#FiraxisGames hosted a Civilization: Beyond Earth live stream this week, offering many fans of the famed #strategy franchise their first chance to see nearly an hour’s worth of new Civilization: Beyond Earth gameplay footage. (PHOTO: 2K / Firaxis)
Promotion for Civilization #games rarely looks the same as it does for other AAA projects, in no small part because it would be difficult to summarize the entire Civ experience in a two-minute trailer. This must be why a recent Civilization: Beyond Earth live stream offers roughly 50 minutes of gameplay for your viewing pleasure.
The first of what seems to be an ongoing series of Civilization: Beyond Earth live streams took place earlier this week, and the first truly public demonstration of Firaxis’ next strategy game offered plenty of new information for longtime fans to unpack this weekend. Not everything in the Civilization: Beyond Earth broadcast was a revelation, at least not if you’ve been keeping tabs on the game since its April unveiling, but the longest Civilization: Beyond Earth demo is easily the longest video to emerge thus far.
Naturally, trying to fit the entirety of the Civilization experience into such a short window of time is just about as hopeless as trying to make an all-encompassing trailer for the game. But Firaxis marketing director Pete Murray managed to spotlight a portion of the game that could be digested during the one-hour broadcast; specifically, highlighting the substantially-improved Barbarian factions that will roam the map in Civilization: Beyond Earth.
Murray also spent some time showing off the four Virtue trees that will replace social policy progression in Civilization: Beyond Earth, and discussed the philosophy behind one of several redesigned progression mechanics in the next Civilization. He also confirmed that players will be able to mix-and-match the perks from the various Virtue trees, with many conferring bonuses to those players who find synergy between two or more paths.
“We want to let people feel like they find some interesting strategies by going across the different approaches,” Murray said during the broadcast, “Later on, you start to get bonuses. They get pretty impressive.”
This week’s Civilization: Beyond Earth live stream also offered a look at the new Tech Web that will replace the far more-linear progression “tree” from previous Civilization games, giving players a bit more freedom over how they’ll improve life on Civilization: Beyond Earth‘s currently unnamed alien planet. Conversely, it also makes all of your technological progression a great deal more important, as the web’s branching nature will make it impossible for any one civilization to learn all of the game’s technologies.
Firaxis has also confirmed that players won’t be able to trade technology with their neighbors, given that players are supposed to represent the first members of highly-competitive corporations that are vying for control of what will hopefully become mankind’s next home planet.
Thankfully, 2K and Firaxis Games have made it pretty easy to catch up on this week’s Civilization: Beyond Earth broadcast, regardless of whether you missed the initial stream or just want another chance to see the upcoming strategy game in action.
We’ve embedded the complete demonstration in this article, but if you’ve got some strange personal policy against watching YouTube content, an archive of the Civilization: Beyond Earth live stream can also be seen in its entirety on Twitch. However, it’s worth noting that recent changes to the site’s video-on-demand hosting policies have significantly reduced your window of opportunity to watch this week’s Civilization live stream, so make it a priority if you really want to watch Firaxis’ first public Beyond Earth demo on the popular streaming site.
Reblogged from: idigitaltimes.com
