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Publisher
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Genre
Strategy & War |
Release Date
December 2005 |
Status
Beta |
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Hotseat
and play-by-e-mail modes will also be included for those who don't mind
taking a little more time with the games. In these games players will
be able to set time limits per turn, thus a game need not take 30 hours
to finish.
Multiplayer variations will also include flavors
such as Regicide. In Regicide, players have special leader units
scattered about the map. These leaders have few defensive abilities and
must be protected at all costs, for when they die the game is over.
Capture
the Princess is an intriguing variation in which players will have a
"Princess" unit in their starting location. Opposing military units
must venture into enemy territory to capture the enemy Princess and
bring her home kicking and screaming. It's kind of the flesh trade's
answer to capture the flag. That's just my personal take on things,
others should feel free to choose their own analogy.
Play
the World will also add eight new civilizations, each with a unique
unit. Some, like the Scandinavian berserker, look as effective as they
do cliché. Others, like the Spanish Conquistadors will offer a good mix
of offensive and defensive abilities.
Last on our cavalcade of
Play the World improvements is technology race enhancements. Players
will be able to discover the Internet and win the game Al Gore style.
Conquests,
on the other hand will offer nine new scenarios and a laundry list of
changes to the core game. The scenarios will offer a chance to run
through some of the watershed conflicts in history on a scale that's
both expansive and specific. The abstraction and flow of the core game
will be preserved, but the starting positions of each will usually be
structured to thrust players into conflict using a particular group of
technologies. In other words, there will be big battles and clashes set
during various periods of history.
Many of the scenarios will
offer locked alliances and enmities. In other words, there will be
rival civilizations that won't ever make peace with one another. To
counteract this, there will often be civilizations that won't ever fail
to take each other's side in a conflict. Each new scenario come with
its own Wonders, technologies and units. While most of these will
merely change the name of existing improvements, there are a few
surprises scattered here and there. The objectives will often be
limited in these scenarios, focusing on controlling a certain amount of
the land or population on a map. Some scenarios will be won by earning
points for returning treasure units to certain cities on the map.
For
example, the feudal Japan scenario looks to be one of the most involved
in the expansion. Featuring 18 rival warlords competing across a huge
map of Japan, it can take a few days to run through one of these. It's
really rich in Japanese flavor, starting with samurai and ninjas and
letting players weather the storm of the arrival of gunpowder. The king
unit in this scenario can become an amazingly unbeatable fighter, but
as in all regicide games, you run the risk of losing it all if he falls
in battle.
Get Ready to Throw Down
I've
barely scratched the surface here in terms of Civilization III:
Complete's enhancements. The price of admission will definitely be
worth it when the kids at Aspyr Media ship this title in the very near
future.
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