civilization-iv posts

As we reported in our E3 2010 Civilization V impressions article, the upcoming strategy game from Firaxis Games will come with mod and editing tools to allow players to make their own maps and mods for the title. But what if you really love a map that was made for the previous game in the series, Civilization IV?

Thankfully it looks like people won't have to remake those maps from stratch for the new entry in the series. BitMob quotes the game's lead designer Jon Shafer as saying, "You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it." While you won't be able to do the same with Civ IV total conversion mods like the popular Fall from Heaven that have custom art and designs, we should see a flood of old Civ 4 maps remade for the new game when Civilization V is released this September.

There's apparently a lot of people who want to pay $15 for a five level map pack. The latest Steam top 10 best selling PC games list for the week has the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package first person shooter level pack in the number one spot. It's the first time a paid downloadable content product has been number one on Steam's sales list.

Thanks to a weekend 75 percent sale, Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition found itself in the number two slot followed by Battlefield Bad Company 2 in the third position. The full top 10 list is below.

1. Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package - Infinity Ward/Activision
2. Civilization IV Complete Collection - Firaxis/2K-Games
3. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Digital Illusions/EA
4. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
5. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
6. Codemasters Racing Pack - Codemasters
7. Splinter Cell Conviction Deluxe Edition - Ubisoft
8. Civilization V - Firaxis/2K Games
9. Guild Wars Trilogy - ArenaNet/NCsoft
10. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City - Rockstar Games

Perhaps the most well known total conversion mod for Civilization IV is Fall from Heaven. It basically turns Firaxis Games' historical turn-based strategy game into a dark fantasy title. The first version of the mod was released in 2005 but a second version, Fall from Heaven II was released a year later and was far more complex. You can get more info on the mod at its official web site. While major updates for the mod version of Fall From Heaven II ended over a year ago it looks like the team behind has taken the next step

In a post on the Civfanatics.com forum the leader of the mod team, Derek "Kael" Paxton, announced that the next version of Fall From Heaven "is currently in production as a stand alone game." That's basically all we know at the moment but it's certainly exciting news that yet another mod team is making the move to create their own title.

[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]

The holiday sale over at the Steam PC game download site continues. While there are a ton of games and game bundles on sale until January 5, they have been posting one days sales on specific games since the special event started. Today eight games are available for rock bottom prices for the next 23 hours.

Max Payne and Max Payne 2 are priced at $2.49 each. Valve has put its original Left 4 Dead game on sale for $7.49. FIFA Manager 2010's price is cut to $33.49. Civilization IV and its expansion Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword are priced at $6.79 each. The spin-off game Civilization IV Colonization is priced at $10.19. Finally the indie game Osmos is now a mere $1.99.

Want to save some money six days before Christmas? Perhaps these deals will help:

• Direct2Drive has put Civilization IV: The Complete Edition on sale for just $15.95 and Batman: Arkham Asylum on sale for just $24.95 until 1 pm Eastern time on Saturday. They have also put the indie game Osmos on sale for just $4.95. Also you can get the Special Edition of James Cameron's Avatar: The Game and either get Beyond Good and Evil or Call of Juarez for free until December 25.
• Impulse managed to sneak in some sales via their desktop icon. Among the price cuts are X-Com for just $1.99, Lightweight Ninja for just 99 cents, and Civilization IV for $9.99.
• GoG.com's weekend sale has a price cut on all of their Might and Magic games. You can buy each one individually for 30 percent off their normal price or all of them in a bundle for 50 percent off their normal price.

Those tricky folks at Valve. They love to make us go crazy with their mid-week sales at their Steam download service. They have already launched a week-long THQ-based sale event. Now from today until Friday they have put all of Firaxis Games' Civilization IV titles on sale in one bundle for a super-low price.

That means you can get the original turn based strategy game, the Warlords expansion pack and the stand alone games Beyond the Sword and Civilization IV: Colonization for the low, low price of just $19.99. That's 50 percent off the regular bundle price and a whopping 75 percent off if you tried to buy each game individually.

Just as Impulse has started up their weekend sales on the early side this Labor Day week so does fellow game download site GamersGate. This week they have put three titles on the price chopping block that will last until Sunday.

One of them is Victoria Complete, a collection of the original historical strategy game and its expansion pack Victoria Revolutions for just $12.49, 50 percent off its usual price. Also the turn based strategy game collection Civilization IV Complete (with the original game and its two expansion packs) is on sale for $15.98, 60 percent off its usual price. Finally the recent action-platformer Trine is on sale for 25 percent off its usual GamersGate price.

By John Gaudiosi

When he's not battling CGI Decepticons, actor Shia Labeouf can be found playing PC games or Xbox 360 online. With his $200 million movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, opening June 24, LaBeouf pulled double duty, working with Activision to fine-tune the second Transformers videogame experience. In addition to adding his voice work and likeness to the new game (co-star Megan Fox also went virtual), LaBeouf told the game makers what he did and did not like about the original game. One new feature that resulted from these conversations was the new online gameplay. LaBeouf talks about his love of videogames, what he played on set, and why he prefers Civ IV to Wii in this exclusive interview.

Gallery: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The Video Games Live music concerts tours have been going on for a few years now all over the world but what if you happen to live in a part of the world where there are not any plans to hold such an event? Today Video Games Live announced that they are selling an exclusively branded MP3 player that will hold 10 exclusive live performances of a number of game music from those concerts.

The $50 MP3 player is currently on sale at the Video Games Live web site. The 2 GB player comes with headphones, a USB adapter, support for an internal speaker and a microphone for recording voices. The 10 music tracks have not been released before now and include live recordings of music from games like Halo, Warcraft, Mass Effect, Civilization IV and more.

IGN's Direct2Drive game download site is going nuts (nuts, we say) with their newest sales deal. From now until May 31 a large number of their tiles from the 2K Games library have had their prices cut 50 percent off their normal amounts. There's quite a few cool deals here if you have a few extra dollars.

There's quite a few titles on sale for just $9.95 including BioShock, Civilization IV, Prey, Serious Sam Gold and more. And if you have always wanted to try out the classic X-Com game series, this sale has a bundle of all five X-Com game titles for just $7.50. That's a steal in of itself.