Shoutie

[djVanDrake]

2K Games Announces Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization™ for Games for Windows®


News release from 2K yesterday that announces a revival of the original game from 1994 that will use the Civ - IV engine. The game will focus on "leaving the opressive motherland" and striking out to capture the new world. Looks interesting.

[usman]

I never played Colonization. Was it any good? And what you had to do in that? Oh I found an article about it. You can read it here:

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=52828

[Jirnsum]

OMG OMG OMG!!!! I spent hours and hours playing the original game. Very exciting news! Thanks Dj!

Posted on the frontpage

EDIT: from Gamasutra

2K representatives told Gamasutra that Colonization is being developed by the team behind Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword.

[toroca]

Drat! When I saw the thread title I thought it meant a new expansion, not an entirely different game!

Ah well. I'll have a look.

[djVanDrake]

Drat! When I saw the thread title I thought it meant a new expansion, not an entirely different game!

Ah well. I'll have a look.

I think that's really what it is, an expansion. It's very similar to Civ-IV from what you can see here....



Looks like a lot of the ships, units, and interface. The are new "Expert" tradesmen that you can build that looks interesting. The thing that will make or break it (in my opinion) is the idea of advanced diplomacy. That sounds very promising. The Diplomacy in Civ-IV can be a touch lacking at times.

OMG OMG OMG!!!! I spent hours and hours playing the original game. Very exciting news! Thanks Dj!

You're very welcome! I don't know if I've ever seen you this excited. Don't know what little voice in my bizzare head said to check out Take Two's website today, but wow what a surprise. I think the news hit early yesterday too. So far, lots of enthusiam that I can see.

[toroca]

No, it's not an expansion, it's a standalone game built using the Civ IV game engine. Not at all the same thing. An expansion would simply add new features and content to Civ IV, like BtS and Warlords did. A standalone game doesn't require any of those to play.

[Jirnsum]

Drat! When I saw the thread title I thought it meant a new expansion, not an entirely different game!

Ah well. I'll have a look.

Are you telling me you've never played this?

EDIT: I was able to acquire three screens and the offical logo through Gamepress









Fact sheet found:

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: ColonizationTitle: Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization™
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis Games
Platform: Games for Windows®
ESRB Rating: Not Yet Rated
Release Date: Fall 2008
Web Site: http://www.civilization.com


Product Overview:

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization™ is the third offering in the award winning Civilization IV® series. A re-imagining of the classic Colonization game Sid Meier created in 1994, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization is a total conversion of the Civilization IV engine into a game experience in which players will lead a European nation on their quest to conquer and rule the New World. Players will be challenged to guide their people from the oppressive motherland, discover a New World, negotiate, trade and fight with both the natives and other nations as they acquire great power and fight for their freedom and independence.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization does not require the original Civilization IV game to play.

Features:
Classic Game Design Rebuilt for the Modern Era: Usher forth a new generation of Sid Meier’s Colonization with gameplay built on the award winning Civilization IV engine, providing the beautiful visuals, famously addictive gameplay and endless fun that are synonymous with Sid Meier strategy games.
Fight the Homeland and Establish a New Nation: Play as the English, Spanish, French or the Dutch and journey to a brave new world in search of freedom from your oppressive homeland
Improved Diplomacy: Sustain peace and support your followers as you engage in advanced negotiations with natives, other colonists and the hostile homeland -- Trade resources, gold and land as you build the foundation for a self sufficient and powerful colony
Historical Figures Provide Adaptive Gameplay: Acquire founding fathers such as John Smith, Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams who will help guide your nation to freedom based on your gameplay style
Brand New Interface: Both Civilization IV fans and players new to the series will feel right at home with an interface that Firaxis has built to be accessible and easy to navigate.
Multiplayer Offers Endless Replay Value: Compete with friends from all over the world via the Internet and Play by Email modes or compete locally via the Hotseat and LAN modes, offering endless ways to conquer the New World.
Detailed Tutorial Guides Players In Their Conquest: Civilization IV: Colonization will provide an enhanced tutorial that will help both fans of the game and brand new players on their way to ruling the New World.
Mods and Community Tools: Players will have limitless options for modifying the game to suit their needs. Firaxis will ship the game with modding tools including a map editor using XML and Python.


Developer Information:

Firaxis Games™ is one of the world’s premier game development studios, and home of legendary designer Sid Meier. Firaxis has developed some of the most successful and award-winning computer and video games on the market today including; 2005 PC Game of the Year - Sid Meier’s Civilization IV®, the expansions Civilization IV: Warlords®, and Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword™, the blockbuster Sid Meier’s Civilization® III series, Sid Meier’s Pirates!® (PC, Xbox® and PSP®), Sid Meier’s SimGolf™ and Sid Meier’s Railroads!™. Firaxis legacy titles include the Sid Meier's Civil War Series!™ (Gettysburg!, Antietam!, and South Mountain), and the Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri® series. In 2005, Firaxis Games was acquired by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., joining its 2K publishing label. The company will release Sid Meier’s Civilization® Revolution™ for console and handheld platforms in summer 2008.

[toroca]

Nope, I never played Colonization. I didn't have a computer when it was new, and by the time I did have a computer three years later, it had largely fallen off the radar.

[djVanDrake]

Firaxis has a new page up for Colonization on their website. Not a lot of new info but looks pretty good. (well other than the new design for Catherine the Great. . Seriously? How am I supposed to wage war on a teenager? The grown woman with the sly looks is much for fun to have opposed to you. But, I digress....)

[Jirnsum]

Thanks for pointing that out Dj: it indeed looks like a proper remake of the original

[toroca]

*wonders where Deej saw Catherine*

[djVanDrake]

*wonders where Deej saw Catherine*

The female face on the far left (in the background) is the new Civilization Revolution version of Catherine. I'm not crazy about her makeover.

[usman]

Gamespot did a preview of Civ IV: Colonization. It can be found here:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sidmei...umballs;title;0

[toroca]

Excellent find, usman. Looks good, though I agree with the reviewer: four nations to choose from is a bit of slim pickings.

[Jirnsum]

Well: England, Netherlands, Spain and France were most active back then...

A real-world Manifest Destiny mode on a geographically accurate map, on which colonies would each have to race to dominate the Americas, would have been a fun idea.

Hmm: in the original Colonization you had the option of playing on the real world map. Too bad that the reviewer obviously never played that...

Thanks for pointing out that article usman!

[toroca]

The Portuguese are an obvious oversight though. Brazil, anyone? And really, if you look at the history of the Americas from about 1000AD on, you find several more countries that gave at least a token effort.

In North America, of course, the Vikings were the first after 1000AD. Then the ones that are in the game; Britain, France, Spain, and the Dutch. And Russia colonized Alaska to a small degree; that's where the US bought it from after all (though whether you count Russia as part of Europe depends on which geographer you talk to. ).

In South America it was mostly the same countries, with the major addition of Portugal.

But I mentioned countries that made a token effort; that list is a little bit longer. The Swedes established a colony on the Delaware River for a short time. Denmark-Norway reestablished colonies on the former Viking lands in Greenland.

So, aside from the four in the game, a good case could be made for including Russia, the Vikings, Sweden, Denmark (probably not Norway since the political leadership was in Copenhagen at the time), and especially Portugal. That would more than double the potential choices.

It just seems like, in comparison to CivIV, it's a bit limited in the initial options.

As for a real world map, I wouldn't be surprised if that's included in the release version. It was in Civ IV, wasn't it?

[usman]

Another preview of Colonization and this time its 1up. Check it out here:

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3168463

[toroca]

Another nice find, usman!

[Jirnsum]

I just remembered a funny thing from the original game. There's the equivalent of the Boston tea party in there, but the game would randomly pick a resource to throw into a random city's harbour. I remember I always thought the "the rebels in defiance threw 50 loads of horses into New Amsterdam's harbour" variety a bit cruel.

[toroca]