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.

We have a great show lined up for you this week as Philippe Da Silva joins us to address issues regarding the solo and online modes of Cities XL. This week we talk about feedback regarding the previous episode of the show, a podcast phone line, critical consensus of The Sims 3, personal happenings and of course a TON of information regarding Cities XL.

Click here to listen to episode 24 (61.1 MB, 1:06:40, mp3).

New to the SIMphoni Podcast? Click here to listen to the promo and some clips from previous episodes of the podcast (4.1 MB, 4:26, mp3).

If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or send us an email to podcast@simphoni.net. This episode was produced, recorded and edited by me. It features Trixin as host, Rexer as co-host and Philippe Da Silva as our guest. Enjoy and stay tuned for The Sims 3 Special, airing soon!

A slight reversal of roles occurs as Rexer hosts the show and Trixin co-hosts. This week we talk about feedback regarding the previous episode, year end honours for Spore, New Years resolutions and of course we unveil the winners of the 200EH(8) Awards.

Click here to listen to episode 15 (48.9 MB, 53:22, mp3).

Not interested in listening to the full episode? Click here to listen to just the awards ceremony (26.8 MB, 29:19, mp3).

New to the SIMphoni Podcast? Click here to listen to the promo and some clips from previous episodes of the podcast (4.1 MB, 4:26, mp3).

Both the full episode and the edited section of the podcast have been marked as track number 19, for those of you who listen to the show using iTunes; this is not a mistake. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or send us an email to podcast@simphoni.net. This episode was produced, recorded and edited by me and it features Rexer as host and Trixin as co-host. Enjoy and stay tuned for episode 16, airing January 18th!

Simphoni member djVanDrake informed us that the official Civilization IV Colonization page has been updated. The page now amongst others contains a trailer and the system requirements. The latter appear to be the same as those for Civilization IV. This is of course not surprising as Civilization IV Colonization uses a lot of the original Civilization IV game engine.

It looks like our member oppie is the first to get his hands on Spore:

I bought Spore at a local shop yesterday (apparently they didn’t know that the release date was still a few days away). They only had the standard edition, but I could not resist the temptation of getting it early.

Rumours are going around the Net that the same is true for other stores in both The Netherlands and Australia. For now it appears only the regular edition is released early by those retailers: the Galactic Edition has not been spotted yet. It remains a mystery whether, and if so how EA will take action against the shops that jumped the gun.

Oppie’s initial remarks about the game:

My first impressions; this game is awesome. The cell phase especially was much more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I could never suspect that being a tiny herbivore in a sea of predators could be so much fun. In the creature phase, I befriended a couple of other species and formed a ‘band of misfits’ when some of them joined my ‘pack’. So far, I can only say; you’re going to love this game.

Apparently the game wasn’t enough to keep him at home though

I wish I could post screenshots, but I can’t because I’m at work at the moment.

This huge episode is specifically devoted to Spore Community Day which took place at Maxis headquarters in Emeryville, California. We share new information regarding all aspects of Spore along with some exclusive audio clips that were recorded during the event. You will need to turn up the volume for the audio clips since they are recorded at a lower volume.

Click here to listen to the Spore Community Day Special (78.0 MB, 1:25:14, mp3).

New to the SIMphoni Podcast? Click here to listen to the promo and some clips from previous episodes of the podcast (4.1 MB, 4:26, mp3).

If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or send us an email to podcast@simphoni.net. This episode was produced and edited by me and recorded by me and Rexer. It features Trixin as host, Rexer as co-host, several other Spore fan site owners and Maxis employees. Enjoy and stay tuned for the next special edition of the podcast, airing August 25th!

The forums are undergoing an upgrade to the newest version of Invision Power Boards at this time.  Do not be alarmed if you see the forums disabled.  Sdrawkcab is bringing us the upgrade and some new enhancements to the forums. 

Rexer

Once again, we have produced a lengthy but fantastic episode! Trixin tries to be funny, Rexer attempts to embellish the show and djVanDrake makes an effort to not go crazy. This week we talk about the Spore Creature Creator, the new Cities XL trailer, Civilization IV developments, recent forum changes, and much more! Dane from St. Louis, United States joins us to announce the winners of the SIMphoni Circus Maximus Awards.

Click here to listen to episode seven (58.4 MB, 1:03:47, mp3).

Not interested in listening to the full episode? Click here to listen to just the awards ceremony (29.1 MB, 31:46, mp3). 

New to the SIMphoni Podcast? Click here to listen to the promo and some clips from previous episodes of the podcast (4.1 MB, 4:26, mp3).

Both the full episode and the edited section of the podcast have been marked as track number eight, for those of you who listen to the show using iTunes; this is not a mistake. If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or send us an email to podcast@simphoni.net. This episode was produced, recorded and edited by me. It features Trixin as host, Rexer as co-host and djVanDrake as our guest. Enjoy and stay tuned for episode eight, airing July 6th!

djVanDrake reports that voting in the Simphoni MMVIII “Circus Maximus” Awards is now open. Voting is possible for a short time only, namely to Midnight Central Daylight Time (5am GMT) on Saturday, June 20th.

Forumer djVanDrake shares the exciting news with us that Take Two Interactive will do a remake of the classic Sid Meier game Colonization. Colonization was a specialised version of Civilization released in 1994 allowing a player to colonize “a” or “the” new world in a replay of the settling of the North American continent. According to Sid Meier himself:

We’ve received many requests from fans over the years to bring back Colonization and now seemed to be the perfect time to do that. The Civilization IV engine provided a fantastic foundation for a new Colonization experience and allowed us to create something great for both new players and long time fans of the game.

Looks like the perfect new meat for our Empire Building Games forum! Forumer usman found an article over at WorthPlaying that contains some screenshots.