I have no idea where we’d be without Sid Meier’s Civilization. Its influence has been an overwhelming constant for decades, defining generations of strategy games and developers. If Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley hadn’t decided to let Napoleon, Montezuma and Alexander the Great duke it out, swallowing up the world and dropping nukes on each other, a huge chunk of gaming history would never have happened.
Turn-based strategy existed long before Civ, but it’s Civ’s brand of turn-based strategy that became the model that most of the genre ended up following. It’s not just 4X games that owe almost everything to Civ. You can’t help but stumble across its DNA everywhere, whether you’re playing Crusader Kings, Total War, or Age of Empires, which dreamed of being a real-time Civ.
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TURTLE POWER
TMNT: SHREDDER'S REVENGE revisits the glory days of Ninja Turtles brawlers
STEAM DECK
The Steam Deck can't yet play every game on Steam, but it's a great handheld gaming system nonetheless.
THE MAKING OF SPLINTER CELL: CHAOS THEORY
As the series' return sneaks up on us, we debrief Sam Fisher's finest outing with its creators
THE EVIL WITHIN
The first upgrade: PC gaming’s most perilous rite of passage
SLAY QUEEN
With DESTINY 2: THE WITCH QUEEN, Bungie delivers its best expansion to date
DUE SOUTH
This stunning point-and-click parable isn't the next Kentucky Route Zero-it's the first NORCO
INTERVIEW A WHOLE NEWELL WORLD
Valve president GABE NEWELL has big plans for the Steam Deck
HALF-LIFE 2: OVERCHARGED
Supercharge Gordon Freeman.
DEFEAT DAEMONS IN TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III
Face the forces of Chaos and emerge victorious.
The Iron Fist Wears an Iron Glove in Age of Empires IV
Can a sledgehammer crack a nut? There’s only one way to find out.
I'm Too Sexy
IT ISN'T EASY BEING BEAUTIFUL! THESE STARS SAY THEIR GOOD LOOKS HAVE HAMPERED THEIR CAREERS.
LOVE TRIANGLE!
A source says Keith is "intimidated" by Alexander.
The Hardest Day on Set: The Northman
Dozens of extras, nonstop rain, and a village full of animals— what could go wrong?
George & Amal STRONGER THAN EVER
Happy wife, happy life! It’s been almost six years since George and Amal Clooney tied the knot in Italy, and they’re more in love than ever.
True North
Cruising Cape Breton Island’s captivating Cabot Trail in a Land Rover Defender
PORSCHE 911 GT3
DOMINATION IS IN ITS BLOOD
JAPANESE TOURISTS DOCK AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
A Japanese billionaire and his producer rocketed to space on Wednesday and reached the International Space Station several hours later, the first visit by self-paying space tourists to the orbiting outpost in more than a decade.
Superman & Lois
After a COVID-related scheduling shift, the impressive freshman drama about the first family of DC Comics finally returns! As a superpowered threat runs amok in Smallville, Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin, above) is still trying to balance being the Man of Steel and a better father to his twin sons, Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alexander Garfin)—the latter of whom has inherited dad’s more alien abilities.
HENPECKED GEORGE IS NOW MR. DAD!
But he’s loving every minute
Terra Nova and Scott of the Antarctic
The barque Terra Nova was specially reinforced for working in polar sea ice