Civ IV BTS Preview at Gamespot with Videos! (June 22)

[fitchn]

Gamespot has just posted their hands-on Preview. Check it out here. In addition to the preview and the obligatory screen shots, it also has 4 gameplay movies!

 

[Alter Ego]

Hmm. Espionage becomes available with the Alphabet.

There is also a screenshot of Suryavarman II.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Surayvarman looks funny. he kinda resembles one of those SE Asia Buddha statues.

 

[Virulent]

Boy do some of these culture specific units look fantastic plus the modern great spies looks like James Bond.

Damn this is going to be a long month.

 

[Alter Ego]

There is a new national wonder, "National Park": Removes access to coal from that city, no from population, +1 free specialist per forest preserve. Very interesting.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

Gamespot's pictures show several events, including one inspired by the Greek legend of Marathon.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationivbeyondthesword/images.html?tag=tabs;images
Great ninj--err, spy, as well.

 

[jdog5000]

Partisans spawn after a city is razed in one of the videos! (2nd, I think ...) Also shows paratroopers dropping in, you can issue orders to the paratroopers after they land, in this case they fortify. Can't tell if they can attack same turn as drop though ...

The 3rd video shows the space ship building process, it looks really cool! After pressing launch, and seeing a bit of a movie in the spaceship screen, the ship can also be seen flying off into space from the city.

There are also a ton of flavor unit graphics it seems, the Russian swordsmen, horse archers, & axes look different (video kind of fuzzy though)

 

[Methos]

I can't check the links due to work filters, but is this the same article Thunderfall posted about in this thread?

 

[Nikis-Knight]

No, two went up more or less at once. Games Radar shows more of the scenarios, while Gamespot has videos and lots of pictures of events.

 

[Psyringe]

The first video is very nice, it shows the new espionage gameplay in action.

I also liked the spaceship movie. Apparently there are different "types" of every possible spaceship component. I'll have to watch again to check whether these are just looking different, or have actually different specs. Nice idea to actually have the ship launch visible in the main map view, btw.

I don't really get the point of the other videos though. Slaughtering a terribly backwards medieval army unit by unit with modern units isn't that much exciting imho. At least we see some new animations (e.g. paratroopers).

 

[Virulent]

Am I seeing things? Or is the mouse pointer shown in those videos different than the Civ IV standard one.

 

[Gaius Octavius]

Yes, it is. Why'd they change it?

 

[Virulent]

Yes, it is. Why'd they change it?

Since all those videos seem to take place in modern times I'm wondering if the mouse pointer changes with the era just like flag shape seems to change.

 

[Phoenix1595]

Excellent article. My thoughts:

-Glad to hear that city improvements like castles and jails act as deterrents for espionage... I was worried that I would have togain a lot of spies (and espionage points) just to have effective counterespionage. I too noticed James Bond (and his earlier ninja counterpart).

-Events system looks fantastic! I especially like the fact that they spawn "mini-policies," like a national highway system or a central bank, which can greatly aid your civ.

-I agree that Suryavaman looks odd-- he reminded me of a crazy granny with jaundice. Doesn't look like his graphic set is polished yet, so maybe that will change. So who haven't we seen yet? Gilgamesh, DeGaulle, Justinian, Darius, Boudicca, Joao, Charlemagne...

-National Parks/forest preserves is greatly welcomed... it will be interesting if people are willing to give up coal for their benefits (or else except public transport instead).

-Still waiting to see if they redesigned the fort graphic for use as canals/airfields. I'd be slightly disappointed if it was the same fort graphic but with the movement attributes of a city.

 

[NYHunter]

Everything looks great!

 

[NYHunter]

Slave revolts???!!!

 

[Dutch Canuck]

I just watched the 4 videos - I am soooo impressed with BTS! Why do I have to wait? WAAAAH!

**regains composure**

Bestest expansion evah!

 

[witten]

The normal mouse pointer slightly changed its look, and while waiting it's the rotating Earth instead of one looking like a compass.

 

[witten]

How would this event work? Looks very interesting..!

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/172/reviews/938800_20070622_screen014.jpg

 

[Nikis-Knight]

War! What it even good for? Taking Incan Iron! Huh!