Gamespot reports that the second expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations II is in development. Dubbed Twilight of Arnor, the add-on is expected to be released later this year. It will add a lot of new content to the game; it will also offer new spaceship customization options and new technologies for each of the game’s alien civilizations to explore.

The site also has an interview with Stardock’s Brad Wardell who offers some more information on the upcoming title.

The official Galactic Civilizations II site features an update that reveals that a full expansion for the RTS is in the works and that the previously planned $9 mini-expansions have been cancelled. New ships, civilizations and more can be expected in the add-on that is expected sometime near the end of the year. A future sequel is also planned, though it is too far off to be discussed in the update.

On Egosoft’s website you’ll now find a pair of new patches for X3: Reunion, updating the space-sim to v1.4. This post offers details on the bug-fixes and updates in the patch.

The German-language edition of Neverend has received a new patch as well as a free add-on called Neverend Reinforcement. Those who understand German can refer to this page.

Victoria has been patched to v1.04, with details on the update available here. An extensive list of changes to be found in the upcoming Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords patch has been posted.

Stardock is in the news once again - an update on the Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords website follows-up on the recent story of the exclusion of copy-protection program in the game. The update states that StarForce has apologized for the incident and that various torrent sites have already pulled down links to the pirated copy of the strategy title.

Also mentioned in the post was the mention of how popular the game is. It appears that GalCiv 2 was on EBGames’ top selling games list, taking the top spot in PC titles and #2 in all platforms.

A post on the official Galactic Civilizations II website talks about the exclusion of copy-protection systems in the game, stating that the developer is not inviting piracy. In fact, the post (logically) states that piracy can’t be avoided, but has to be reduced, and that the developer’s weapon to fight piracy is by offering legit players “convenient, frequent, free updates.”

The post goes on to talk about Starforce, the most hated copy-protection system in the planet. Apparently, a member of the company posted a link to a torrent site which was offering the full game for free download. It seems that the company was pissed that Stardock didn’t include their copy-protection software in Galactic Civilizations II, which, as it turns out, has been selling rather well. A related post discloses that the company has shipped more units of GalCiv II in the first 10 days than the total sales of the first GalCiv in its lifetime.

Good to see some developers still have their heads on their shoulders!

The Control Monger website has a v1.006 patch for the free FPS, with details found here. Onimusha 3 has also been updated to v1.1, though the update is for the European version only. Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords has also received a v1.0X update, which is now automatically available through the game’s internal update function. An thread on their forums also notes the title’s unexpected success at retail.

A v1.02 patch for Wintersport Pro 2006 is available from Cyanide’s FTP and 3D Gamers. Meanwhile, the Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords website is host to a post-release update for the strategy title. The v1.0D1 patch includes a number of tweaks, UI changes and bug fixes, among other things.