Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor has taken the Best Expansion award in  IGN’s 2008 Best of 2008 awards in the PC category!

View the award here: http://bestof.ign.com/2008/pc/19.html

Thanks to all our supporters for another great year!

GameSpy.com has started publishing their 2008 Game of the Year Awards, and today they start off with the  PC  category.  Both Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor were in the top 10! 

It’s especially exciting as Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor won for 2008 PC Strategy Game of the Year!

“Thus the genocidal Korath can quickly develop weapons of mass destruction but find diplomacy difficult while the mercantile Korx get three times as many trade technologies. From this seemingly small change springs one of the finest strategy games ever made. Put simply, if you've ever enjoyed a strategy title, you must own Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor.”

Link: GameSpy State of the PC 2008

Everyone likes a sale, right?  Well from December 11th to December  14th we have a HUGE sale going on in the Impulse Store!

• Project Aftermath - $9.99
• Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate - $3.99
• Political Machine 2008 - $3.99
• Space Rangers 2 Complete - $3.99
• Supreme Commander - $9.99
• Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords - $9.99
• MyColors: Winter Wonderland - $9.99
• World of Goo - $19.95

It’s a chance to pickup some great games and software at an incredible discount.  Don’t forget you can also purchase a gift for someone else, and they can download via Impulse, and do not have to wait for a package to arrive.

We have a new contest we are launching next week, and your mission will be to find Stardock’s new mascot, Stardog.  

This contest is a scavenger hunt, and will be played as followed:

The first clue will always be shown on the Stardog page. Clues are identified by an image of Stardog hidden somewhere on the page. To reveal the clue, click on the image of Stardog, and he will give you a hint for your next destination, where you will need to look for his new hiding spot.

Once you have found the final clue and solved it, you will be asked to enter your Impulse account information. This information will be sent to the prize department and they will contact you with information on how to receive your prize. The dynamic chart will show how many contestants have found each clue and when the daily winner has completed the hunt. Once the winner has been found, the hunt will end for that day.

What do you get for this adventure?  Well each day a winner will get a $100 gift certificate which they can spend on anything in the Impulse Store.  The contest will run from December 15-19, and will start each day at 12pm EST.

In order to participate, you must register an Impulse account.  If you don’t already have one, follow the link below and get yourself setup.

• http://www.stardock.com/sdnet_account.asp

Get all the other rules and information at the Stardog website at http://www.stardock.com/stardog/.

GameSpy.com has voting going on for the Gamers’ Choice Voting for PC  game of the year.  Both Sins of a Solar Empire, and Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Anor, are up for voting.

Head over to GameSpy and cast your vote!

Link: http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/936/936023p1.html

X-Play has announced the nominees of it’s “Best of 2008” awards which will appear on  G4TV on December 9th.  Both Sins of a Solar Empire, and Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor were nominated for Best Strategy Game!

“X-Play is proud to present its Best of 2008 Awards on Tuesday, December 9th, at 8PM ET. This sixth annual awards program will highlight the best in gaming throughout the year. '

"It seems commonplace to expect and find every year to improve on the one before," says Adam Sessler, Host and Managing Editor, "X-Play." "But the level of sophistication and depth found in 2008's standout titles are truly extraordinary.’

Link: X-Play’s Best of ‘08 Awards

We released Galactic Civilizations II v2.01 today which adds some improved computer AI updates, economic balancing improvements and fixes some crashes we introduced in v2.0.

You can download thew new version from Impulse.

Download: GalCiv II: Twilight of the Arnor v2.01

The v2.01 update for Galactic Civilizations II is now out.  Frogboy listed some of the notable features, improvements, and more screenshots here.

• First, the AI is better. I made changes to how the AI decides which planets to colonize and improved how they pick their research projects.  The overall "Feel" of 2.01 in terms of pacing and general fun is just much improved really in my opinion.
  
• Second, the team fixed some crashes that we had noticed.  I'm not sure what caused them but I know that they're gone now. We're not sure how they crept in there but it was certainly something that got introduced in v2.0.
  
• Another cool feature is really a set of changes to research costs and tourism that just make the game feel a bit better. It's hard to really define but long time players I think will appreciate the general maturing of the play balance.
  
• Lastly,I updated more of the game images to get rid of older images. I'll bee doing this more and more as I play so expect a v2.02 at some point in the near future. 

Players can download the update via Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com), Stardock’s digital distribution platform that enables users to purchase, download and update hundreds of different PC games and applications.

Players can get the entire Galactic Civilizations II saga at their local retail outlet or direct from Stardock at www.galciv2.com.

Is Twilight of the Arnor 2.0 still not enough to fill your hunger for Galactic Civilizations? I-Mod Productions has recently begun work on a new fan-expansion: New Frontiers. This massive new mod will be packed to bursting with original content, including:

• Two brand new races, the Asa and the Vanir.
• Tons of new graphics--weapon effects, models, backgrounds, and more.
• New ship templates, styles, and modules, with more variation between races.
• New main interface design.
• Several new immense-size maps encompassing the sectors of the Andromeda Galaxy.
• Post your scores and compete online through I-Mod's Mod Metaverse.

Look good? Keep an eye on I-Mod's Impulse blog for further updates as the mod progresses; a public beta is planned for late December. Also, if you have experience in 2D/3D art, music, or writing and would like to contribute to the project, I-Mod would be glad to have your help (contact them for further details).

Stardock has released a major free update to its award-winning PC strategy game, Galactic Civilizations II. The update adds a host of new features to its latest expansion pack Twilight of the Arnor as well as expands on features found in the Dark Avatar expansion pack.

Galactic Civilizations II was originally released in 2006 and won numerous PC game awards including “Turn-based Strategy Game of the Year from GameSpy”. In 2007 the first expansion pack, Dark Avatar was released and became the highest-rated expansion pack of all time according to Metacritic. This year, the second expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor was released and surpassed Dark Avatar in ratings and sales.

Version 2.0 has been developed as a major free update, primarily for Twilight of the Arnor, to help integrate the expansion packs together with the original into a single consolidated experience.

New features include but are not limited to:

• Players can now design new starships from the main game menu
• All game campaigns have been updated to be playable within Twilight of the Arnor
• New user manual
• Numerous new game setup options
• Updated diplomatic options
• New planetary governors for automating the building of planets
• Revamped espionage system
• Auto-building for starbases
• Balance updating
• Improved graphics

Since its release, Galactic Civilizations II has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling PC turn-based strategy games of all time and has built a significant player base amongst strategy gamers, modders and sci-fi fans.

Players can download the update via Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com), Stardock’s digital distribution platform that enables users to purchase, download and update hundreds of different PC games and applications.

Players can get the entire Galactic Civilizations II saga at their local retail outlet or direct from Stardock at www.galciv2.com.