Empire builders at Simphoni rejoice as our member usman today found out at Gamespot that Civ5 is on its way. Firaxis released an official statement confirming the story:

Civilization V takes this definitive strategy game series in new directions with the introduction of hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire. The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience that brings players closer to the Civ experience than ever, featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time. Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before. The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield. In addition to the new gameplay features debuting in Civilization V, an extensive suite of community, modding and multiplayer elements will also make an appearance.

Definitely sounds worthy of looking forward to! The official site is in the air as well at http://www.civilization5.com/ 

Release is scheduled for this fall.

In addition to Civ5 another game was announced as well:

In addition to Civilization V, Firaxis Games is also currently developing Sid Meier’s Civilization® Network™, a Civ game for Facebook. With Sid Meier leading design, Civilization Network will offer yet another option for world domination to both the casual gamer and the biggest fan of the series. It’s another way to access the famously addictive world of Civilization.

Our friend Dirk over at Simtropolis has reviewed CitiesXL on his blog. It’s a great and very informative read, so I encourage you to head on over and check it out. One spoiler: Dirk’s final verdict is 7.5 out of 10

Our friend Dirk from Simtropolis virtually sat down with the folks from Monte Cristo for an interview on CXL. Some very interesting information there, so head on over to check it out!

We have jus been informed by Mathew_MC, Community Manager for Monte Cristo Games for the English forums, that a Cities XL Demo is now available. So all of you who have been waiting for the game for so long the time has finally come to feast your eyes!

Features of the demo include:

• Create a city of up to 22 000 citizens on a persistent planet (the full version of the game lets you create megalopolises of millions of citizens)
• Build your city on one of the 3 available maps (the full version of the game will include 25 maps for solo mode and 50 for the Planet Offer)
• Visit Capital City, a small and nice town that offers an example of what can be created with Cities XL
• Discuss and trade resources with other players
• Write your own City Journal
• Start a new city as often as you wish for the duration of the demo trial!

Go on over, download, install, and let us know what you think!

Our friends over at Sporedum have posted an editorial on the Spore Galactic Adventures expansion pack. Although Ball Lightning refrains from answering the question whether Spore Galactic Adventures succeeded or failed in fixing some of the flaws that came with the original Spore game, he brings up some interesting points. So head on over, and check it out!

Two weeks after the former, a new Cities XL video has been released. The official CXL site states:

This week, our new video focuses on some of the architectural wonders that you can add to your city to make it more attractive for new citizens, as well as the different resources needed to achieve this goal

The new video can be found at Gametrailers.com

Monte Cristo have released a short in-game video of CXL over at Gametrailers.com. Check it out!

Monte Cristo today announced that at CXL launch a special limited edition will be available. Cities XL’s Standard Edition box will of course  include the installation DVD for the game, two instruction manuals, and a 7-day trial code for the online Planet Offer. A surprising way to get more people hooked has been found in including a trial offer on a second DVD so that one of your friends can discover the game.

The Limited Edition box will include:

• 5 additional maps for solo mode
• 5 exclusive landmark buildings
• 1 exclusive city hal
• 2 permanent blueprints
• 3 postcards
• A bonus tee-shirt to make your avatar even more unique
• An honorific medal to display proudly on your personal profile page on CitiesXL.com
• A 41×34cm poster

Details on how to pre-order the limited edition will be put on the official site within a couple of days. Head on over there for additional shots of the special content.

And now the moment you have been waiting for: the jury has reached their final verdict on who is going to receive a CXL Beta Key!

Simphoni has 12 keys to give out, so there were 12 winners to be named. Gil, toroca and I individually rated all entries for all items that we asked for in the opening post. This gave us three separate rankings, which we subsequently merged into one.

The lucky winners are:

1: Vlad @ 36 points
2: Shoob @ 32 points
3: Laurelin @ 28 points
4: nileq @ 26 points
4: Lain @ 26 points
6: blue tile @ 19 points
7: toolonglyf @ 17 points
8: uko @ 13 points
9: ChrisK @ 9 points
10: etix @ 8 points
11: Atrux @ 7 points
11: lediur @ 7 points

All winners will be contacted by me with their key and how to enroll the beta ASAP.

Congratulations to all winners, and thanks to all that participated!

Did you try to enroll in the Beta but weren’t selected? Did you hope you maybe had a second chance during other sites’ Beta frenzies but were you disappointed? Maybe Simphoni.net can help! We have been given a limited number of Beta-keys by our good friends at Monte Cristo. We plan to give those keys to people whose expertise in the field of city builders we think can be of great value to make Cities XL the best it can be for the community as a whole. For details on how to enroll, please visit the Simphoni Forums.