What's on the screens?

[Dale]

Interesting photo over at Channel Web covering MS's Games for Windows event.

So what do people think is on-screen on the background PC? Intro?

[DarkCloud]

Movie or screensaver? It looks sort of like a ship... a galleon, a caravel? Who knows.

[Dale]

Hey it could even be the Europe docks screen. It sort of looks like a ship in dock.

There's what looks like a "dock" with things on it (colonists? goods?) the bottom 1/4 of the screen.

As for the foreground screen it looks like a pretty advanced colony area, with multiple cities, improvements and most of the mini-map (bottom left corner) revealed.

Looking good! I'm finding that the new interface looks like a breath of fresh air.

[Niptium]

Yeah, we need news images and videos like Amy Winehouse needs crack...

I really can't say but to me, the last computer is looking like docksides...

And then we will find out it was indeed a screensaver...

[Dale]

Okay, think we got confirmation what's on the background screen from GamesRadar:

[Niptium]

Shipyard.

[Verrucosus]

Originally posted by Dale
As for the foreground screen it looks like a pretty advanced colony area, with multiple cities, improvements and most of the mini-map (bottom left corner) revealed.

Looking good! I'm finding that the new interface looks like a breath of fresh air.

Let's wait and see how it plays, but I must admit that it does look appealing. Sometimes I wonder how much thought goes into changes that seem more cosmetic than anything else. For example, what strange impulse caused the erratic movement of the food box (lower left corner in Civ1, upper right in Civ2, upper left in SMAC, lower right (almost) in Civ3)? The minimap has always moved clockwise and I almost expect to read about "Civ5 - now with the minimap back in its classic upper left position" in two years.

[snoopy369]

That answer's easy. They always include at least one or two things to keep the conspiracy theorists entertained (so they don't go looking too hard ... )

[Verrucosus]

Thank you! I hope I won't dream tonight about the sinistre aims of the "mini map conspiracy".

[DarkCloud]

Perhaps they just needed to put the graphics designers to work Firaxis can't just have them idling the days away...