Firaxis has detailed Civilization 6's final free game update "of the season" ahead of its launch next Thursday, 22nd April, with new additions set to include three new units, two new True Start maps, plus a whole heap of balancing tweaks for older civilisations.

On the map front, players will be given the opportunity to sprawl their way across new Mediterranean and Huge True Start maps, and those will be accompanied by three new units for use by all civilisations: the Line Infantry, Man-At-Arms, and the Trebuchet.

Firaxis says it's re-examined and adjusted unit strength "across the board" in order to make its latest units feel like "appropriately weighty upgrades", and AI has also been tweaked to ensure civilisations make better use of naval units. This, it hopes, will "raise the stakes for travel on the high seas" and drive more interesting choices around naval production and warfare.

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On 25th March, Civilization 6's New Frontier Pass releases its final premium DLC: the Portugal pack - and it's going out on a high. This eye-catching, naval exploration-based new civ has a unique ability we've not seen before: it can put a building on another civ's tile. And when it does, there's nothing you can do to get rid of it.

Here's how it works: Portugal has the Nau, a unique naval melee unit that replaces the Caravel. It starts with one free promotion, requires less maintenance than the Caravel and has two charges to build Feitorias - special shipping ports unique to Portugal. A Feitoria can only be built by a Nau unit on a foreign city's coastal tile next to a luxury or bonus resource.

This hugely exciting new mechanic has certainly set the cat among the pigeons within the Civilization community. Will players be able to abuse it in multiplayer? Will AI Portugal be aggressive in coming over and plonking down the Feitoria on a single-player's coastal tile? How do players mitigate against it? Will they even want to?

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Civilization 6's New Frontier Pass expansion will receive its fifth major content update this Thursday, 28th January, and one of its most notable additions - alternate China and Mongolia leader Kublai Khan - has now been detailed more thoroughly in a new First Look video.

Kublai Khan's inclusion in the New Frontier Pass was first announced last week, but developer Firaxis said it was saving the specifics of his leadership style for a later unveiling. With that day now here, Kublai Khan's unique ability has been revealed as Gerege, which provides an extra economic policy slot to any government while also granting a random Eureka and Inspiration whenever a trading post is established in another civ's city for the first time.

When leading China, Gerege can be used to "super-power innovation" by complementing the civilisation's unique ability to gain increased research costs toward technologies and civics whenever a Eureka or Inspiration is triggered. As the leader of Mongolia, however, Khan can capitalise on the civilisation's ability to immediately create trading posts whenever trade routes are established - meaning players will also get their Eureka and Inspirations straight away, unlike China, which must wait until a trade route finishes.

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Firaxis has detailed the contents of Civilization 6's fifth New Frontier Pass DLC update, which arrives next Thursday, 28th January, bringing new leader Kublai Khan, new civilisation Vietnam, an economy-focussed game mode known as Monopolies and Corporations, and more.

The developer says it's saving a more detailed breakdown of Vietnam, described as a "culture and terrain focussed" civilisation, for an upcoming First Look video, but teases that it'll be lead by a still-mysterious "god-like figure whose achievements have become stuff of legend" that's known for their "bravery, guerrilla tactics, and deadly temper".

Also scheduled for a more thorough First Look reveal is the "jolly but ruthless conquerer" Kublai Khan, an alternative leader for the China and Mongolia civilisations, whose abilities are said to create "new and unique opportunities" during play.

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If all the current Black Friday deals already flooding the internet weren't enough, the Steam Autumn Sale is now here, with hundreds of deals on PC games and software.

This year the sale lasts until December 1st, 18:00PM GMT, and as usual the main Steam storefront has been redesigned to promote the new deals, with sections for genre, for major franchises, for users' wishlists and featured deals, among others. We've outlined some of the best offers we've seen here, and there's a good chance that there'll be other offers cropping up as we go through the week.

This also marks the start of nominations for this year's Steam Awards, the site-wide ceremony where users can nominate and vote for various games in various entries - game of the year, best VR game, soundtrack, story and so on. Nominations start now and voting will occur during the Winter sale later (presumably landing in the Christmas period).

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Five of the Best is a weekly series about the small details we rush past when we're playing but which shape a game in our memory for years to come. Details like the way a character jumps or the title screen you load into, or the potions you use and maps you refer back to. We've talked about so many in our Five of the Best series so far. But there are always more.

Five of the Best works like this. Various Eurogamer writers will share their memories in the article and then you - probably outraged we didn't include the thing you're thinking of - can share the thing you're thinking of in the comments below. Your collective memory has never failed to amaze us - don't let that stop now!

Today's Five of the Best is...

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Surprise! Or maybe not, as it turns out those rumours were true: Civilization 6 is the latest free game on the Epic Games Store, hot on the heels of GTA 5.

The game, which normally costs 49.99 on the platform, can now be picked up for free until 28th May 2020 - according to its Epic Games Store listing. As with all Epic's previous freebies, you only need to claim the game in that time period, and after that you can keep it forever.

It's worth noting that Civ 6's new season pass is also launching today, offering six downloadable packs from now until March 2021, with content dropping on a bimonthly basis. What a coincidence.

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Three-and-a-half years after it came out, Civilization 6 is getting a new season pass.

The New Frontier season pass adds eight new civilisations, nine new leaders and six new game modes to Firaxis' strategy game.

The content hits the game in six downloadable packs delivered on a bimonthly basis starting 21st May 2020 and ending March 2021.

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2K has apologised after a social media hack of its various accounts was used to post racist comments.

Yesterday evening, 2K lost control of a raft of its social media accounts across Twitter and Facebook, including the official pages for Borderlands, WWE and Civilization.

During the hack, the official accounts were used to post a number of offensive messages. The Facebook page for WWE 2K saw its profile picture changed to the logo for AEW Wrestling, and its cover image changed to a picture of wrestler Chris Benoit.

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Proving once again that nothing is impervious to the lure of Battle Royale, developer Firaxis' 4X strategy game Civilization 6 just launched its own take on the omnipresent mode on PC.

Known as Red Death, Civ 6's new turn-based Battle Royale mode ditches the game's usual slow-and-steady expansion in favour a desperate last-person-standing grasp for survival across a post-apocalyptic wasteland, replete with ruined cities, corrosive waters, and a ring of radiation that slowly shrinks as a match goes on. It's designed to accommodate between two and 12 players, with each able to select from a range of beneficially differing factions - including mad scientists, mutants, jocks, and pirates - in their attempts to stay alive.

There are no civilisations to guide through the ages, however, and building is entirely out too. Instead, each participant is tasked with protecting a single civilian unit on the map at all costs. If a player's unit is killed or captured, then they're out of the game - but if they're the last unit alive, they'll be whisked off into space to start a new life among the stars.

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