Big News Day from Firaxis/2K Games

[Brillig]

Press releases announcing:

The CivIV expansion pack:

http://www.2kgames.com/index.php?p=news&ID=199

Sid Meier's Railroads! Sweet Jeebus, Railroad Tycoon Lives!

http://www.2kgames.com/index.php?p=news&ID=197

CivCity:Rome (what?)

http://www.2kgames.com/index.php?p=news&ID=198

and a Dungeon Siege II expansion, for those of you who, you know, are into that kinda stuff ;)

http://www.2kgames.com/index.php?p=news&ID=200

[DaddyTorgo]

if CivCity: Rome is at all like SimCity transported to Ancient Rome I will snap that shit right up!

[Draft Dodger]

very excited about the first three

[Qwikshot]

No Colonization yet...

[Greyroofoo]

So am I wrong in thinking that CivCity 4 will be just like Caesar IV?

[Celeval]

Hmmm... will be a busy summer. I may have to plan vacation time. :)

[Buccaneer]

kleenex...lots of them

[DaddyTorgo]

So am I wrong in thinking that CivCity 4 will be just like Caesar IV?


aaah. but so much more, so much better. KLEENEX!!!

[ISiddiqui]

I'm looking forward to the CivIV expansion pack. New civs... mmmm.

[ISiddiqui]

Screenshots for Warlords are up! Some great new leader picks (Augustus Caesar, Stalin, Churchil... indicating that a WW2 scen may be one of the six), and two gameplay screens showing slingshot hurlers and new archery units, and a mockup of a trebuchet.

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/818/818084/imgs_1.html

[Brillig]

Good find on the screenshots. It looks like they're giving civilizations more unique units - i.e. Balearic slingers for the Spanish, English longbowmen. Can't wait to find out what the rest of us are getting :)

[ISiddiqui]

Good find on the screenshots. It looks like they're giving civilizations more unique units - i.e. Balearic slingers for the Spanish, English longbowmen. Can't wait to find out what the rest of us are getting :)

They didn't seem like unique units to me. More like units for everyone. After all, the longbowman don't a look... English. Unless they had an ancient Egypt craze in their troops ;).

[Brillig]

Hmm, I see what you mean, I missed those guys on the left the first time. I still think we're getting uniques, though. Those guys are just going to a... costume party?

[ISiddiqui]

I doubt they will add a second unique unit to a civ. It would be hard for someone like the Americans to have two UU's. They'd both have to be in the modern era, which may give the American civ a far bigger boost in that era. Even worse would be if they included the Babylonians in this expansion pack, having two unique units would almost result in them dominating the early game. One unique unit early on for some civs is amazingly powerful (Praetorians, Immortals), two would be unbalanced.

[ISiddiqui]

Just noticed... if you look on the Augustus 'trading' scene at Gamespot, you can find an option to trade a VASSAL STATE. That can open up some new options :D. I wonder what the mechanics are? Permanent alliance with tribute given every year?

[CamEdwards]

my buddy who lives in Turkey recently bought a copy of CivIV, and it shipped with a WWII scenario. My copy only came with one scenario (American Revolution). Anybody know anything about this?

[dixieflatline]

I doubt they will add a second unique unit to a civ. It would be hard for someone like the Americans to have two UU's. They'd both have to be in the modern era, which may give the American civ a far bigger boost in that era. Even worse would be if they included the Babylonians in this expansion pack, having two unique units would almost result in them dominating the early game. One unique unit early on for some civs is amazingly powerful (Praetorians, Immortals), two would be unbalanced.

Unbalance.... in a Civ game... no way.

[Draft Dodger]

my buddy who lives in Turkey recently bought a copy of CivIV, and it shipped with a WWII scenario. My copy only came with one scenario (American Revolution). Anybody know anything about this?

have you patched? I have a WWII scenario (Desert War) and a few others. I am not 100% sure, but I think at least 1 scenario was added via patch

[CamEdwards]

have you patched? I have a WWII scenario (Desert War) and a few others. I am not 100% sure, but I think at least 1 scenario was added via patch

Yeah, I did the big patch that fixed the memory leak. Haven't updated this in a while, so I might have to do that tonight.

[Crapshoot]

I'm thrilled- Railroad Tycoon is one of the most fun games I've played, in a long time.

[Draft Dodger]

I'm thrilled- Railroad Tycoon is one of the most fun games I've played, in a long time.

RT2 is one of my all-time faves. RT3 was a big diappointment to me. Hope it's more like the former

[CamEdwards]

BTW, has anyone come out with a good Civil War scenario for Civ4? I was poking around Apolyton but couldn't find anything.

[jbmagic]

BTW, has anyone come out with a good Civil War scenario for Civ4? I was poking around Apolyton but couldn't find anything.


Try Civfanatics web site.

[Schmidty]

I'm excited about all of them, other than the choo choo train one. I'm especially excited about the Civ expansion and the DS expansion.

[Crapshoot]

RT2 is one of my all-time faves. RT3 was a big diappointment to me. Hope it's more like the former

Really ? It wasn't great, but I really enjoyed myself in sandbox mode. I do think it didnt really push the genre forward (I'd like more dynamic economy modeling, and a more ruthless, agressive AI that actually conducts mergers or tries hostile takeovers of your company ), but it was fun albeit easy.

[Buccaneer]

1. There are no scenarios for Civ4 yet. What we have now are mods and custom setups. Civ4 is still a long ways from having true Civ scenarios, as we saw (and still see) for Civ2. Once they release the SDK, then that will change.

2. As much as I respect PopTop for what they did for RRT2 (esp. the custom scenarios), I did find that too...something. Probably too narrowly-defined gameplay and not as open-ended as RRT1 was. I hope Sid would return to RRT1 for inspiration. RRT3 sucked.

[ISiddiqui]

No FAN scenarios. There are Firaxis made ones.

[vyshka]

Sweeeeeet! Sid is going to do an update to RT!! Poptop's RT3 was a nice try,
but it had too many bugs to be stable. Sid will do it up right though, and it should be a hell of a game.

[Brillig]

Welp, I was wrong - no new uniques (except for the new Civs, of course). It's been reported that the CivIV expansion includes six new Civs (Carthage, Gaul, Vikings + 3 more), six scenarios (Roman Empire, Ghenghis Khan, Ancient China, Alexander the Great, Viking, Athens v Sparta), ten leaders, ten new units, three new wonders. All civs are getting a unique *building* though - that should be interesting.

[Craptacular]

Alright, I haven't done any serious PC gaming in years (Hoyle Casino has been about it since I played TCY a lot). Assuming CivCity: Rome and Railroads will have similar or higher requirements than Civ IV, I'll need a new PC. I have a P3-800. I've been holding out, as I've primarily just used it for internet and office stuff lately. Hmm, pool table or computer?

[Draft Dodger]

Hmm, pool table or computer?

you can play pool on the computer. you can't play computer games on a pool table.

[chinaski]

some screens from all the new Sid games!
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/696/696717p1.html

[ISiddiqui]

Sweeeeeet! Sid is going to do an update to RT!! Poptop's RT3 was a nice try,
but it had too many bugs to be stable. Sid will do it up right though, and it should be a hell of a game.

IIRC, Poptop is doing this one as well. Poptop was affiliated Firaxis on some projects, and has merged into it:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145569.html
Take-Two executives tell analysts that the Shattered Union and Railroad Tycoon developer has been merged with the Civilization studio.

So it'll be the Poptop group that will be making this new game. Maybe there will be better testing, but who knows.

[spleen1015]

Is anyone planning on getting Railroads!?

Before the ads starting popping up here, I hadn't checked it out. It looks like it will be pretty good. Hopefully some of you guys will get it and give impressions.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Is anyone planning on getting Railroads!?

Before the ads starting popping up here, I hadn't checked it out. It looks like it will be pretty good. Hopefully some of you guys will get it and give impressions.
My wife has already preordered it. I'll pass along her thoughts once she's played it.

[Eaglesfan27]

Is anyone planning on getting Railroads!?

Before the ads starting popping up here, I hadn't checked it out. It looks like it will be pretty good. Hopefully some of you guys will get it and give impressions.


I have to admit that those Railroad ads are the first ads on here that have really caught my attention and made me do a search for further info on a product.

[spleen1015]

Gamespot has a preview of the game up.

hxxp://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sidmeiersrailroads/news.html?sid=6159485

The game sounds pretty promising. It looks like I am going to have to wedge this some where in my game purchasing plans.

[Ksyrup]

I have to admit that those Railroad ads are the first ads on here that have really caught my attention and made me do a search for further info on a product.

Funny, I just did the same with 1701 AD.

[Ksyrup]

Gamespot has a preview of the game up.

hxxp://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sidmeiersrailroads/news.html?sid=6159485

The game sounds pretty promising. It looks like I am going to have to wedge this some where in my game purchasing plans.

Looks decent. But really, I'm hoping they revisit Colonization. Even if they did nothing more than update the graphics and bring it up to the current techology, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

[Cork]

Looks decent. But really, I'm hoping they revisit Colonization. Even if they did nothing more than update the graphics and bring it up to the current techology, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

Have you seen this yet? http://www.freecol.org/

-Cork

[Ksyrup]

Wow! I found the windows-based Colonization online years ago and occasionally play it. This looks pretty cool, but I still hope Sid remakes it like he has with the others.

[Cork]

Wow! I found the windows-based Colonization online years ago and occasionally play it. This looks pretty cool, but I still hope Sid remakes it like he has with the others.

Me too. I loved the depth of that game. If they flesh out the combat a bit more, it would be the ideal game.

-Cork

[spleen1015]

Railroads! is out this week. I'm going to try to weasle it out of my wife somehow. :)

[vex]

Funny, I just did the same with 1701 AD.

ditto

[bulletsponge]

Railroads! is out this week. I'm going to try to weasle it out of my wife somehow. :)


im goina get RR too. but i dont have i wife to beg. just clean the bathroom, then say you want RR as a reward.


and if that fails give her a little of this http://www.smileyhut.com/tongues/lick.gif

[Pumpy Tudors]

GameStop called Dr. Tudors on Monday to tell her that her copy would be in the store today, but she probably isn't going to go pick it up today. Silly woman.