If there’s one game we spent an obscene amount of time playing then it is Sid Meier’s strategy games. We are suckers for a good strategy game. Where so many other  world-dominance-intensely-detailed strategy games would trump Sid Meiers games,  the civilization series brought us an easy to understand and learn as you play type of game. We love it.

Great news is that the next Sid Meier game was just announced Yesterday, and the journey is going into space! The new Civilization: Beyond Earth will test your civilization building abilities on a foreign planet. The game is developer Firaxis’ first attempt at a sci-fi 4X game (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) in nearly 15 years. Firaxis has said that while the game does draw a lot from the ’90s classic Centauri, they are aiming to go in their own direction whilst still allowing players to explore, colonize, and fight other factions in an attempt to navigate uncharted sci-fi territory.

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Each new game of Civilization: Beyond Earth begins with players customising their aircraft (in terms of colonists, cargo, and the aircraft itself) and preparing for the expedition to the new alien planet. These initial preliminary decisions have huge bearings on the rest of the game and players will not simply arrive as a “pre-baked factional identity”. In addition, players now take on the role of futuristic fictional factions such as the “American Reclamation Corporation” rather than historical empires and this, coupled with varying initial loadouts, provides a plethora of different gaming experiences. Sadly, aliens are not currently included as a playable faction and are simply NPCs that can either be ignored or cleared out if need be.

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Beyond Earth is the firstCivilisation game that supports OpenGL, Linux and Mantle all in a single package. Its also one of the bigger AAA titles in recent memory that will simultaneously release on Windows, OS X and Linux platforms thanks to Valve’s Steam client.

We will be strapping in and disappear from the real world for a month or so while be play this game. Expect it to be released this fall, 2014.

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