Civilization V Announced

For many years civilization is one of the most beloved turn based franchises of pc gaming and now Civilization V is here. This is the Announcement.

2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc, today announced that Sid Meier's Civilization V, the newest entry from the genre-defining strategy-based franchise, is currently in development at Firaxis Games for PC. Civilization V reinvigorates the classic turn-based strategy genre with an astonishing new engine built from the ground-up for this flagship edition of the Civilization franchise. Players are introduced to an entirely new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features that deliver a fully immersive experience providing hours of entertainment as players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known.

Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.

"Sid Meier's Civilization franchise has been recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all time with millions of units sold worldwide," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Civilization V takes the franchise further by offering players a more immersive experience with deeper strategies; heightened tactical combat; vast, realistic landscapes to explore, battle over and claim as their own; and an in-game community hub where Civ fans can share content and compete against each other without leaving the game. This marks a new era that will forever change the franchise responsible for sleep deprivation and reduced productivity for nearly two decades."

"Each new version of Civilization presents exciting challenges for our team," said Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis Games. "Thankfully, ideas on how to bring new and fun experiences to Civ players never seem to stop flowing. From fully animated leaders and realistic landscapes, new combat tactics, expanded diplomacy and shared mods, we're excited for players to see the new vision our team at Firaxis has brought to the series."

In addition to Civilization V, Firaxis Games is also currently developing Sid Meier's Civilization Network, a Civ game for Facebook. With Sid Meier leading design, Civilization Network will offer yet another option for world domination to both the casual gamer and the biggest fans of the series. It's another way to access the famously addictive world of Civilization.

Here is the announcement trailer.





Stay tuned for more information as it comes available.

StarCraft II Beta Report Part 1: Battle.Net 2.0

It has been over 12 years since we saw the release of StarCraft and now in 2010 it is time again to revisit the franchise. StarCraft II is the sequel to one of the most known real time strategy game that turned a world upside down. It became the worlds number one e sport game and also a national sport in South Korea. From a fantastic and intresting campaign to a famous multi player. During that time Blizzard used a service called Battle.Net as a platform for multi player experience. It was the first ever service that would provide a community that would play games together. Battle.Net itself launched as early as back in 1996 with Diablo, an rpg that was made to be played together but it was StarCraft that put Blizzard on the world map as the leading developer for high quality gaming.

Now 12 years later the stakes are higher and Blizzard is no longer allone in the industry. With the launch of StarCraft II beta last month we got to see their latest invention. Battle.Net 2.0 For a multi player oriented game it is important that the new Battle.Net is faster and stable. So how does it hold up?

When you enter for the first time you will see the latest news and what is happening in the community. On the upper left side you have your multi player option and under it you can see the ladder button as well as replays. On the right side you can see my avatar and clicking on it will show you your current stats and which league you belong to.

Here we see the main ladder screen. you can join or create a game and under it you can choose if you want to go with 1vs1 2vs2 and so forth. Under it is your current rank. I am at 47th place in silver league which is not that great but i am an beginner. So if i press the button "find the game" to the far left the Battle.Net will auto search an opponent that is closest to my rank but not too far off. In that case i will never face an opponent that is overpowered compared to myself. Blizzard have decided to do this becouse to keep a game that is fair to your level. Modern name for this system is of course "Matchmaking".

Personal opinion

Going from desctop to the game is the process of seconds, from starting a game to join one. Matchmaking only takes seconds to find you one equal opponent and loading times on the choosen maps is a process of seconds. In other words this new service works wonders. The only main thing that concerns me is that it is region locked so that you cant play against someone from the US or other continents which is bad and also a bad decision from Blizzard. I dont know if this is for the beta allone but it needs to get fixed or it will hamper the game as a E sport champion.

Stay tuned for part 2.

Rise Of Prussia Demo Released

AGEOD's new turnbased strategy, Rise of Prussia will follow the same old recipe used in previews AGEOD games such us Birth of America, American Civil War and Napoleon's Campaigns.

In Rise of Prussia players have the chance to guide nations through the Seven Year's War probably the first true World War.

Players will either take the side of the Prussian coalition against the Holy Roman Empress-Maria Theresa and her allies, or take control of the Holy Roman Empire and fight against the Prussian aggression. There are lots of new features added in RoP such as revamped interface, new unit conscription system and many more.

Stay tuned and we will have lots of more news about RoP very soon.

For now, you can download the demo from these locations:
http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/latest/ROP_Demo.zip
http://www.fileplanet.com/210302/210000/fileinfo/Rise-of-Prussia-Demo
http://worthplaying.com/article/2010/3/3/demo/72779/
http://atomicgamer.com/files/84306/rise-of-prussia-demo
http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/50944
http://ageoddl.telechargement.fr/latest/ROP_Demo.zip
http://www.filefront.com/15738619/Rise-of-Prussia-Demo/

New Victoria 2 Dev Diary (nr. 14)

Today, King has posted a new dev diary about the upcoming grand strategy game Victoria 2.
Victoria 2 is a grand social-economic-politcs-real-time simulator where you take command of any nation of the world and guide it through glory from 1836 to the end of of World War One.

In today's dev diary King describes us the population(POP) issues and how ideology, government type, political and social reforms affect POP's militancy and consciousness.
The described model is very promising and intriguing and it will provide a deeper immersion of population management.

Rest assured that we are eagerly waiting for Victoria 2 and expectations are high.

So here's the new ingame picture that accompany today's dev diary.


And HERE you can read the new dev diary.

Napoleon Total War Review Cooming Soon

Napoleon Total War is the sequel to last year Empire: total war that focused on 18 century warfare and a turbulent time in the world that saw many revolutions take place. Now we move to 19th century and for the first time in many years europe will be involved in a large scale conflict with a man who wants to build an empire just like his favorite hero, Alexander the great.

Strategy Minds will give you an final verdict on the game next week so stay with us. For more information about the game, visit the official site.

New Victoria 2 Dev Diary (nr. 13)

Today, a new developer diary of Victoria 2 has been posted on the paradox forums.
The new dev diary covers the aspects of The Upper house along with the social and political reforms.

Of course there's a new delicious ingame picture


















HERE you can read the new developer diary
HERE you can read the rest of developer diaries.

Starcraft 2 Beta

Stay tuned on StrategyMinds for a hands on the long awaited beta Starcraft 2!