TL;DR: Byzantium is coming with its horses and Religion, and not much is going to be able to stop it.
We are getting a new expansion for Civilization VI, well not quite, over the next year we have a season pass, the New Frontier Pass. This pack will give us several new Civilizations and Game Modes over the next year (which you can find out more information HERE). The following new Civilizations has been released so let’s dive into Byzantium.
TL;DR – A straightforward game that has layers of depth and works no matter what role you get
In the board game realm, there is a genre of games called ‘hidden role’ games. These are games like Avalon, Mafia de Cuba or Secret Hitler where on the surface all the players are trying to complete a task together. This task could be fighting an evil empire, hoarding your boss’ diamonds, or getting rid of the fascist elements of the government. However, around the table secretly, there are some players whose job is to do the exact opposite. I have seen many video games try to capture that feeling but never quite getting there, well that is until today.
So to set the scene, you and your fellow crewmate are on a drop-ship to a new location. It could be another spaceship, an aerostat military base, or a research station on a planet. Something has gone wrong, and your job is to work together to complete several tasks like refuelling the ship, clearing out the trash, or shooting down some approaching asteroids. All of this is very routine; however, among your crew, there is an Imposter (or Imposters) whose job is to stop you from completing the tasks by killing you off one by one.
TL;DR – So how well does Civilization 6 capture Ethiopia with its new entry? It’s raining faith Halleluiah, its rain faith, amen
With the drip-feed of content coming out of Civilization VI’s New Frontier pack we have already gotten a look at the Maya, Gran Colombia, and now Ethiopia. Given that Ethiopia is the first of these civilizations that has grabbed me, I thought it best to sit down and have a look at just how well they have implemented it in-game. After that, we will also spend a little bit of time looking at the other additions to the game. But to refresh ourselves, let’s take a look at Ethiopia’s bonuses.
Continue readingTL;DR – A game of two halves whose disconnect should not work, but I keep coming back.
Review – As part of the consequences of 2020 (and one of the few that are not bad) is that I have been playing a lot more multiplayer games with my group of friends. While the go-to games of Civilization and Divinity are there, we have also been branching out into new games, one of which is today’s review, 7 Days to Die. Now, I should preface this review with the fact that this game is still in alpha, which means that it is not feature complete. However, given the first release was in 2013, I think there has been enough time to get a good sense of the game.
So to set the scene, 7 Days to Die is a survival horror game set in a post-World War 3 Arizona where the dead now outnumber the living. The survival part of the genre means that you have to build bases, craft new items, upgrade your stuff so you can access new areas, and then rinse and repeat. The horror part of the title comes from the fact that your central adversary in this game is the walking dead, old bitey, or as you may know them by zombies.
TL;DR: Ethiopia is here and get ready for it to chuck faith into hyperdrive.
We are getting a new expansion for Civilization VI, well not quite, over the next year we have a season pass, the New Frontier Pass, which will give us several new Civilizations and Game Modes over the next year (which you can find out more information HERE). The next new Civilizations has been released so let’s dive into Ethiopia.
TL;DR – It brings life to a forgotten world, giving it a personality, a new direction. It also changes one of the games longest static features for the better.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Article –
Last year I took a look back at my time with Minecraft over the previous ten years. In many ways, whether I intended it or not, it was epitaph to my time with the game. Well, that may have been the intent, but reality had a way of changing that because COVID happened and I needed a way to connect with people in isolation and well what’s Realm between close friends. Since diving back into the game, we have our first significant update since the BEEESSSsss, so I wanted to explore as see how it changes the game for better or worse … it is the first one.
For those who have not played it, Minecraft is a Survival-Sandbox game; there is no traditional narrative to pull you through the game, bar the one you make for yourself. You mine for resources, and then you craft new items that give you access to new resources to mine and thus the circle continues from wood to stone to diamond and now even further. In a regular unmodded game of survival, there are three levels to the game, the Overworld the main world you spawn in, The End with its dragons and its pastel aesthetic, pastels everywhere, and finally The Nether, which is what we are focusing on today.
TL;DR – A good improvement to the game that fixes a lot of the issues I had with Season One.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
Last year the good folks over at Firaxis Games did something I won’t ever have called, they released a Battle Royale mode for Civilization VI. At first, it sounded absurd because a turn-based strategy game is not the place you would expect to see this kind of mode. However, the more I thought about it, the more it did make sense because isn’t Civilization just one extended Battle Royale mode? Only instead of the growing wall of doom, you have Alexander and all his horses. You can find our review for Season One HERE, but with the announcement of Season Two, we thought it was time to jump back in and see the improvements first hand.
For those who have managed to miss that Fortnite world domination over the last few years, a Battle Royale style game is when you start dropped on a map with very few resources. You need to arm yourself and expand your abilities and quickly because everyone else on the map is doing the same thing, and there are only so many loot drops to go around. However, this is not a mode you can turtle in because a wave of horror, in this case, fallout, is closing in making the map smaller and smaller and slowly forcing people to crash into each other and then it is last one standing. The thematic paint that Red Death puts on this is that nuclear weapons have destroyed the world and there is one spaceship taking you to safety. The only problem is that everyone wants a seat of the last ride out of town, but there is only room for one.
TL;DR: During the run-through, I gasped “That Movement” which is a good sign
We are getting a new expansion for Civilization VI, well not quite, over the next year we have a season pass, the New Frontier Pass, which will give us several new Civilizations and Game Modes over the next year (which you can find out more information HERE). The next of the new Civilizations that has been released is Gran Colombia, so let’s dive in.
Civilization Leader: Simón Bolívar
Leader Agenda: Carabobo – He favours civs with highly promoted units, dislikes civs with unpromoted units, and prefers to build Encampments.
Civilization Capital: Bogotá
Civilization Bonus: Ejército Patriota – ALL units get +1 movement, Promoting a unit does not end its turn.
Leader Bonus: Campaña Admirable – Grants the Comandante General – A special Great Person that you get at the start of each era that has multiple abilities, that can be used in military (damaging surrounding units), and in cities (extra Trade Route)
Unique Unit: Llanero – Replaces Cavalry. Low maintenance, plus combat bonus for Adjacent Llaneros,
Unique Tile Improvement: Haciendas – plus Gold, Production, Housing, Plus food for adjacent Plantations, Plus production for adjacent Haciendas
Rivers: Rio Negro, Caura River, Caroní River
Volcanoes: Guagua Pichincha
Deserts: Médanos de Coro
Cities: Quito, Valencia de Carabobo, Cali, Cumaná, Maracay
TL;DR: We get a civilization that finally goes tall
We are getting a new expansion for Civilization VI, well not quite, over the next year we have a season pass, the New Frontier Pass, which will give us several new Civilizations and Game Modes over the next year (which you can find out more information HERE). The first of the new Civilizations has been released so let’s dive into The Maya.
Civilization Leader: Lady Six Sky
Leader Agenda: Solitary – She dislikes encroaching civs and she tries to keep her cities in a cluster near the capital.
Civilization Capital: Wak Kab’nal
Civilization Bonus: Mayab – No extra housing from Fresh Water/Coast but Farms provide more housing and gold, Amenities for each Luxury resource adjacent to the City Centre
Leader Bonus: Ix Mutal Ajaw – Cities within 6 tiles of the Capital get a boost to all yearlings, other cities away from this limit get a penalty to yields. Bonus combat strength for units within 6 tiles of the Capital
Unique Unit: Hul’che – Ranged replacement for Archer, Stronger and gets a bonus against wounded opponents
Unique District: Observatory – A campus replacement that gets an adjacency bonus from Plantations and Farms.
Volcanoes: Hunahpú
Rivers: Grijalva River
Cities: Palenque, Yaxchilan, Toniná, Xunantunich, Copán,
In this thread we will be documenting all the new additions for Civilization VI in their New Frontier Pass.
This Features Thread is being complied for Civfanatics, head on over to the forums for all your Civilization discussions both for and also for games past.
TL;DR: There will be 6 packs of content, some of it will be paid DLC and some of it will be free content for players. Some of the new content will need to you have Rise and Fall installed, and some will need you to have Gathering Storm installed.
To jump to the different packs go to Maya and Gran Colombia Pack, June Update, Ethiopia Pack, August Update, Byzantium and Gaul Pack, Pack #4, Pack #5 & Pack #6.
Throughout this thread, I will put links to Wikipedia articles about the different features, if you would like to know more.
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