The Civilization series uniquely captures the epic scope of world history in a single game, so it follows that there should be an appropriately grand musical theme to accompany the action. For Civilization VI, Firaxis is sticking with what worked and bringing back Christopher Tin, who composed the theme for Civ IV, to write a theme for the new game, called Sogno di Volare (The Dream of Flight).
“I wanted to write a piece that captured the essence of exploration,” said Tin in a release from the publisher, “both the physical exploration of seeking new lands, but also the mental exploration of expanding the frontiers of science and philosophy.”
Sogno di Volare will premiere at a one-night concert on July 19 at London’s Cadogan Hall. A night entirely devoted to Tin’s music, the evening will feature the performances of “The Royal Philharmonic and 200 voices from Los Angeles’s Angel City Chorale, Bath’s Lucis, and York’s Prima Vocal Ensemble.” Tickets are available now here.
Tin’s theme for Civ IV, Baba Yetu, a vocal arrangement of the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili, earned a Grammy in 2011 for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s). This was the first time music composed for a video game won (or was even nominated for) a Grammy. The game’s original recording featured vocalist Ron Ragin and Stanford acapella group Talisman, but Tin re-recorded it for his debut album with Ragin and South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir. The song has been widely arranged and performed, giving it rare cache as a video-game theme that has found a substantial independent life.
Civ IV designer Soren Johnson commissioned Tin to compose the theme in 2005 because they were college roommates at Stanford. The two have collaborated more recently when Tin composed the music for Johnson’s independently developed economics-themed real-time strategy game, Offworld Trading Company.
Civilization VI marks the 25th anniversary of the beloved PC strategy franchise, and will arrive on October 21.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.