E3

[Locutus]

Civ4:Col @ E3: ShackNews

Gaming news site ShackNews has posted a preview of Civilization IV: Colonization from the floor of E3.

In a demonstration of Firaxis Games upcoming PC strategy title, Firaxis marketing manager Dennis Shirk explained that the game isn`t strictly limited to the peaceful—if somewhat backhanded and occasionally troubled—English colonization experience. While a spin through the 300 turns of a standard Colonization game might be more politically and diplomatically skewed, other factions like the Spanish are built for swift, brutal, and early conquest of the new world`s native inhabitants.

The article states that the gameplay of Colonization will be very similar to that of Civ4, with a few notable exceptions such as the way colonists have specific skills and are assigned to specific buildings inside cities. According to Dennis Shirk the first two-third of the game are all about building up the economy, the final part is about declaring independence, which means spreading rebellious sentiments, forging a constitution and starting a war with your home country.

The game is in the final stages of development with the focus being on polish now. You can read the full preview on ShackNews.

[snoopy369]

I do hope when they said "gameplay" they meant "the moving around of units on the board"...

[Locutus]

Yeah, you can clearly tell most of the people writing these articles never played the original Colonization or probably any other TBS for that matter, so Civ4 is basically their only frame of reference.

I hope IGN and PC Gamer have (more elaborate) previews later, as at least Jason Ocampo and Dan Stapleton are as big a fan of the first game as we are...

[Niptium]

I hope so because the previews we have had for now kind of stink. I want t know the differences that exists between the old one and the 2008 one... not that the objective is Independance...

[Dale]

Can someone please confirm if it's on the PC Gamer mag this month?

[snoopy369]

I believe it is in the mag... not sure what 'on' is supposed to mean though

This link is the link to the online article by PCGamer's companion website, which credits a pcgamer writer. I'll check the actual mag on Sat. if I remember.

[Niptium]

Aint there a PC magazine that offers (*will offer) old Colonization with the issue ? Marketing strategy to sell some papers and the Colonization franchise...

[Locutus]

Civ4:Col @ E3: Out in September(?)

New Zealand gaming site Gameplanet reports that Firaxis has announced at E3 that the release date for Civilization IV: Colonization will be September 2008. They do not provide any more info and no other sources confirm this as of yet, but we will keep you posted.

[Asmodean]

Re: Civ4:Col @ E3: GameSpot

Originally posted by Locutus
GameSpot's Andrew Park posted a preview of Civilization IV: Colonization from the floor of E3. Informing us the game will be 300 turns long

I do hope that the 300 turns thingy will be moddable!! Sounds waay too short, compared to the fact that I mostly like marathon games. Oh well....we'll see

Asmodean

[Niptium]

SEPTEMBER ! That's a lot faster than we thought... Geez... so we are looking pretty much at a finalized game....

[Guynemer]

That's about the best we could hope for from the colony screenshot. The GREAT news is that it appears the complex economic system of raw goods from different terrain and finished goods from different buildings, and specialized workers for each, appears to be intact! This is one of the things I was most worried about...

[Locutus]

Civ4:Col @ E3: Gamers Global

German gaming site GamersGlobal posted a short preview of Civilization IV: Colonization. As a long-time Civ fan, author Jörg Langer was especially interested in looking up the Civ4: Col booth at E3.

Yes, the game looks a lot like Civ IV, but it has been enhanced graphically. For example, there are real-time shadows now, and a much higher poly-count (for example, if you look at the buildings). Also, lead designer Jesse Smith told us, the AI is much faster in between turns. But the main reason for calling it "Civilization IV" is the well-known name: Neither is Colonization an addon, nor will Civ IV be needed to run it (although pricing is not yet final). Yes, it uses an enhanced engine of the turn based strategy bestseller, but it adds many "new" screens like the "Europe screen", the "Settlement Screen", the "Founding Fathers" and many more.

The article gives a brief description of the gameplay, including highlighting a few differences between the original and the remake, such as the new constitution feature and the addition of multiplayer. Read the full article on GamersGlobal.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Guynemer
That's about the best we could hope for from the colony screenshot. The GREAT news is that it appears the complex economic system of raw goods from different terrain and finished goods from different buildings, and specialized workers for each, appears to be intact! This is one of the things I was most worried about...

Well, it wouldn't be Colonization if it didn't have that...

[Niptium]

Well I was hoping for an amelioration to the ****ty city screen... but we'll see.

Hmmm and I was also hoping to get a bit more out of E3 - 4 screenshots and two-three lamentable updated previews ?

[Locutus]

Dude, most journalists saw about a 100 games in action in the last 2-3 days, give them some time to write up their stories It's not unheard of for E3-based articles to come out weeks after the event, especially for relatively small games like Colonization -- those are always gonna get snowed under by the blockbuster titles.

But even aside from that, the convention season is just getting started. We can no doubt expect more from GC, PAX, E for All, London Games Festival (if the game's release is late enough), etc. In fact, we traditionally always get more Firaxis news out of GC than any other convention, probably because it's less of a focal point for the industry than E3, TGS or GDC, which means that those companies that are there just get a larger share of the attention (that, and it's closer to Firaxis's traditional release window which means that the game is just closer to being done and they have more to show).