Baltimore County’s Firaxis goes epic again with ‘Civilization VI’

Civilization looks poised to carry on with its latest turn.
Hunt Valley-based Firaxis Games officially launched Civilization VI for Windows PC last week. It’s the latest take on Sid Meier’s influential and massively popular empire-building strategy game, released 25 years after the original.

Hype has building for weeks, with Ars Technica declaring way back in September that a pre-release version “might be the most in-depth Civilization game to date.” Many reviews are still in progress, but the initial word is pretty positive.

'Sogno di Volare', my new theme for Civilization VI, is officially out!https://t.co/2N5MRZVjdG

— Christopher Tin (@christophertin) October 20, 2016

Digital Trends points out that the game marks an “evolution, not revolution.” That’s by design, the site notes, as Firaxis goes by a rule that 33 percent of a previous game carries over to the next edition, while another third will be adapted.

If I'd realised that within first few minutes of Civilisation VI we would see astronauts represented as women, I would so so have preordered

— Michelle D'israeli (@MDisraeli) October 22, 2016

The game is also showing the ability to evolve with the times.
According to Motherboard, a team is set to introduce Civilization VI to the eSports world. A professional player of the game who goes by MrGameTheory joined the influential Team Liquid, and is set to fill out a full team. Since eSports is built on viewers who tune in on Twitch, there are questions about whether anyone will want to watch. (For other titles, that is certainly not a question.) But any good show needs stars, and MrGameTheory sounds pretty impressive.