Civilization 5: 'Brave New World' Release Date Set for July, Expansion Detailed in New Interview

Civilization 5 will be getting a brand-new expansion soon, entitled Brave New World, which seeks to liven up the turn-based strategy endgame and cultural aspects. The expansion is due in July, and Civilization fans can expect a wide variety of changes to make the game even better.

The big difference in this expansion is to the cultural aspect of the game. While before the culture section of the game consisted of filling up policy trees, now culture can be used as a weapon, influencing other civilizations and, once your culture has spread to every other civilization, achieving a cultural victory.  Ed Beach, speaking to Eurogamer, explained the concept as a way to continue expanded your civilization after all the land has been settled.

"We want to move culture away from filling in trees towards creating signature elements that make your culture unique from anyone else's. We wanted the culture victory to be a lot more like Rome. The more you're building your great works, the more people respect you and are in awe of you. You overwhelm them with your culture."

Culture can be heightened by finding or building cultural artifacts and placing them in buildings like museums. Special bonuses are given by placing similar artifacts together, and part of the challenge is figuring out what cultural items compliments each other the best.

Archaeology has also become a focal point of Brave New World, allowing players to fight over historic sites and the culture they can yield.

"What happens is that as the game starts up and you have initial battles with the barbarians in the early and classical era, we keep track of that, and it effectively gets written onto the map. Then, when the first civilisation unlocks archaeology, we generate a new resource on the map - just like iron or uranium."

Other new elements of Brave New World include improved trade routes, a World Congress to influenced global policy, and new playable civilizations and units. Fans looking for a new twist on Civilization 5's gameplay should look for this expansion once it is released.