Latest news with #Civ
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Nintendo Switch 2 is already impressing developers who say they're "extremely happy" with the new console's power, comparing it to a "mid-tier PC"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Following the recent Nintendo Switch 2 news, fans have been itching to learn how well the new console from Nintendo truly performs – and according to third-party developers, they've got nothing to worry about as the Switch 2 is a handheld powerhouse. Speaking in a recent interview with Game File, executive Civilization 7 producer Dennis Shirk confirms as much, revealing that working alongside Nintendo to port Firaxis Games' strategy behemoth has been an "easy" experience. "Their [software development kit] is great, the customer support, their developer support, developer relations is great," says the lead, also admitting that Firaxis is "extremely happy" with the Switch 2's horsepower. "We were able to make this look like a mid-tier PC, because it's got enough power," as Shirk puts it. "They knew they wanted Civ on that platform, because it's such a great showcase for the mouse," he explains, referring to Nintendo. "And it pairs up so well with our existing PC audience, because we have crossplay." The Switch 2 edition of Civilization 7 has been in the works since October and will drop with the new console when it releases on June 5 – it's definitely one of the most exciting upcoming Switch 2 games on the horizon. It's not the only impressive port underway for Nintendo's upcoming system, either. Other studios, including Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software, have been working to port their games to the Switch 2 for around a year now. "We originally started with our Switch version," says senior Avalanche producer Jimmie Nelson, describing what devs did to ensure a "higher quality product" would come out of the new Hogwarts Legacy port. "We got very good results really quickly," he details, "but we felt like we could make a higher quality product if we brought in a lot of the high-res assets [and] raised the resolution, textures, lighting, world streaming." The Switch 2 port of Hogwarts Legacy will arrive when the console does on June 5, much like Civilization 7. Excited fans can look forward to Switch 2 pre-orders this week worldwide (except for the United States, where they've been delayed).The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Civilization Is Changing. So Is Civilization .
This is an era of talking about eras. Donald Trump says we've just begun a 'golden age.' Pundits—responding to the rise of streaming, AI, climate change, and Trump himself—have announced the dawn of post-literacy, post-humanism, and post-neoliberalism. Even Taylor Swift's tour name tapped into the au courant way of depicting time: not as a river, but as a chapter book. A recent n+1 essay asked, 'What does it mean to live in an era whose only good feelings come from coining names for the era (and its feelings)?' Oddly enough, the new edition of Civilization, Sid Meier's beloved video-game franchise, suggests an answer to that question. In the six previous Civ installments released since 1991, players guide a culture—such as the Aztecs, the Americas, or the French—from prehistory to modernity. Tribes wielding spears and scrolls grow into global empires equipped with nukes and blue jeans. But Civilization VII, out this month, makes a radical change by firmly segmenting the experience into—here's that word—eras. At times, the resulting gameplay mirrors the pervasive mood of our present age-between-ages: tedious, janky, stranded on the way to somewhere else. In many ways, the game plays like a thoughtful cosmetic update. You select a civilization and a leader, with options that aren't only the obvious ones (all hail Empress Harriet Tubman!). The world map looks ever so fantastical, with postcard-perfect coastlines and mountains resembling tall sandcastles. Then, in addictive turn after turn, you befriend or conquer neighboring tribes (using sleek new systems for war and diplomacy), discover technologies such as the wheel and bronze-working, and cultivate cities filled with art and industry. The big twist is that all the while, an icon on-screen accumulates percentage points. When it gets somewhere above 70 percent, a so-called crisis erupts: Maybe your citizens rebel; maybe waves of outsiders attack. At 100 percent, the game pauses to announce that the 'Antiquity Age' is over. Time isn't just marching on—your civilization is about to molt, caterpillar-style. [Read: Easy mode is actually for adults] In each of the two subsequent ages—Exploration, Modern—players pick a new society to transform into. In my first go, my ancient Romans became the Spanish, who sent galleons to distant lands. Then I founded modern America and got to work laying down a railroad network. Over time, my conquistadors retired, and my pagan temples got demolished to make way for grocery stores. Yet certain attributes persisted. For example, the Roman tradition of efficiently constructing civic works made building the Statue of Liberty easier. As I played, the word civilization came to feel newly expansive. I wasn't running a country; I was tending to a lineage of peoples who had gone by a few names but shared a past, a homeland, self-interest, and that hazy thing called culture. In the run-up to the game, Civilization's developers have argued that the eras system is realistic. No nation-state has continuously spanned the thousands of years that a typical Civ game simulates; the closest counterexample might be China, which is playable as three different dynastic forms (plus Mongolia) in this game. Although Civ's remix of history is always a bit wacky, in my head, I could maintain a plausible-ish narrative to explain why my America's cities featured millennia-old colonnades (to quote a colleague: Are We Rome?). Each era-ending crisis created a credible kind of drama: In real life, revolutions, reformations, migration, invasion, disasters, and so much else can reshape societies in fundamental ways. The game succeeds at making the case that, as its creators like to say, 'history is built in layers.' Unfortunately, in the most recent version of the game, history also feels overdetermined. Winning in previous Civs meant accomplishing one self-evidently climactic feat—conquering Earth, say, or mastering spaceflight. During the many hours it took to get to that goal, you enjoyed immense freedom to improvise your own path. Civ VII, however, adds on a menu of goals for each era. To succeed in the Antiquity Age, for example, you might build seven Wonders of the World; in modernity, you could mass-produce a certain number of factory goods and then form a world bank. The micro objectives lend each era a sense of a narrative cohesion—but a limiting and predictable kind, less epic novel than completed checklist. Playing Civilization used to feel like living through an endless dawn of possibility. But this time, you're not in command of history; history is in command of you, and it's assigning you busywork. [Read: What will become of American civilization?] Making matters worse, the complexity of the eras mechanism seems to have encouraged the game's designers to simplify other features—or, less charitably, to just pay those features less care. I played on what should have been a challenging level of difficulty—four on a six-point scale—but I still smoked the computer-controlled opponents, who seemed programmed to act meekly and unambitiously. Picking your form of government used to feel like an existential choice, but now despotism and oligarchy are hardly differentiated. Complicated ideas have been reduced to childish mini-games: Achieving cultural hegemony in Civ VI meant fostering soft power through a variety of options—curating art museums, building iconic monuments, shipping rock bands off on global tours—but in Civ VII, it's mostly a matter of sending explorers to random places to dig up artifacts. Luckily, many of these problems seem fixable, and later downloadable updates may make the game richer and more satisfying. Still, I worry that the dull anxiety that can creep in over a session of Civ VII results from a deeper flaw: the strictly defined ages. I like that the game wants to honor how societies really can change in sweeping, sudden ways. But in gaming and in life, fixating on an episodic view of time—prophecies of rise and fall, cycles of malaise and renewal—can have a diminishing effect on the present. Civilization VII suggests why the what's-next anxieties of our times, stuck between mourning yesterday and anticipating tomorrow, can be so draining. Time actually doesn't move in chunks. At best, eras are an imprecise tool to make sense of the messy past, and at worst, they rob us of our sense of agency. It's healthiest to buy into the old Civilization fantasy, the dream that's always propelled humans forward: We're going to last. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Firaxis celebrates Civilization 7's launch with the Civ World Summit, a live streamed five-way strategy showdown with 'an exciting announcement' planned
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. We're weeks away from the launch of Civilization 7, officially PC Gamer's Most Wanted game of 2025. We all intend to celebrate the game's release in our own way. Personally, I'm thinking about conquering a small nation. Luxembourg perhaps, or possibly Andorra. Firaxis' own plans for marking the occasion are less megalomaniacal, though conquest will likely still feature heavily. On February 8, the studio will host the Civ World Summit—a live Civilization 7 tournament that will be streamed online. Announced on the Civilization website, the Civ world summit will be hosted at the Xperion gaming zone in Hamburg, and involve a multiplayer showdown in Civilization 7 between "five prominent members of the Civ community". Firaxis doesn't explain who these prominent community members are, but does specify who will be hosting it—namely Firaxis' community manager Sarah Engel and "famed Civ creator" PotatoMcWhiskey, in partnership with Rocket Beans TV (there's a collection of nouns for you). For viewers on Twitch, Firaxis has arranged a Twitch drop to "commemorate" the event, in the form of a 'cavalry charge banner' cosmetic for players' in-game profiles. This can be earned by "watching the Firaxis Games channel or one of the partnered channels". Apparently, Firaxis also has "an exciting announcement" planned for the livestream. I haven't the slightest idea what this could be. It seems a tad early to reveal Civilization VIII, so perhaps it relates to post-launch plans for Civ 7. Firaxis will provide more information about the Civ World Summit in the "upcoming weeks", though I doubt we'll have to wait too long since we're only three weeks out from the event itself. In any case, if you're in or around Hamburg and you fancy attending the event in person, tickets can be purchased here for the princely sum of five Euros. Otherwise, the event can be viewed on the Firaxis Games Twitch Channel, the Civilization YouTube Channel, or the Civilization Facebook page. Civilization 7 launches three days after the event on February 11. Early impressions on Firaxis' latest alt-history generator suggest a pretty transformative entry. Robert Zak recently played 20 hours of it, and described its age transitions as "the series' most radical and disruptive mechanic yet".
