Action-Heavy Version of Civilization Heading to Consoles

GameDaily is reporting that Take-Two will be publishing a new Civilization title in Spring of 2008, with a twist. Instead of the traditional strategy gameplay Civilizations Revolution will be an 'action-packed' console game, streamlining the experience for different generation of gamers. They also mention they'll be aiming this game at handheld gamers. "The title will include 16 civilizations, numerous historical leaders to play as or compete against, online play with integrated video and voice chat, more accessible maps, a streamlined time scale for quicker games, and more ... 'Civilization is one of the world's top selling PC game series with more than 8 million units sold, and continues to be recognized as one of the greatest franchises ever created,' added Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. 'We are excited to have Sid Meier getting back to his roots as the game's Lead Designer to carry on its legacy with Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution.'" This seems somewhat similar to EA's decision to offer up a streamlined version of SimCity in their next iteration of the series.

Re:Good idea or not?

[Bullet-Dodger]

I've loved all Civ's and improvments that have come with new versions. I've played a some Age of Empires, but mostly I'm for strategy genre games. When thinking about action packed CIV, I get this mental image of Defender of the Crown + Risk + CIV. A lot of large scale micromanagements task done to your cities, but once on war with neighbouring region, of you got with your catapult blasting defending cities walls(or castles).

it would propably take something out of the management side of CIV, but honestly, I'd like to command my armies to battle field taking world piece by piece RISK style.

I'll just have to wait what they will produce and hopefully be a happy camper.

Have you tried Rise of Nations [microsoft.com]? It's like a combination of Age of Empires and Civilization. And, it has the RISK style [microsoft.com] gameplay you describe.