Publisher 2K Games has announced the system requirements for its upcoming 4X strategy game Civilization VI, giving series fans a heads up on the hardware required to run the latest entry in Sid Meier’s long-running franchise.
Civilization VI demands little in the way of hardware horsepower compared with other upcoming PC games like Mafia III and Battlefield 1, but players will still need a decent CPU and video card in order to run the game at max settings.
Dating back to the 16-bit console era, the Civilization series has seen numerous improvements and expansions since its humble beginnings in the early 1990s. The most recent core franchise release arrived in 2010 with the launch of Civilization V, and fans have eagerly awaited a follow-up in the years since.
The development teams behind Civilization V‘s expansions return to head up the work on Civilization VI, which will introduce an array of new strategic options. As in previous games in the series, players guide the expansion and cultural growth of a tribe of people over the course of multiple historical periods. Civilization VI also includes the option of playing as real-world figures like Qin Shi Huang, Theodore Roosevelt, and Queen Victoria throughout several simulated scenarios.
Players can get Civilization VI up and running with as little as 4GB of RAM and a modest CPU, as the game requires just a 2.5-GHz Intel Core i3 or 2.6-GHz AMD Phenom II to function — fairly modest hardware. 2K Games also recommends a 1GB DirectX 11 video card such as AMD’s 5570 or Nvidia’s 450 in order to achieve playable framerates at low settings.
Civ pros who demand maximum performance will need 8GB of RAM and a slightly faster CPU, such as a fourth-generation 2.5-GHz Intel Core i5 or a 4-GHz AMD FX8350. Video card requirements double for recommended settings: 2K Games notes that increased graphical detail requires a 2GB DirectX 11 video card like AMD’s 7970 or Nvidia’s 770.
Civilization VI launches at retail and digitally via Steam 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.