Latest news with #Civ
Glasgow Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Glasgow spot teases news after being voted best pizza in Scotland
Civerino's in the West End shared a video on social media after they received their award. The popular spot told customers: "Best Pizza in Scotland in 2025. "We are so grateful to everyone who voted for us, we feel so much love. "Thank you to our Civ's family for making it possible. "Watch this space." READ NEXT: 'Looks amazing': New Rangers bar honouring club icon reveals 'legends' menu The Glasgow favourite was among several other to win at the annual Deliveroo Awards, announced at the end of May. Smokey Trotters on London Road was crowned Best Burger and American and Maki and Ramen, with several city centre locations, won the Best Japanese category. Buck's Bar - with three restaurants in the city - took home the title of Best Chicken.
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Civilisation 7 reveals new map types and features in update 1.2.2
Firaxis Games has shared what's coming in the next big Civ 7 update, and it's packed with new content and upgrades. Scheduled to arrive on June 17, update 1.2.2 introduces larger maps, deeper game settings, more religion options, and new city bonuses to shake up how players build their empire. The update follows months of feedback since the game's February launch. As one of the most ambitious entries in the series, Civ 7 splits gameplay across three distinct ages and focuses heavily on decision-making, exploration, and development. Update 1.2.2 aims to refine those elements even further with both community-requested features and fresh content. Larger maps and more control over your game Make history on Switch VII – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is available now! Players will finally be able to play on large and huge maps. These new sizes support up to ten civilisations in single-player and eight in multiplayer, offering longer and more strategic matches. Alongside this, several advanced options are being added to let players customise how they want to play. These include the ability to turn Legacy Paths on or off, pick which global crises appear, adjust the AI's difficulty more precisely, and even bypass the default civilisation unlock system. Town upgrades, Steam mods, and new religion bonuses A major part of update 1.2.2 focuses on improving towns. The Urban Centre is being reworked to boost gold and happiness for building upkeep, while a new Resort Town specialisation joins the game. Other towns like Fort Town, Factory Town, and Mining Town will also receive minor balance improvements. Quick update from our team, Civ fans - we've got a significant #Civ7 update on the way, currently scheduled for June 17 (subject to change).Read our full check-in breaking down what's in the update, some items still in progress, and how your feedback is helping guide what's… Steam Workshop support is finally being added, opening the door to player-made mods and creations. Fans will now be able to share their maps, tweaks, and mods directly through the platform. Religion is also getting a big push. The update adds 14 new 'Religious Beliefs' and two fresh Pantheons. Players will also discover 24 new bonuses for City-States across the different Ages. More features coming soon While update 1.2.2 is set for June 17, Firaxis also teased what's in development beyond that. An Auto-Explore feature is being prepared for a potential July release, giving units more freedom to uncover the map on their own. Hotseat Multiplayer is also in the works, although no launch date has been confirmed yet. Other items being polished include specialist balance, treasure fleet upgrades, and the small but amusing news that the Scout Dog will be pettable. Quality-of-life fixes and bug improvements will also ship with the patch. Civilisation 7's next chapter is shaping up to be an exciting one, and this update looks like a strong step toward refining the strategy experience even more.
The Star
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
'Anno 117: Pax Romana' may satisfy Roman Empire obsessions
One of the most pivotal decisions I made as a gamer happened in a store in 1996. Back then, I was armed with US$60 and had visions of a new video game, but I was unsure of what to buy. The clerk gave me two recommendations: Wave Race 64 and Sid Meier's Civilization II . I wavered between the two. I trusted Nintendo titles for quality, but personal watercraft wasn't appealing. Meanwhile, the clerk sang the praises of Civ II on PC, saying it's one of the greatest games ever made. I took his advice and that was my first taste of strategy games, a genre with a challenging amount of depth but one that's also rewarding and addictive. I spent hundreds of hours on Civilization and its sequels, but I haven't played many others in the genre beyond Amplitude Studios' works, such as Humankind and Big Huge Games' Rise of Nations . When I had a chance to preview Ubisoft's Anno 117: Pax Romana , I didn't know what to expect aside from it would be a historical strategy game, but with a more focused era. I was expecting something Civ -ish, but I was wrong. City building with Civ elements Anno 117 is different from anything I've played before. The upcoming PC game puts players in the role of a new Roman governor during a relatively peaceful 200-year span. Players start out with a single settlement, but they'll have to expand and build a network of eternal cities. They'll start in the Latium with a Mediterranean climate and ruins from the past. Further in the game, the governor's domain expands to Albion, a different environment with harsh cliffs, misty marshland and a new culture. The biggest difference between Anno 117 and Civ is that the former is more focused on city building in a real-time environment. Players set up a Villa and from there they have to establish a colony by first establishing wood cutters and a saw mill. From there, they'll have to craft roads, build neighbourhoods, establish businesses and grow a population that will support more promising technologies. It's a lot to juggle in real-time, and genre newcomers will be overwhelmed with the concepts. Just like Civ , players have to manage citizens, keep them fed by establishing farms growing wheat and oats and building kitchens to cook the ingredients. As they build more infrastructure, they have to keep an eye out on how much gold they're spending and build more advanced facilities such as markets and taverns to bolster those coffers. How to tech up What's notable in Anno 117 is that the tech tree is tied to the type of citizens players have. They begin with residents called Liberti, but when players upgrade the neighborhood, they gain access to Pleibians that give the governor access to more advanced facilities such as a Place of Worship and Schools. Having a temple opens up religion, and by choosing a Roman god, they gain access to stat buffs that can improve other aspects of society. They'll make farms more efficient or improve a city's military prowess. Meanwhile, schools speed up research of different technologies that can boost the city's efficiency. Civ fans can see how these different aspects of society are interconnected. Smart players will come up with a strategy to maximise their plan for success. If they want to conquer the map, they can start building barracks, armories and recruitment areas to amass an army to take over rival realms. If they want to gain the best technology quickly, they can build schools all over the place and speed up the rate of learning. Knowing where and how to build Being a novice, I had a hard time grasping the interconnectedness of several buildings. Nothing happens instantaneously. Players have to account for travel time as carts move across the map to deliver materials and goods needed for different products. Anno 117 may have some Civ concepts, but it weaves it into the city-building adeptly. Players have to take into account how places such as Smelters impact the environment around it. The site is required for several advanced buildings, but it also makes the health worse for surrounding residents. That means it's imperative to build it away from the city centre. If they can't do that, they can build a clinic to help keep people healthy amid its pollution. Those clinics, fire departments and police agencies are needed to keep each city from falling into ruin. Being unaware about the different systems work, I always felt behind compared to rival cities. I always felt like a Protoss probe in Star Craft that needed to constantly construct more pylons. I always needed to build more houses and then upgrade them, but I couldn't always do that when the materials weren't available and the residents were unhappy. Amid discontent, homes can't be upgraded. I also gained a Specialist, but again, I had to expand my Villa to house Julius Lupus, but to do that, I would need prestige, which was gained by adding ornaments throughout the city. Again, it's one of those elements that players have to learn about the hard way. I eventually got the hang of it, and like all good strategy games, time flew by as I explored the map and established another colony on the island while developing trade with neighbours. Anno 117 is going to be the type of game – like Civ – that hooks players so tightly into its world that a planned two-hour gaming session can end with the sunrise at 6 in the morning. The one element the Anno 117 demo build didn't have was combat or the moulding of the provinces. Players can choose to embrace Celtic culture or Romanize the area. This part of the game focused on city-building and exploration. I met other rival colonies, but I couldn't send out an army to take them down. I was content to build several ships and I used that to scout the world and establish a trade routes. I'll have to wait to see what the later parts of Anno 117 will be like when the city-building strategy game comes out in the winter of 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S. – The Mercury News/Tribune News Service
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
