"Rev It Up" Preview Preface

[DanQ]

I'd like to show you a little bit of Civilization: Revolution.

I am sitting at a table in a conference room on the first floor of Firaxis Games' office in Hunt Valley, Maryland. It's November 7th, 2007 at about 1PM local time. These words have just been uttered by the company's Director of Creative Development, Sid Meier, who is sitting across from Executive Producer Barry Caudill. Sitting across from me is the company's Director of Marketing, Kelley Gilmore, and beside me "Web Monkey" Dennis Shirk. I am one of two individuals from the Civ fansite community who were invited to not only see but also play CivRev -- the first outside of the company to do so. My colleague is Civilization Fanatics Center's 'Padma'.

Though I have been playing computer games for more than 20 years, and assorted Civ titles for almost 15, I can count on two hands the number of hours I've played on a console... and most of those were on the Super Nintendo in the early 1990's. I am coming then to CivRev as a long-time computer gamer and Civ player but novice console user. CivRev will be available on several of the popular so-called seventh generation console platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox360, and Nintendo DS next spring and the Wii next fall. Padma and I were shown and played (separately) CivRev on an Xbox360, but afterwards were given a little additional time to try out its DS counterpart.

Digital camcorder in hand, I shot extensive footage of and on CivRev during this visit. From these videos I will first be writing from and then posting edited versions for you to see and hear for yourself in an going feature entitled "Rev It Up". First, an account of a presentation of the game led by Sid and Barry -- with questions from Kelley, Dennis and primarily myself -- followed by my personal playing experience.

The revolution awaits.

[DanQ]

Table of Contents

- Part 1: "Console Genesis" (November 22, 2007)
- Part 2: "Winning Personalities" (November 25, 2007)
- Part 3: "Informing the Pre-Game" (December 1, 2007)
- Part 4: "There Be Units" (December 7, 2007)
- Part 5: "Governing Yourselves" (December 22, 2007)
   Includes exclusive introductory movie download!
- Part 6: "Starting Points" (January 4, 2008)
   Includes first in a series of gameplay videos
- Part 7: "Encounters" (January 21, 2008)
   Includes second in a series of gameplay videos and an exclusive look into the Throne Room
- Part 8: "Springboard" (February 13, 2008)
   Includes third and fourth in a series of gameplay videos and an exclusive look into the Civilopedia

- Part 9: "Dan's First Turns" (March 12, 2008)
- Part 10: "Dan's Next Turns" (March 19, 2008)
- Part 11: "Dan's Final Turns" (April 30, 2008)