Beyond the Sword: Release dates!

[Dale]

Don't know if anyone's seen yet, but Gamespot has listed release dates for Beyond the Sword!

Source: http://au.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/c...mmary;versions

[Will9]

July 2nd in America

[BorgFury]

BTS cover art relased

In case you haven't seen this yet, Rakers from civfanatics.com found the newly released cover art for Beyond the Sword over at 2K's website. Check it out:

[Cyrus The Mike]

that does not look like civ 4 at all

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Apologies for what could be considered a threadjack, but do we know whether BtS will incorporate the features that came with Warlords? And if so, which ones?

Or will we be expected to buy both?

[Wiglaf]

they really should improve the graphics and the naval game as well. what's here looks a lot better than warlords though

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man
Apologies for what could be considered a threadjack, but do we know whether BtS will incorporate the features that came with Warlords? And if so, which ones?

Or will we be expected to buy both?

I think you get everything but the scenarios of warlords, though it is stupid they have not explicitly stated this.

[Nikolai]

Originally posted by Six Thousand Year Old Man
Apologies for what could be considered a threadjack, but do we know whether BtS will incorporate the features that came with Warlords? And if so, which ones?

Or will we be expected to buy both?

It would make sense if Firaxis did like they did with Civ3 and included everything in the 2nd XP.

[MightyTiny]

Only "July" for European release I see... no precice date yet.

Been taking a break from playing Civ4, and planning to wait till the expansion to play again... a break makes the game fresh again.

[Targonis]

It depends on how well the base game is still selling, as well as Warlords. While it might be easier for them in QA to include the Warlords stuff in BtS, it may make more sense to sell three packages:

Package 1: Civ 4+Warlords+Beyond the Sword.

Package 2: Warlords+Beyond the Sword.

Package 3: Beyond the Sword.

The reason for this is to give a price discount for those who have purchased the previous Civ 4 titles, but a smaller discount if you didn't pick up Warlords previously but want the full experience when you pick up Beyond the Sword. Also, they would only need to include Warlords as a default with Beyond the Sword if the new expansion didn't have enough to make it worth buying on it's own.

Think about it, if the new expansion is good but doesn't have much to it, then they would NEED to include Warlords to make people want to buy it. If it's as good as they claim(and I believe them), then it would sell well on it's own merits, and including Vassal states and great generals, plus the unique buildings and units for each civ should remain a feature of Warlords and should not be included in Beyond the Sword. Make those who want Warlords features pay for them at this stage.

Originally posted by Nikolai


It would make sense if Firaxis did like they did with Civ3 and included everything in the 2nd XP.

[Nikolai]

But not including the whole Warlords with BtS would make massive problems with compatibility, and a mess out of MP.

[Targonis]

Originally posted by Nikolai
But not including the whole Warlords with BtS would make massive problems with compatibility, and a mess out of MP.

With only two expansion packs, it's not that big of a deal. You either have vanilla Civ 4, Civ 4+warlords, Civ 4+BtS, or all three. In any case, multi-player could easily have a key set based on which expansions are installed. Just have check boxes for the multi-player for: module, Warlords, BtS. If the game is based on one configuration, those wanting to play will need to have that same configuration.

[Onagan]

I think that Warlords isn't included. If you don't have Warlords you have no Great Wall, Great General, Trebuchet, Stable. And also no Brennus, Churchill and maybe no unique building.
It sounds weird to me to include Warlords.

[Solver]

They did it with the Civ3 expansions though...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

The marginal utility of each expansion is so low (compared with the core game) that I'd hope that each additional expansion incorporates the previous one.

Otherwise the whole process looks like a cash grab.