Recent Civ5 Previews

Over the past few days, a number of gaming magazines have published previews of Civ5 in their print versions. A couple of forum members have been kind enough to summarize what these articles contain, so if you haven't been scanning the Civ5 forums recently, here is some of what you missed. :grinning:

Swedish PC Gamer, as reported by Danielos:

About 50 persons are currently working on the game, which has been in development for over two years, but is now reaching the final phases.
City states:
These are small, AI-controlled civilizations. They never grow big and doesn´t desire to win. The player must choose if he is to be friendly, indifferent or hostile towards a city state. The attitude you has towards a particular city state will have a big effect on diplomacy. If for example your units is approaching a city state that have friendly relations with another civilization, he will warn you, and if you ignore them, there will be consequences.
Barbarians:
The barbarians originate from a barbarian city and will get more advanced units later in the game. You need to wipe out all barbarian cities to get rid of the barbarian hordes.
City expansion:
Borders does no longer expand in large areas, but one hex at a time. Remote hexes like marshes, forests and mountains will be harder to acquire.
Economy:
You can invest money in your neighboring hexagons, for example trying to acquire an important resource before your opponent.
Research:
You can also sign a research-deal with another civilization. This way, both civs will cooperate to reach the new technology and both will gain it when the discovery is made. This was included to encourage cooperation between civilizations.
Diplomacy:
The civilizations will have an all-new advanced AI. All opponents will have fixed characteristics. Based on this unique personality, every AI-player will have their own agenda, which the AI will use to plan how to best play to win the game. But there will also be a certain randomness to avoid having the AI be too easy to predict.

Computer Bild Spiele, as reported by Civinator:

Tech trading is abolished.
Alliances give special boni (per example the possibility for a quicker research of a technology)
Cut-out of religions as known in Civ 4 confirmed
Cities can grow bigger than in former versions of the civ series as they there are 3 tiles for a city in every direction to be worked on.
New troops must leave a city at once, as there is only one unit per tile
Distance fighters (archers, artillery and so on) can shoot over the front units, lakes and other tiles
One philosophy is to form front lines for battles far away from the cities.

GamePro, as reported by dc82:

Leaders/Civs
German leader: Otto von Bismark
China leader: Wu Zeitein/Zetein
American leader: Washington
Japanese leader: Oba Nobunaga
Arabian leader: Harun al-Rashid
Other confirmed leaders mentioned in the article (Genghis Khan, Caesar, Napoleon, Gandhi)

Units

Basic military units move two tiles in combat instead of one.

Be sure to read the rest of those threads as there is lots of new info!

Origineel Artikel: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=355785&goto=newpost