Sid Meier's Civilization V

Civilization V addicts be warned: 2K is prepping an expansion for the popular tactical strategy game, and it looks to hook you in for another few hundred hours later this year with the addition of religion and espionage...

Amazon's Cyber Monday sale is stretching out over the whole week, allowing bargain-friendly players an opportunity to capitalize on the company's generosity (and/or unawareness of what constitutes a “Monday”). Today is the sale's PC Games Day, with 40-75% off the download price of some no-fooling AAA titles; there's also some lightning deals so limited that you might actually miss out on them if you finish reading this sentence. Too late (maybe)...

Above: The King of Korea… finally!
 
What do you do once you’ve built every Wonder, nabbed every achievement, and done everything there is to do in Sid Meier’s Civilization V? Play multiplayer for another 300 hours. But after you’ve done that, it’s time to start grabbing DLC, and today, 2K Games has announced two more packs to keep you clicking “Next Turn” for another few months...

My word processor can tell me if I’ve misspelled a word. Computers handle language as data all the time – and do it quite well. But although my copy of Microsoft Word can recognize and highlight something like “Schwarzeneger” with a red squiggly line, it doesn’t understand the meaning of that word or what it signifies – and it certainly won’t comprehend complete sentences, instructions, or any memorable one-liners about how “it’s not a tumor.”

But recent research at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab has demonstrated that computers can analyze words, derive meaning from those words, and follow a set of instructions to perform a task. In this case, a special machine-learning system was able to achieve a 79 percent rate of victory in Civilization II against the game’s AI opponents using instructions from the manual…

Firaxis' Sid Meier has shown his hatred for the Western work ethic by combining two of the 21st Century's most productivity-killing things, Facebook and the Civilization series, into a free-to-play public beta for upcoming social strategy title Sid Meier's CivWorld. The title, which can be accessed right now by Facebook users eager to lay waste to their schedules both social and professional, isn't yet at final-release stage – but if you're that dedicated to avoiding whatever you ought to be doing, that's probably not the sort of thing that'll stop you...

Civilization maker Firaxis has been quiet since the release of Civilization V last year, but new info revealed through resumes and LinkedIn profiles of current and former studio employees reveals info about the studios next game, and past canceled projects.

The LinkedIn profile of former level engineer Chris Doyle along with the resume of ex-Firaxis game programmer Will Miller reference a multiplatform title powered by Unreal Engine 3. Miller's resume says that the title began development in 2007, and calls in a AAA strategy game for the PC, 360, and PS3. A sequel to Civilization Revolution perhaps? Short answer: Possibly but not likely...

Deathwing may be going to destroy Azeroth in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. But in the meantime, one fan has taken it upon himself to meticulously recreate the old world of Azeroth in a most impressive Civilization V map…

2K announced two downloadable Civilization V expansions today, because clearly the game wasn't expansive enough already.

The first is the free Mongols Civilization and Scenario Pack, which puts players in the shoes of Genghis Khan. If he wore shoes. Not really sure...

Thinking about purchasing Civilization V? Hoping to try the demo before you make your final decision? If so, you’re going to have to wait. The Civilization V demo will not be available until September 21, the same day that the full game is scheduled to release in North America…

 

Prepare yourselves. The next issue of PC Gamer US holds exclusive details on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Since custom ships were first announced at E3 2010, we’ve been wondering about whether the game will feature space combat, and how it might work. Guess we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer. Expect to learn all about space combat when the October issue of PC Gamer hits newsstands on August 17. Subscribers can expect to receive their copies a little earlier...