BRAD WARDELL TALKS GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II: DARK AVATAR

Stardock founder Brad Wardell took some time out to talk to Firing Squad about the upcoming expansion to Galactic Civilizations II, Dark Avatar.

The interview itself covers a wide range of subjects ranging from Stardock’s now famous stance on copy protection, the unexpected huge mainstream success of Galactic Civilizations II, Playing the expansion campaign from the side of “the bad guys”, the digital only distribution plan for Dark Avatar and Stardock’s upcoming mmog. Wardell managed to sum up all of what Dark Avatar will be about in one paragraph;

“One of our big goals for this expansion pack is to do things a bit differently than one usually sees with expansion packs. It’s not about adding some new units and the like; it’s about really taking the gameplay to the next level. We want to introduce enough new gameplay concepts that will greatly extend the game’s lifespan for players. To put it another way, I didn’t want to have to wait for a sequel or something to get this stuff in; some of the features are really exciting. Being able to design your opponents, for instance, seems so obvious in hindsight that there was no way we were going to wait until some future sequel to do that; it’s too compelling. Hopefully gamers will feel the same way.” -Brad Wardell, President & CEO, Stardock

As for when we can all expect to get our grubby hands on Dark Avatar, Wardell stated that Stardock hopes to have Dark Avatar ready by this holiday season, and that his task of coding the AI will begin once he’s finished working on v1.3 of the GalCiv2. I, for one, can hardly wait.

Check out the full text of the interview here and our previous coverage of Dark Avatar here. While you’re at it, you better start working on your Drengin snarl of contempt – it’s looking kind of weak.