2K Games has announced Beyond the Sword, the second expansion pack for Civilization IV, one of the best selling strategy games of all time. Developed by Firaxis Games, and set for release this July, the expansion will focus on the late-game time periods after the invention of gunpowder, delivering 12 different scenarios, ten new civilizations, 16 new leaders, five new wonders and a variety of new units. Here’s more:

• Expanded Epic Game: Firaxis Games delivers a massive increase in new units, buildings, and technologies to the epic game with additional focus on the late-game time periods.

• New Game Scenarios: The expansion will deliver 12 new scenarios, many containing themes never before included in the Civilization series, custom designed by the team at Firaxis and select members of the Civ Fan Community.

• New Civilizations: The expansion pack includes ten new civilizations, such as Portugal, Babylon and Netherlands and their associated unique units and buildings.

• More Civilization Leaders: Sixteen new leaders including leaders for the ten new civilizations, as well as additional leaders for existing civilizations.

• Corporations: A new gameplay feature that allows players to create corporations and spread them throughout the world. Each corporation provides benefits in exchange for certain resources.

• Espionage: Now available much earlier in the game, this expanded feature offers players many new ways to spy on opponents, stir citizen unrest and defend their government’s secrets.

• Events: New random events such as natural disasters, pleas for help, or demands from their citizens will challenge players to overcome obstacles in order for their civilizations to prosper.

• New Wonders: Five new wonders await discovery including the Statue of Zeus, Cristo Redentor, Shwedagon Paya, the Mausoleum of Maussollos, and the Moai Statues.

• Expanded Space Victory: Winning the race to Alpha Centauri will now require more strategic planning and tactical decision making.

• Apostolic Palace: The United Nations will become available earlier in the game, providing a way for players to win a diplomatic victory earlier. New resolutions will also be added which will expand the available diplomatic options.

• Advanced Starts: A major fan request, this new feature will enable players to “buy” components of a custom-tailored empire and begin play in the later part of the game, allowing them to experience many of the new features of the expansion pack in a shorter amount of time.

• Enhanced AI: The AI has received many enhancements, making it tougher to beat on the higher difficulty levels. The ways in which the AI will attempt to achieve victory have also been expanded.

Following up on the previous post, NCSoft Europe and ArenaNet have officially announced Eye of the North, the expansion pack to Guild Wars, as well as a full sequel. Guild Wars 2 will draw from the game mechanics of its predecessor and will add a fully persistent world. Like the original, it will not require a subscription fee to play. No release date was mentioned, though the development team hopes the game to go into beta sometime in the second half of 2008.

Eye of the North, due to hit stores during Q3 2007, will require at least one of the previous Guild Wars campaigns to play. It will be set in the dungeons and caverns of the lands of Tyria that players first explored in Guild Wars Prophecies. It will feature 18 large, multi-level dungeons, 150 new skills, 10 new heroes, 40 new armor sets and even more items. Below are the first screenshots from the add-on.

First up is the good news: the PS3 is the top-selling home console in the UK, having sold more than 165,000 units within the first two days after launch. The record is held by the PSP which sold 185,000 units at launch. The PS3 also beat out the launches of both the Wii and Xbox 360, which sold 105,000 units and 70,000 units respectively.

Now, the bad news: it has been revealed that the PlayStation Store may not be available worldwide. As this thread on the official PlayStation forums signifies, users from countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and the Czech Republic are unable to access the PlayStation Store, thus barring them from downloading additional content or PSP-enabled PlayStation games, among other things.

Gamesindustry.biz has more on this from the SCEE corporate communications director. He confirmed that some territories do not have access to the store, but that the store will expand its reach in “due course.” However, some countries, such as Azerbaijan, may never gain access to the PlayStation Store.

This post on Jeff Green’s 1UP blog discloses that the next issue of Games for Windows magazine will reveal Company of Heroes II, which will be their actual cover story, rather than Peggles.

Anyway, start looking for our new issue soon. It’s not really a Peggle cover. It’s one of those “exclusive” stories—this time about the followup to Relic’s awesome Company of Heroes. Guess what? We get to kill more Nazis again!! Yay!

Electronic Arts has announced that it has partnered with Nettwerk One Music to form a new music label called Artwerk. The Artwerk label will sign and develop both new and established artists for publishing, master recording and sync deals, as well as digital and physical distribution.

It has already announced its first signed producer artist - Junkie XL, whose tracks have recently appeared in NFS: Carbon and Madden NFL 07. “Both EA and Nettwerk are artist friendly, progressive thinking companies who embrace and don’t fear the future,” said Junkie XL. “I feel understood as an artist and at ease with the people from both companies, which is most important to me.”

The label is currently in negotiations with several other artists; individuals can also submit music to Artwerk for consideration.

The most shocking news of last week by Capcom sent shockwaves into the PlayStation fan base. As expected, many people revolted against Devil May Cry 4 going multiplatform on Xbox 360 and PC, besides PS3, and set up an internet petition threatening to boycott the company’s games. We all know just how effective these petitions are, but the most amusing thing is that it has raked in over 10,000 signatures at the time of this writing, most of which are actually tongue-in-cheek jabs at the more earnest undersigned.

Following up on the petition, this complaint thread on the Capcom forums was opened, eliciting an official response from the company. “We are certainly moved that people are so passionate about our products that they would go to such extremes,” said Christian Svensson, senior strategic planning and research director at Capcom. “At the same time we feel that allowing more people access to our content pleases far more people than it displeases (after all, we’re not denying DMC4 to anyone that was already going to get it). It really is the best decision for the company and for consumers.”

The thread has since been closed, with an amusing, yet startling observation by Svensson. “It seems to have run its course, gone off course, rolled down a cliff, hit a cow and then exploded.”

Koei has revealed its lineup for this year, which includes Bladestorm, Fatal Inertia and Dynasty Warriors on the DS. Below is the full release schedule:

• Shin Megami Tensai: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army - PlayStation2 - April 27
  
• G1 Jockey Wii - Wii - June
  
• Dynasty Warriors: Fighters Battle DS - DS - Q3 2007
  
• Orochi Warriors (Final title to be confirmed) - PlayStation2 & Xbox 360 - October
  
• Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War - PlayStation3 & Xbox 360 - Q3 2007
  
• Prey The Stars - DS - Q3 2007
  
• Fatal Inertia - PlayStation3 & Xbox 360 - Q3 2007