Civilization V Announced: Is Canada in the Game?

"Civilization V," a new entry in perhaps my favorite video game series, was announced today. It will be released this fall. The details announced so far provide essentially no idea of what is new in this game, besides three pretty screenshots, and the announcement that this game will use a hex grid rather than a square one (which I am for). So, as you can imagine, the speculation on the 2K Games forums is crazy. My favorite thread is the one wondering who the 18 civilizations in the game are going to be. Why? Because of the arguments about Hitler and Canada.

In Hitler's case, some forum users want Hitler to be a playable leader of the German civilization in the next game. He hasn't been a leader in previous titles, even though other horrible leaders like Stalin have been. I can say pretty safely right now, though: Hitler will not be in "Civilization V." If he were, the game would be banned in Germany. German laws are very strict on the matter of keeping Nazis out of even historical titles, unless the game beats you over the head with the belief that Nazism was a bad idea. That's why there are no swastikas in the "Hearts of Iron" series.

More hilarious to me: There are tons of forumites who want Canada to be a newly added civilization. The first to make this comment knew it was an impossible suggestion, saying things like "Being a Canadian I also would love for this to happen. Poor Canada " and so on. But then, as people pointed out that Canada is probably not one of the eighteen most important civilizations in history, it got militant.

Someone said that Canada was unimportant, and really just a mixture of English and French civilizations, and the reply was: "Well it just so happens that Canada is very important to MY history. By the same Token the USA was just a British colony that gained independence, why should they get their own civ?" Others chimed in on the exact same note, saying that America was only a former British colony.

Another supportive opinion: "Canada has contributed as much to the world as America has and has been instrumental in some of the largest areas of modern life, from involvement in overseas military action, to political and economic stabilization in second and third world countries."

...and another one: "Canada should for sure be included.
It should have a high diplomacy factor, diplomatic unque building, and an idea for a unique unit is the pioneer!! Have the pioneer the same as any other settler but with an extra movement and defense point!
Canada and America were both colonies that gained independence..... THe only reason America is "stronger" is because of their greater population.....
PS: another idea for a unique building... ODR.. the outdoor rink "

It got more tangled from there. Someone recommended that we all see "Strange Brew" to find out why Canada isn't a civilization. My favorite anti-Canada post:

"Also, for those mentioning the great nation of Canada, be serious.

Russia- Great Revolution, Socialism/Communism, First in Space
America- Nuclear Bomb, Landing on the Moon, Hollywood
Britain- British Empire, Magna Carta
Canada- Bacon ?"

Great stuff.

Expressing My Impressions: Civilization and Battlefield Demos

This week, after a very slow Playstation Store update, I got access to the demos for Civilization: Revolution and Battlefield: Bad Company. These were two very big demos in the middle of nowhere, so I felt like talking about them. I've always been a big fan of the Civilization series, and Sid Meier is actually working on this one unlike the past few computer editions, so this is very exciting. I'm even listening to their podcast right now, so I'm rather giddy, you might say. In general, the deal with this game is that it's more compact and built ground-up for the consoles. The demo itself was just a tutorial, basically, but it did allow you to play the opening turns of a game as either Caesar or Cleopatra. The first sort of shocking moment for PC fans is when the advisor pops up on the screen and starts babbling in a sort of Simlish, which is immediately irritating, (especially when he's blocking the text you have to read) but eventually sort of becomes normal. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not. The Civiliopedia looks incredible this time around, with not just text entries but also pictures and videos for all kinds of subjects, showing off the added console power. The only other real difference I found so far was a much more interesting looking combat, with your little warriors sort of jumping around and not fighting so predictably.

Battlefield: Bad Company is, clearly, the next Battlefield game, but this edition appears to be ready to really feature a single player campaign and sort of interesting characters. Even in the online, this version is obviously going for a bit more of a sense of humor, with radio stations playing in vehicles. Similarly to Civilization, some of the quirky elements of this game immediately put me off, but I found them easier to take as time went on. The single player generally doesn't look great, and I found aiming difficult as is so often a problem in console shooters. For some reason, online play seemed just fine and natural enough. I only saw one real bug, when a blown up helicopter fell and balanced on its tip on the ground, but that's not game-breaking at all, and the multiplayer is fun enough to keep playing for a long time on its own. Both of these demos looked very promising for the summer game drought, I just wish the Playstation Network hadn't taken until 4 in the morning to put them up.