Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond The Sword

Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond The Sword (opens in new tab) - A modern, medieval, future world game - is a PC-only title. It's an expansion pack to the ancient Civilization IV PC game, and it adds three new civs to the game: Throne of Babylon, Anarchy of the Allay, and Byzantium.

Mongulan (opens in new tab) will be the second expansion pack for Civilization IV, following Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. The expansion will feature two new playable factions, the cultured and educated Mongol Empire, and new historical scenarios like "The Drawing of Babylon" and "The Clockwork City."

Game director, Lead designer, and lead programmer, I Want To See It on GamesRadar+

Game director, Sid Meiers, said, "It's exciting to see this expanded to one of the more advanced, and much more open systems for Paradox-developed games. We have to take some of the work that's gone into our development to find the content that can deliver what our fans want."

Game director, Jain. A recent Firaxis designer, I Want To See It on GamesRadar+

Yield adds: "This is very exciting to see what Paradox-developed games can do. They have to take some of the work that went into their development to bring it to fruition."

Game director, Mark Scavio, echoed the sentiment. "It's really exciting to see what the future holds for Paradox-developed games, especially with regards to the exciting future of Paradox games," he said. "Not only will it bring some of the studio's best talent into our game development, it will also make it much more accessible for our fans, allowing them to play the game in a way they wouldn't be able to before. We want to be sure that we put a lot of effort into making the game as enjoyable as possible for all players."

Other developers are also being looked into, including teams who would be able to expand on what the Civilization series has always lacked. For those unfamiliar with the games, Civ is a deep and complex strategy game that can be enjoyed in multiple ways depending on what kind of player you are. You have to manage your cities, also like in other games in the series, as you play. The game is now based on 3D, but that won't always be possible due to some technical limitations.

"We also want to allow the player to experience it for themselves," Monte Cristo said. "So if you're playing through Civilization IV, you might want to go into the future and experience the story and gameplay. If you're playing a game that is a tactical turn-based game, you can go into the future and experience the story and gameplay, but if you're a first-person shooter, you might want to go into future turn-based games."

Many fans may be disappointed to hear that a Sid Meier game will be missing from the series' roster of titles. "We have no plans for a new Sid Meier game in the next 10 to 20 years. All we've announced right now is that we're not currently working on a new Sid Meier game."

Much like that old colleague who was also working on Civilization IV and Alpha Centauri, Monte Cristo is a veteran of the series. He left Firaxis a couple of years ago to form Beautiful Games, the same company that developed Sid Meier's Pirates! and Alpha Centauri. But he left to form his own studio.

Tycoon was once called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by the publisher Codemasters, which allowed them to create racing games based on one of its popular franchises. In the early 2000s, Monte Cristo had the opportunity to head up the studio and work on several projects, including a PC version of Patrician.

In 2001, Monte Cristo and the Paris-based developer established Beautiful Games, which built Beautiful Games into the Maxis-published Abstraction Games. Together they released Patrician, a city-building strategy game that puts players in charge of a group of civilians attempting to keep the city of Rome from destruction. Since it was released, Beautiful Games has expanded the city-building genre, including the recently released Reclaim: Freedom of Kings.

A year later, the publisher would publish Infogrames' city-building game Tropico. The game has gone on to be one of the most successful SimCity games of all time, having won several awards and shipping more than 5 million copies worldwide.

In an industry where gaming, specifically the PC, and strategy game genres, can be typified as more than a jack-of-all-trades, it's refreshing to see a game made with both approaches. In many cases, the game has more than just a money-spinner or a copycat strategy, as the game provides it in a way that is unique to the market.