state. Now it should only return the levied units that actually originally belonged to the one city-state.
• Fixed several issues when Airstrips and Aerodromes are occupied, including forced rebasing of enemy units and UI updates.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed ranged and bombard units to gain experience when attacking a district with 0 hit points.
• Fixed an issue with wonders when transferring city ownership – conquering a city with a wonder would not track that wonder, and could lead to problems when attempting to use Gustave Eiffel.
• Fixed an issue where the Settler lens would not always show the right information to the player.
• Fixed an issue where AI would counter gold changes with the change desired, rather than the total amount of gold desired.
• Fixed an issue where the Tutorial intro and outro videos would appear off-center in certain resolutions.
• Fixed some crashes with units.
• Fixed an issue where multiple leaders of the same civilization would frequently show up in a game.
• Fixed an issue where Trade Route yields were doubling in some instances.
• Units in formations now break formation before teleporting between cities.
• The achievement ‘For Queen and Country’ was unlocking too frequently.
• AI with neutral relationships should accept delegations barring exceptional circumstances.
• Can no longer declare a Joint War if it is invalid for either party.
• Save game files should no longer be case sensitive.
• Certain wonders were sending extra notifications.
• Players will no longer receive any warmongering penalties from a joint war partner for actions in that joint war.
• Liberating a civilization back to life will now bring them back into the game properly.
• Observation Balloon range bonus was being incorrectly applied when stacked.
• Text and grammar fixes.

[VISUALS]
• Buildings on snow will now have snow on them.
• Added an Industrial Barbarian Encampment.
• Added a ranger tower to National Parks.
• Fixed some issues with buildings not culling around other world items properly.
• Fixed an issue with some Districts not showing properly.
• Miscellaneous polish applied to m?ultiple improvements, districts, and buildings.

[MULTIPLAYER]
• Turn timers are always disabled on the first turn of a new game. This happens regardless of the advanced start or turn timer type selected.
• Allow multiplayer lobby's private game status to be toggled once the lobby has been created.
• Cap the max players to 12.
•?? Added LAN player name option to options screen.

[UI]
• Added the number of specialists working a tile.
• Added some additional icons for espionage, promotions, etc.
• Added additional Civilopedia shortcuts, including right clicking a unit portrait.
• Added the signature to the diplomacy action view/deal view so that we can differentiate between duplicate players. Also added multiplayer screenname in diplomacy.
• Added Trade Route yields to the Reports screen.
• Added City Center to the City Breakdown panel.
• Added rewards and consequences to mission completed popups.
• Updated the leader-chooser when beginning a new game.
• Updated the end game Victory screen.
• Updated the multiplayer staging room.
• Updated city banners.
• Updated Espionage mission chooser flow.
• Updated to display what cities are getting amenities from each resource.
• Changed resource icon backings to reflect the type of resource it is.
• Auto-scroll to the first Great Person that can be claimed.
• Improved search functionality in the Civilopedia.
• Removed Barbarian data from player replay graphs.
• ESC now closes the Tech, Civic, and Eureka popups.
• When loading a game, the era blurb will be the current era of the? saved game, rather than the starting era of the game.

[AUDIO]
• Added some missing mouseover sounds.
• Fixed the Oracle quote.
• Fixed an issue where the Advisor voice was not playing in some languages.
&??bull; Fixed compatibility issues with some sound cards, especially those set to high playback rates.

[MISC]
• Added a setup option "No Duplicate Leaders" that is enabled by default. This option prevents multiple players from selecting the same leader.
• Updated leader screen to support enabling/disabling bloom according to the 'Enable Bloom' graphics option.
• Plot Tooltip Delay is now available in the Options menu.
• Auto Cycle Units is now available in the Options menu.
• Benchmark updates.
• Credits updated.

Civilization VI ‘Fall 2016’ Update Now Liv?e [Steam]

The post Civilization VI’s fall update has a lot of changes appeared first on Destructoid.

Founding the New World

Over the course of many playthroughs and almost three full days of game time, Civilization VI ??is still on my mind. I’ve gone through the motion of placing districts, train??ing an army, distributing “great” people, and building world wonders so many times that I dream about it at night. I envision how my next playthrough is going to turn out well before I even sit down.

That is the mark of a game that is truly great, but not every aspect of the package is flawless. If you can accept that scenarios are absent, Steam Workshop isn’t currently available, and that multiplayer doesn’t work much better than in Civ V, then I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you Civilization VI is worth owning.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (PC [reviewed])
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: October 21, 2016
MSRP: $59.99

The largest change to the standard Civ formula in VI is that you can no longer build literally everything for each city. Now, districts occupy space on the map adjacent to your main city. This mean?s that you can’t focus on wonders or only military with certain cities. If you settle in the middle of nowhere, expect your city to suffer for it.

This makes the early game a lot more important than it ever used to be. Instead of bui??lding a few settlers and plopping those down as fast as possible, you need to be aware of the resources around you. If you found a city near luxury resources, you can give yourself an early amenity boost that will keep your city happ??y.

The global happiness meter from Civ V is gone, in favor of a system that resembles IV. Each city's happi??ness is governed by a system called “amenities.” These amenities come in the form of specific districts, luxury resources, and bonuses from trade routes. Making sure you place your city in an ideal location to get these items is vital for sustaining happiness.

The trade routes also replace the worker’s ability to lay down roads. Instead of training a few workers and s??etting them to automate, you now need to get traders moving between each city to lay down roads. Builders, which replace ??workers, also have a limit to how many improvements they can place, making them far more valuable.

For most of the civilizations you can choose, builders only have three builds before they expire. I mentioned that luxury resources increase amenities, but that will require a builder to create a plantation or farm? on top ??of a tile, using up one of their builds. Since the luxury resources don’t increase food or housing for each district, it becomes a game of tug of war for what your city needs the most.

While this does eventually fade away as the late-game approaches, you still need to be conscious of where you build improvements in their relation to districts. Sometimes, a district (or wonder) can only be placed immediately next to the main city, which might have a farm on it. You’re going to have to kiss that farm goodbye or find another city to build your district in. Not so easy when your housing is at capacity and a neighborhood is the only way to solve the ??issue.

While this may sound a bit overbearing, after a few games, you fall into the mechanics at play. Through careful observation, you learn to not begin each game and settle for wherever you start. You can link more vulnerable units to an escort with military units, so that helps when sending a settler o??ut into the wild.

Later on in the game, you can also somewhat stack military units together. This isn’t like Civ IV whe??re you could place an infinite amount of infantry on the same tile, but being given the ability to create corps (two units) or armies (three units) helps with decluttering the map in the late game. Having a damage boost is also a great bonus.

Surprisingly, opponent AI isn’t what you’ll have to worry about. Surprise wars happen a lot less frequently and there is a n??ew system in place that reveals agendas that other leaders have. Through actions you take, you can disco?ver what they value about the world, so you can take steps to mitigate pissing them off.

Barbarians, thoug?h, are ruthless. If you simply kill each one the moment you see them, you might be setting yourself up for failure. Barbarians utilize scouts to a terrifying degree and leaving any city undefended will usually result in a small army coming your way. If you choose to follow the scout back to his base, you can cut off reinforcements before they grow into a major issue.

For a lot? of my games, though, I’d still have them roaming around in 1985 AD. Can you imagine having electricity, CDs, and sports cars with random ba??rbarians traveling the earth? They're a damn persistent thorn in your side, so make sure to deal with them as soon as possible.

The only way in which your opponents will be a nuisance is through re??ligion. For some reason, most o?f the AI focuses on creating a ton of missionaries and apostles, which tends to foul things up towards the middle of the game. To win via a religious victory, you need to convert every empire in the game to your religion.

Thing is, if your cities get converted to an opponent’s belief, you can no longer create missionaries or apostles of your founded religion. While that makes sense, in a realistic sort of way, it ends up robbing you of counter-measures for when the shit hits the fan. It is nice and all that there is “theological combat” for religious units, b??ut when they die (which hap??pens too fast), you end up losing your cities to another belief.

As such, I’d recommend tu??rning off the religious victory condition. Also, if you start in the atomic era when setting up a game, you literally cannot win through religious means (s??omething the game fails to mention). I’m guessing that is mostly an oversight, but why would you allow me to lock victory to religion and then give me no way to utilize religion?

I’m happy that more care was given to a system I thought was amazing in Civ IV, but it seems like Firaxis still doesn’t know what to do with religion? to make it viable. Unless you hone in on creating holy districts and recruiting a great prophet before everyone else, you aren’t going to win?? via religion.

As for the other victory conditions, diplomatic wins are no longer in the game. While those were often too easily obtained in V, I do kind of miss their absence. The space/science victory feels harder to come by, but you can often piggyback off of the benefits of culture to further your science research. Having a civilization with a strong culture ??will boost you along the civics tech tree faster, which definitely provides bonuses to unlocking science-related buildings.

Mentioning boosts, there are small objectives tied to each of the science and civics tech that let you create “eureka” moments for unlocking them faster. If you take out a barbarian with a slinger, you get an advancement towards an early-game tech. These don’t stop once you reach the late game, either; up until the modern era, you can constantly build, explore, or destroy things t??o grant boosts.

It gives short-term goals that create long-term benefits and can even be the deciding factor in a science victory over the AI. When playing on?? difficulties past Prince, you’re going to need all of the advantages you can get (since the AI is given an unfair edge).

Espionage makes a return from Gods & Kings and is fairly robust. You can place spies in enemy cities to steal boosts for? technologies, siphon funds, or sabotage different districts. Like the boosts for gaining early-game advantages, using spies in the late game can cut off a civilization's ability to even launch their space program. Thankfully, you can counterspy your own districts, so you can have backup for when the AI tries to ruin your game.

In fact, a lot of features from the expansions to previous Civ games are present in VI. This leads to me think that we aren’t going to see much in the way of traditional expansion packs for this latest entry. What more could you possibly add, apart from going the route of Beyond Earth and adding space worlds? Civ VI is so feature packed that it can be staggering for anyone who hasn&??rsquo;t kept up with all of the previous updates to the series.

Sadly, those features don’t extend to supplemental game modes. Scenarios are completely absent, apart from multiplayer “mods” you can select. If you wanted to recreate the barbarian invasion of Rome or the expansion of the US into the west, you’re ou??t of luck.

Steam Workshop is also not implemented yet (and I can’t find anything about official support). Mods are allowed and can even be used in multiplayer, but you currently won’t have an easy time getting them to function. The in-game mod browser from Civ V was a godsend in the early days and it only became better once Steam expanded how mods work with their platfo?rm. To not include this from day one feels shortsighted, but a free update can definite?ly fix that.

There is also the looming threat of DLC that hasn’t been given a clear definition for Civ VI. The deluxe edition claims it contains four post-release pac?ks, but nothing has been chiseled out for what those might be. If you pre-ordered the game, you were given Montezuma for use in the main game, but one extra leader doesn&r??squo;t feel all that substantial.

For the life of me, I can’t get a multiplayer game to work. I did manage to join one, but everyone left as soon as the first turn was over. From what I can tell, the game utilizes actual turns instead of the countdown timer that was present in Civ IV.? There is also a double-speed game mode (dubbed “online”) that should let you blast through games with your friends, but I can’t manage to play through an entire match.

There wasn’t any noticeable lag, so that is a plus. Still, with Civ VI being one of the most popular games on Steam a few da??ys after launch, why are the servers so barren? Maybe my name carries negative clout, but I’d like to see more customization available in the server browser to eliminate people who are going to kick me (like adding password s?upport).

As for performance, the game runs quite smoothly. As you progress into the late game, there can be a litt??le bit of stutter, b??ut the graphics menu has a ton of options to fix any issue you may encounter. You can also cap the frame rate, which is neat for those who want 30 FPS.

The only question that remains is whether Civilization VI is worth your time. My answer is a resounding yes. There are some shortcomings in the package that dampen my enthusiasm a bit, but I haven’t had this much fun with the series since my high school days playing IV.

The old Civ mantra of “one more turn” is stronger than ever. The additions make for a much deeper strategy game and the inclusion of most of the features from previous entries makes for a remarkably well-rounded launch. It will be interesting to see where Civ VI goes, but I have a feeling there won’t be nearly as dramatic a change as Civ V saw.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the ??game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Civilization VI appeared first on Destructoid.

Surprisingly spartan deals

Update: Both titles are now live! Latest deal and pricing below.

Going live in a few hours are two of the biggest titles of the year in two completely different genres: EA/DICE's Battlefield 1 and 2K/Firaxis' Civilization VI. Both games are looking good (thus far) in the reviews and preview d?epartments. We suspect most hardcore fans have probably already finished pre-load?ing and are simply waiting for the clock to strike zero.

If you're still on the fence and you're on the hunt for last-minute savings before release on either Battlefield 1 or Civilization VI, t?here are still three deals available -- a far cry from a month or two ago when we had multiple offers from multiple retailers.

Civilization VI

• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Steam) — $39.86  (list price $60)
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Digital Deluxe (Steam) — $50.21  (list price $80)
• Use code: WINTER10

Battlefield 1

• Battlefield 1 Standard Edition (PC Origin) — $47.99 
• Battlefield 1 + $10 Gift Code (Xbox One Digital) — $59.99

The PC deals are courtesy of GMG and we've confirmed that it is sending out keys immediately after purchase for both titles. Pricing in UK/EU for Civilization VI is £39.99 / €47,99 for the Standard, and £55.99 / €63,99 for the Deluxe. For Battlefield 1, prices are £38.99 / €48.99.

For the Xbox One copy of Battlefield 1, just make sure you select the digital copy before adding to cart -- if you order before midnight, you'll still receive the $10 gift card bonus. (You can also pick physical edition but at this point if yo??u want to play at midnight, you may as well go digital.)

Pre-Order Price Movement

Both titles have had their pre-order discounts shaved in recent months. For example, Civilization VI was 24% about three weeks ago. Then the discount disappeared for about a week until it returned at 20% off. Now the discount is only 15% off. Previously we are usually pretty confident that a deal will last through its release week, particularly for PC digital titles. But lately this hasn't been the case for certain games from select publishers -- and Civilization VI is one such title.

On the Battlefield 1 side, the same situ??ation also applies. The biggest discount during pre-order phase was 26% off as early as this month. Then the deal got reduced to 23% off, and is now finally a "mere" 20% off.

If you're not interested in playing anywhere near day one, you can ignore all the price movement we mentioned abov??e and simply wait one to two months for attractive discounts to reappear -- after all, ??the holiday seasons are quickly approaching. Even if Steam/Origin copies won't be on sale, you can be sure retailers will be discounting the "physical" copies to draw eyeballs.

For those wanting to play tonight or in the ne??ar future, we think the deals above are as good as it'll get from a legitimate retailer.

Game deals from Dealzon. Sales help support Destructoid.

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