16
Feb

Upcoming Civilization V Expansion Pack: Gods & Kings Coming to Mac

Posted by Jas Kao

As you Civilization fanatics have no doubt heard, 2K Games is releasing an expansion pack titled Gods & Kings for Civilization V for PC. Now what about us Civilization V Mac gamers? Aspyr has got your back.

Straight from Aspyr Media, they are excited to tell us that they are confirming their support for the upcoming Civilization V expansion, “Gods & King” for the Mac. They’ll be working hard on the expansion to bring it to you around the same time as the PC release. The expansion is slated for release late Spring 2012 for the PC so you can expect the Mac version to come out shortly afterwards.

For those of you who don’t know what this expansion adds (quoted straight from 2K Games announcement):

Tons of New Stuff. I know I just mentioned it, but I want to draw attention to just how many new things we’ve got here: 27 new units, 13 new buildings, 9 new wonders, and 9 new playable civilizations. Among the new civilizations are the Netherlands (William I, Prince of Orange), the Celts (Boudicca), and the Mayans (Pacal the Great).

Religion. That’s right; quite possibly the most requested major addition to the game is coming in the Gods & Kings expansion. Using the new “Faith” resource, you’ll be able to found your own religion and grow it from a simple Pantheon of the Gods to a world-spanning fully-customized religion.

Reworked Combat System. The expansion has a reworked combat system along with an AI that places more emphasis on balanced army composition. Among the changes to the combat system is the addition of melee naval units, which will force you to really rethink the way you execute your naval assaults.

Enhanced Diplomacy, with Espionage. In addition to being able to establish embassies with your rival civilizations, spies will now be an important part of how you conduct your foreign affairs. Surveilling foreign cities, stealing advanced techs, and garnering influence with city-states are some of the things you’ll be able to do with this new powerful mechanic.

New City-States. With religion being added to the game, it only made sense to introduce Religious city-states which will interact with your religion in special ways. In addition, Mercantile city-states will be attractive for those of you who love to grow your civilization’s treasury. All city-states will use the greatly expanded quest system, making city-states more dynamic and diplomatic victories more challenging, while decreasing the importance of gold when dealing with city-states.

New Scenarios. Three new scenarios will be coming in Civilization V: Gods & Kings. Experience the fall of Rome, explore the medieval era, and my personal favorite: a unique scenario in a Victorian science-fiction setting.

  • Cougarcat

    SteamPlay support?

    • http://blog.gameagent.com/ Jas Kao

      SteamPlay will be supported. Though if you get it, make sure to buy and play it on your Mac to support Aspyr so they can continue to bring you Mac games! 

      How SteamPlay works is Aspyr doesn’t really get compensated unless you buy and play on a Mac so if you want to support Aspyr, hold out until the expansion is launched on Mac.

      • Cougarcat

        Interesting. Can you say more about this? Do you get compensated for each Mac download? Or must the transaction be done on a mac? What happens when someone buys it on iOS or Android? 

        • http://blog.gameagent.com/ Russ Looney

          We talked about this a little bit in an earlier post (http://blog.gameagent.com/steamplay-and-mac-game-publishing), but essentially, SteamPlay is an “all or nothing” system. It doesn’t necessarily affect publishers who do both the PC and Mac port, but is something that Mac publishers like Aspyr must consider.  

          Credit is given to the platform that sees the most playtime through the first week of purchase. So if you play a SteamPlay game primarily on a PC for the first week, the Mac publisher will never see any compensation, even if you primarily play the Mac version afterwards.

          • Cougarcat

            That’s unfortunate. Too bad Valve doesn’t have  a “give my money to Aspyr” button. :)

          • http://blog.gameagent.com/ Russ Looney

            Ha! If only… 

          • http://twitter.com/forty2j Jim McPherson

            I really do wish they could find a more forgiving model for you guys. The fact that you can’t achieve a simultaneous release with Windows means that many of your early adopters are going to be on bootcamp, and there’s no way you’ll ever get compensated for them.

            I will do my best to restrain myself until the port is up. In the meantime, if you need a beta tester, you know how to find me. :)

    • Sir Salty McGinty III

       yuck.

  • Janichsan

    Will this be only available as a download or also on disc?

    • http://blog.gameagent.com/ Russ Looney

      It will be available both as a digital download and on a game disc.

  • Anthony Pinilla

    they are probably gonna charge 106 bucks for the expansion