civilization-v posts

We have a strong feeling that starting tomorrow, PC gaming news may be on the slow side until the first full week in January. Unlike some gaming web sites that shut down during this time period we will still be around. Indeed look for some cool features on Big Download starting next week.

• Here's a shocker: Someone has made a PC sex game using an Xbox 360 Kinect hack.
• Steam has new automatic updates for the Mac port of Civilization V and Flight Control HD.
• Crysis and Crysis 2's Nanosuit has won a design award in the real world.
• As promised, the beta test for the PC port of Monday Night Combat has begun for all pre-orders.
• A major new patch for Patrician IV has been released via the game's auto updater; here are the patch notes.

Publisher Take Two Interactive is the last publicly traded game publisher to reveal its financial results for 2010. For its quarter that ended on October 31 the company brought in at $373.7 million compared to revenues of $282 million for the same period a year ago. Take Two brought in a net profit of $54.2 million for the quarter compared to a loss of $7.9 million for the same period a year ago.

For the past 12 months, Take Two had revenues of $1.16 billion, a 65 percent increase from the previous year. The publisher had a net profit of $49.7 million for the 12 month period compared to a loss of $130.4 million for the previous year. As we reported earlier this year Take Two will adjust its fiscal year reporting period to the standard that most other companies have and will report its next numbers sometime in April or May.

Ahead of the planned released of a new downloadable content pack for the game, developed 2K Games has now issued a major new patch for its turn-based strategy game Civilization V via Steam. While not nearly as massive as the patch issued a few hours ago for Elemental: War of Magic, the patch notes for the Civ 5 update are still quite extensive with improvements, changes and bug fixes for nearly every aspect of the game.

Just a reminder: A new DLC release for Civilization V is due to be made available on Steam tomorrow that will add two new civs to the game along with a new scenario for $7.49.

Next week, the folks at Firaxis Games will be releasing its newest DLC content for its hit strategy game Civilization V. But there's also a rather large patch that's been in the works for some time. The game's official forums have now posted the final, and rather extensive, notes detailing what will be in the next patch.

According to the message board post, the patch is expected to be released before the Spain and Inca DLC comes out on December 16. The notes show quite a few AI changes and improvements in the patch along with many gameplay, UI, diplomacy, and mod changes. The patch will be released automatically via the Steam download service.

Civilization V fans will soon be able to purchase and download more content for the popular turn based strategy game. Today the game's publisher 2K Games revealed plans to add two new civilizations along with a new scenario to the game from developer Firaxis on December 16.

One of the new civs will be the the Spaniards which will be ruled by Queen Isabella in the game. The other new civ is the Incans with Pachacuti as their leader. The new scenario will have the player take on Christopher Columbus' journey to the New World in 1492. Both the new civs and the new scenario will be made available to download for $7.49. You can check out more info about the DLC release after the jump:

[Via email press release]

If you purchased Civilization V after its release in September you likely missed out on getting one of many pre-order bonus map packs that were offered before the turn-based strategy game shipped out from various retailers. Now every owner of the Firaxis Games-developed title can access those pre-order map packs via Steam as paid DLC.

The Americas, Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and Asian ma packs can now be purchased and downloaded for $2.99 each. You can also get all four map packs in a bundle on Steam for $9.99, saving you about $2. Meanwhile we are still waiting for the next major patch to be released for the game that was first detailed last month.

Even with all of the price cuts this past Thanksgiving week, Treyarch's first person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops continued its run on the top of the top 10 best selling games on the Steam PC game download service in the past week. Left 4 Dead 2 came in second place this week followed by Civilization V in third place. The full top 10 sales list is as follows.

1. Call of Duty Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision
2. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
3. Civilization V - Firaxis Games
4. Counter-Strike Source - Valve
5. Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition - Rocksteady/Square Enix
6. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Gold Edition - Relic/THQ
7. Borderlands - Gearbox Software/2K Games
8. Super Meat Boy - Team Meat
9. Alpha Protocol - Obsidian Entertainment/Sega
10. Kane and Lynch 2 - Io Interactive/Square Enix

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving but already folks are starting to buy their holiday gifts (or at the very least thinking about creating their lists really hard). There have been a lot of PC games to choose from in the past 12 months and today Big Download wants to offer a few suggestions for the person who has a PC gamer on his or her list.

The games listed below are what we feel are good gift choices that should please any hardcore or even casual PC gamer that you have to buy for this year. We have even thrown in some indie titles and some games that are priced a bit cheaper than the norm for those of you on a budget. Check out our 2010 holiday list after the jump:

Editor's Note: Steven Wong contributed to this article

Civilization V will officially be released for the Mac platform on Tuesday via publisher Aspyr but until today it was unknown if the Mac port of the turn-based strategy game would support Valve's SteamPlay feature. Today Aspyr confirmed that thanks to user feedback the Mac port will indeed support SteamPlay. That means people who purchased the PC version will be able download the Mac port for free and vice versa.

Aspyr explained its decision by saying, "From the comments that poured in, it seemed clear that many of you had purchased the PC version, even though it was the Mac version that you really wanted, and either expected that Civ V Mac would support SteamPlay or that Civ V Mac would not even be released for some time." The Mac version will be made available on Steam and other download sites as planned on Tuesday.

Other aspects of the Mac port are detailed in the blog post including world that SteamCloud game save support would be coming sometime after the game's release. Unfortunately there will be no Mac demo of the game nor any support for mod tools for the Mac version.

Civilization V is getting yet another major patch and this week some of the changes were revealed in a new message board post on the turn-based strategy game's official forums. The patch, which as of yet doesn't have a release date, will concentrate on changes and improvements for its AI and diplomacy although there will be other things included.

Some of the patch notes for the Firaxis Games-developed title include improvements to the AI pillaging code (because all of us enjoy a good pillaging) having cities heal more quickly (you know from all that pillaging) and a couple of diplomatic systems: Declaration of Friendship and Denounce. We wish to denounce any declaration of friendship right now; if you are a true friend you shouldn't need to declare it.