civilization-iv-colonization posts

Announced late in December and noticed by almost no one, the Mac version of Firaxis Games' strategy title Civilization IV: Colonization is now available from publisher Aspyr. The Mac port is also available to purchase and download exclusively via Aspyr's GameAgent service.

As we reported last month, Aspyr has apparently suffered through some massive layoffs late in 2009. The company has yet to officially comment on the layoffs, despite several phone calls and emails to Aspyr. At the moment the only upcoming game project Aspyr has listed is the Mac port of the LucasArts action game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition.

As they did during the Thanksgiving holiday, the GameTap PC game subscription service has decided to activate an update early in the week before Christmas. This week subscribers to the service's premium tier can add Civilization IV: Colonization to the games available to play for free via a monthly fee.

The game itself, released in 2008, is a kind of stand alone mod for the Firaxis-developed strategy game focusing on the colonization of the New World. Also, GameTap's free title is still Rogue Trooper. Anyone who signs on can play that Rebellion-developed action title on their free portion of the subscription service.

We've got one more weekend PC game sales deal to tell you about today. The download service Gamersgate is offering up a weekend-only discount on Civilization IV: Colonization, the recent historical strategy game from developer Firaxis and publisher 2K Games.

Normally priced at $30, Gamersgate is offering up the acclaimed game this weekend only for just $14.99, which if you do the math is 50 percent off its usual price. By the way, Gamersgate has added some more Electronic Arts titles to its library this week including C&C: Red Alert 3, The Godfather, Crysis Warhead and Medal of Honor: Airborne among others.

If you happen to have a little money left over from your grandmother's Christmas gift and haven't picked up the Civilization IV: Colonization or the PC version of NBA 2K9, then 2K Games has a nice deal for you. The publisher has now released a PDF coupon on their web site that can be printed out and used in select retailers to shave off $10 from the price of both those games.

Of course there are other consoles games you can use with the coupon but why would you bother with those (hehe)? The coupon can printed more than once if you want more than one game on the list. The coupon expires on Jan. 31.

This week's release of the top 10 best selling PC games list in the US (offered as always by the NPD Group) may seem familiar as it mostly has the same games (slightly switched around in position) as last week's list. The only major change is that the PC port of Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway has departed the top 10 after its debut last week.

After over a month, EA's Spore continues to top the list and we suspect the game will stay there until the release of Blizzard's expansion pack World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. In the meantime here is the currently list for the top PC games for the week ending Oct. 18.

1. Spore - Electronic Arts
2. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
3. Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy - Her Interactive
4. Warhammer Online - Mythic/Electronic Arts
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
6. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
7. Civilization IV: Colonization - Firaxis/2K Games
8. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
9. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Blizzard
10. Crysis Warhead - Crytek/Electronic Arts

The NPD Group has revealed the top 20 best selling PC games in the US for the entire month of September and it's not a shocker to see that EA's alien evolution sim Spore is right up top at number one. New releases Warhammer Online, Crysis Warhead and Civilization IV: Colonization also did well in their debut months. Perhaps the biggest dissapointment was S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. The GSC Game World shooter only came in at number 20 on the list in its first month, perhaps because of a lack of promotion by its publisher Deep Silver.

1. Spore - Electronic Arts
2. Warhammer Online - Mythic/Electronic Arts
3. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
4. Warhammer Online Collector's Edition - Mythic/Electronic Arts
5. Spore Galactic Edition - Electronic Arts
6. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. Crysis Warhead - Crytek/Electronic Arts
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
9. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
10. Spore Creature Creator - Electronic Arts
11.World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
12.Civilization IV: Colonization - Firaxis/2K Games
13. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard
14. Civilization IV - Firaxis/2K Games
15. The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff - Electronic Arts
16. Diablo Battle Chest - Blizzard
17. Starcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
18. Hot Wheels: Beat That - Activision
19. Crysis - Crytek/Electronic Arts
20. S.T.A.LK.E.R. Clear Sky - GSC Game World/Deep Silver

Fall is truly here. The Cubs didn't make it to the World Series again and new PC games make the NPD Group's top 10 best selling PC games list interesting to check out again. NPD sent out their latest list for the week ending Sept. 27 and Electronic Arts' Spore finds itself back on top this week after falling to second place last week because of the launch of Warhammer Online

Two new games showed up on the list; 2K Games' Civilization IV: Colonization made a solid debut at number 3 while Warner Bros. Interactive's Lego Batman came in at number nine. It replaces S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky who slips off the top 10 list after just one week.

1. Spore - Electronic Arts
2. Warhammer Online - Mythic/Electronic Arts
3. Civilization IV: Colonization - 2K Games
4. Crysis Warhead - Crytek/Electronic Arts
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
6. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
9. Lego Batman - Traveller's Tales/Warner Bros. Interactive
10. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard

When it comes to a particularly good game, what matters most? I'm not talking about the old checklist videogame reviewers used to rely on -- and often still do -- such as music, graphics, presentation, etc. What I'm getting at here are the qualities which make a game stand above the rest in our collective minds. I've boiled it down to five particular areas in which I think a game needs to nail down in order to be more than the sum of its parts.

Next week the latest game from the Sid Meier game factory Firaxis heads to shelves. It's the PC exclusive Civilization IV: Colonization and as we have reported on before it's basically a remake of the 1990's Microprose title Sid Meier's Colonization with the Civilization IV engine. However before you throw down some pre-order money, the Gamersgate download service has a deal they want to talk to you about in the alley.

"Psst...come here, man. You want Civilization IV: Colonization? Of course you do. You are addicted to that Sid Meier gameplay. So how about something in addition to that game? Yeah man. You pre-order that digital download from us at Gamersgate and we will set you up with Paradox Interactive's historical strategy game Europa Universalis III for free. That's a $19.99 game for nothin'. Are ya interested?"

While the game industry is beginning to understand that they can sell high profile games any time of the year the truth is that the time period between the first of September and the first week of December remains the biggest time of the year for new games to be released. 2008 seems to be no exception to this rule as PC gamers have a ton of new and promising titles to choose from this year.

So which games are we most looking forward to playing this fall? Well it so happens that we have created a feature gallery that has our picks for the PC game titles we most want to play in the next few months. That list include a long awaited MMO, a new expansion pack to the biggest MMO, an alternate history RTS game, a number of great looking first person shooters, a post-apocalyse RPG and a title that some are already declaring "the greatest game ever made." (in fact you can get a clue as to one of the games on our list from this custom case mode we saw at QuakeCon).

Our list of games is ordered by their scheduled release dates. Keep in mind while checking our picks that release dates can and do change at the last minute. Our picks represent the best info on these dates at the time of the posting of this article but if any changes are announced afterward we will report on them on the news site.

Click on the image above to continue reading "Most Anticipated Fall 2008 PC Games"