Over the course of years and many trials there comes a time when a man determines that he has taken all that he can and proclaims loudly, and preferably from a mountaintop during a thunderstorm, that enough is enough. He looks an uncaring godless world in the face and speaks with back straight determination, his voice colored by rising degrees of passion. In this maelstrom of words and wind the rough cries echo from his mouth to be absorbed by the torrent of a storm's epileptic wrath and carried to the corners of the earth. The words sound like this:

"I trusted you Firaxis. I even pre-ordered your game! You hear me, pre-ordered! And what is this! What have you given me! This Civilization Beyond Earth you call a game? How could you do this to me? Well, no more Firaxis no more I say! You've burnt me out with your basic gameplay, limited civs, muddled tech web, and lack of systems. I'll never get excited about one of your Civilization games again! This wrong can never be righted (except by two expansions most likely) you fiends! I renounce you!"

Now, one should understand with all melodrama aside that Civilization Beyond Earth was in some ways a fine game, but in many other ways a totally cruddy one. There is great work that comes out of Firaxis, many of their games have brought me hours stacked upon days of entertainment. However, in this particular instance, Firaxis did me and others a wrong. They made Sid Meier's Civilization Beyond Earth then released it to the masses. I found this to be a grievous mistake in judgment on their part. Better left in a whole somewhere or fired into space by a cannon.

The release of that blasphemy upon an innocent world was many years past, however, so you might be asking yourself, "Dan, why bring up Beyond Earth now of all times?" Well, imaginary reader, I'll tell ya. The reason I reopen this cursed wound is not because I enjoy reminding myself of things that make me angry, but rather that there is something creeping its way from the deeps of October that causes this wound to stir. That my friends is Sid Meier's Civilization VI. I know I know but please hold your gasps for just a little later in the article. Civilization VI, the next game in the long-running series of Civilization games is due to come out this October 21 which is so close upon us that it may as well already be sitting in our laps, but is this a good thing? Should we be distrustful of this new game? Need we continue to live in fear and paranoia in this post-Beyond Earth world? Well I have the answer and I think it's going to shock you.

If you bought into that last click bait-y sentence then I'm glad to see you here. Leading up to the game's release Firaxis has been releasing video after content-packed video along with You-tubers posting hours of gameplay. After having gorged myself on this material I think that I can say with a sense of certainty I am looking forward to this game and maybe even kinda am excited about it. I know that I had previously said some harsh things to Firaxis, but oh man the things they're showing off right now! I mean this game looks to be such a complete expansion of the premise of a Civilization game that I can't help feeling some essence in my bones shake and vibrate at the possibility of being able to play this game so soon. I'll allow now for some time if anyone wants to apply those now appropriate gasps.

Building off the wonderfully updated systems of Civilization V and its two expansions, Gods and Kings and Brave New World, Civilization VI appears to be crafted in such a fashion that players won't have to wait for multiple expansions to improve the game. A novel idea I know. Sarcasm aside the new systems being implemented look as though they will vary gameplay for a countless number of playthroughs. With the new city unpacking elements of the game, moving more and more aspects of cities onto the map, forcing player influence to spread across the world map seems like such a natural progression of the current Civ formula it's a wonder that it hasn't been done before. With changing government mechanics and new interactive technology research, this Civ gives off the impression of being the most complete Civ game to date. Of course my goal of this article was not to outline in depth the new features of the game, if you want to do that check out Firaxis' website here, but as a fan of the series who had felt so betrayed before I just wanted to tell anyone else who might have felt the same way it's okay to want this game, to buy into the hype.