Today we have two new previews of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar to point you to.  With the release of the expansion drawing ever closer, the press is really ramping up and sharing their first thoughts on how the game is shaping up. The first preview is for you French-speaking folk.  HardGamers.com , a prominent French-language gaming website has posted a preview. Second, for our English-speaking fans, comes a preview from our friends over at GameSpy .  Allen 'Dels...

 Game of the Year awards continue to trickle out as we pass safely into the 2007 gaming season.  Today, we move on to GameShark and their picks for 2006.  We received two nods of recognition this year. PC Game of the Year Runner-Up. We made it to the final round and were up against PC gaming heavyweights such as Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,  Monolith's F.E.A.R: Extraction Point, Civilization 4: Warlords from Firaxis, and the ultimate winner of this year's PC ...

Last week was a good week if you're a Galactic Civilizations II fan eagerly awaiting the release of Dark Avatar.  Two great previews went up that are packed with a lot of information. The first comes from 1UP.Com, posted last Wednesday.  Writer Mike Nelson took a crack at the latest beta build and is personally comforted by the Drengin's continued dominance in the interstellar culinary field.  But Drengin Fire Chili aside, Mike took some time to look closely at some of the new ...

So the game is "Gold" and your mouse finger is getting that galactic genocidal twitch again.  You want to subjugate races, forge treaties, establish your trade empire and deploy your newly designed "Vicious Knid" Class destroyer against your opponents.  Alas, you'll have to wait a bit longer before satisfying your inner megalomaniac, and for the time being draw your Galactic Civilizations sustenance from these two succulent previews from GameShark and GamingNexus . Tyler Sager took...

UPDATE:   If you can't make it to the developer chat but still want a shot at having your questions asked, you can sign on to our IRC chat and join #chatquestions early.  Just ask your question in the channel and I'll log it, and add it to the potential list for the dev chat Wednesday night! This Wednesday, February 7th at 4pm PST / 7pm EST / midnight GMT we will be hosting a developer chat to answer questions about the upcoming release of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avata...

If you've been past the PC section of IGN today, you'll see a massive, evil looking robot staring at you framed by the words "Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar Review."  This makes IGN the first media outlet to put up a review for the expansion to one of the top games of 2006.  The review is a glowing endorsement of the expansion and a good read if you're on the fence about the game. Another indicator of how good Dark Avatar it that after awarding Dread Lords an 8.7 last year,...

Review #2 is in, and boy is it a doozie!  GameSpy took a look at the final version of the game and, let me just say, they were very pleased with what they saw.  The three page review, written by veteran strategy gamer Allen Rausch, pretty much waxes poetic about the new features we crammed into Dark Avatar.  A choice quote: "In my original review of Dread Lords I said "Master of Orion is dead. Long live Galactic Civilizations II." After a week of playing Dark Avatar, you...

The reviews keep coming in, and Dark Avatar shows no signs of slowing down or slipping on the ratings chart!  Our latest review comes from UGO.com and writer Adam Swiderski.  The tagline for the review on the front page of their gaming section reads: The best turn-based strategy game around gets even better. If that doesn't give you a good idea of how well we fared in the review, here's a little blurb from the article itself: Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar is gre...

Giving us our second perfect score are the wonderful folks over at SciFi.com.  Matt Peckham penned the review, giving us an "A+" and essentially saying Dark Avatar further cements Galactic Civilizations II as the top-dog in the turn-based strategy market, the name to beat now that Master of Orion has been soundly beaten. Perhaps the most interesting part of the review comes in an aside at the very end from the author on the subject of multiplayer gaming in turn-based strategy games: ...

Critical praise continues to come in from the gaming press.  Our latest review comes from the folks over at GameVortex who gave Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar a glowing 95% review.  Reviewer Ricky Tucker breaks the game down into 4 categories; Graphics & Sound, Gameplay,  Difficulty, and Game Mechanics.  Needless to say,  the improved visuals, and AI got a vigorous nod of approval. Here's a little bit on what he had to say about the campaign included in t...

One of the toughest game review sites on the net, GameSpot, awarded Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar an amazing 9.1/10 and Editors' Choice Award!  Jeff Lackey took the expansion pack through its paces and decided that it could be called an "expansion" only on a technicality, that it felt practically like a new game. In addition to commenting on the improved graphics, extent to which you can mod the game, and the power of the ship builder, Jeff has this to say about the new planet...

GamingTrends tossed together a very nice review of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar and took the game apart examining the game based on a handful of categories; graphics, sound/music, controls, gameplay, and value /replay value.  Each section is individually scored with the final score of the game being the sum of the separate scores. Dark Avatar received its highest marks for gameplay and replay value, with a good bit of attention paid to how no two games you play turn out quite t...

It seems like every other day another fantastic review for Dark Avatar hits the web.  Today's glowing review comes from the fine folks over at Gaming Nexus who handed us a 9.7 out of 10!.  Reviewer Tyler Sager put the expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords under the microscope to try and glean from it every possible secret, find every nook and cranny where we might have hidden away new features and functionality.  The tagline for the review is "A perfect expansio...

Gamers' Temple put up their two cents on Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar yesterday, giving it a strong 95% and their Award of Excellence.  Like previous reviews, time and attention is given to the improved graphics, the new spy system, and planetary terrain types, but this one gives a little bit more attention to an aspect of the game that is oddly overlooked; ship building improvements. Here's what the review has to say about what Dark Avatar adds to the Ship Builder: Many ...

Some of you who purchased Dark Avatar opted to have a CD shipped to you as well as having the game available for digital distribution via Stardock Central.  For those who have the physical media and want something cool to stick on your games shelf, I'd like to offer you the slimline DVD case cover designed by Paul Boyer. This cover was used in the media kits we sent to gaming sites and magazines looking to preview and review Dark Avatar.  So now you can print this out, slide it i...