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[Ultimuh]

ptw

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm not liking how the designs tend to look like they're trying too hard to be futuristic. Only the one on the right really lends itself as looking comfortable, functional and aesthetically pleasing. Probably doesn't help that the first three look rather stiff, as if they're striking a pose for vogue and not representing their entire faction. Compare to the AC ones where their attire looked futuristic, functional, awesome and quite impressively showcased what their factions were about including their personalities. Fleshed it out. Maybe I've been spoilt by games which are literally perfection, but that's just by 10 creds.

[aristabulus]

That's some rather fine hair-splitting, LW.  Also, those aren't the game, just concept art... don't read too deep into it. 

As for the game itself...  I'm not impressed so far.  As the info keeps trickling out, it keeps looking and sounding like "Civ 5, but In Spaaaace!!!"...  meh.

[Sergarr]

These faces made me lol.

[aristabulus]

...and what was Alpha Centauri, I wonder?

Alpha Centauri only got its following because of the story and such, I suspect. If they manage to make it just as good in that regard, this can still work.

There are measurable mechanical differences between AC and its closest plain-Civ analogue at the time of release.  Sure, good writing helps, but it won't carry a strategy game alone.

I fully acknowledge that there's not a lot to go on right now.  I could be wrong.  Indeed, I _want_ to be wrong...  I'd much rather that C:BE stand on its own as a game with elements and nuances that Civ 5 doesn't have.  We won't know for sure until it's out.

[Loud Whispers]

Sure, good writing helps, but it won't carry a strategy game alone.

The mechanics will. That said the story is what separates a great game from a phenomenal game.

That's some rather fine hair-splitting, LW.  Also, those aren't the game, just concept art... don't read too deep into it. 
As for the game itself...  I'm not impressed so far.  As the info keeps trickling out, it keeps looking and sounding like "Civ 5, but In Spaaaace!!!"...  meh.

I will judge with what I am given, if this is a spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri it better have all the depth of Alpha Centauri. It is also beginning to sound more and more like Civ in space than an AC successor. At least unit customization made it through.

[Greenbane]

Alpha Centauri only condensed philosophical ideas already existing at the time. Beyond Earth can't reinvent that, and philosophical currents don't change considerably in just a decade. SMAC was first in exploiting that vein, so that's a massive advantage for it. Aside from that, there was not all that much original content that's particularly revolutionary. CivBE will likely be more or less like that, but inevitably without the "pioneer" benefit, and therefore disappoint SMAC fans impossibly expecting the Second Coming or already predisposed to hate the game.

It's also much harder to innovate over five incarnations of the Civ series (six if you count Alpha Centauri), as opposed to the simplest two.

[Guardian G.I.]

One of the factions mentioned in Beyond Earth's preview in Russian journal "Igromania" is the Slavic Federation led by General Kozlov, complete with mangled auto-translated Russian.
Apparently, Russia in Beyond Earth will be a usual totalitarian and militarist state hell-bent on conquering and oppressing everyone and everything, unlike the technocratic and science-oriented University of Planet from SMAC. Some Polish guy on Civfanatics and (reportedly) some other folks on other sites have even created butthurt-filled threads complaining with the notion of such barbaric and subhuman state as Russia surviving 200 years into the future and unifying all other Slavic states.

[Bouchart]

How could the Russians be totalitarian and evil?  They're such a lovable and harmless people.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Neonivek]

In all fairness... I'd be pretty peeved as a Russian since American videogames STILL treats my country like it was still Cold-War USSR Propagandized Russia.

Lets just put it this way Bouchart. If America is in CBE, expect them to be a "America who lived up to their potential to become the perfect country" instead of the much more accurate "Corporate owned death machine"

But we are not going to see America represented except by the most honey glazed depictions of them are we?

[Bouchart]

Yeah you're probably right about that.  Then again, the Civilization series is made by Americans and primarily sold to Americans, so they probably won't portray the U.S. as evil.

[Guardian G.I.]

Slavic Federation's city listed in one of the game's menus, spotted in the official gameplay video (around 3:06):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's called Khrabrost (Храбрость, English for bravery). Note the stronk red logo.

[Culise]

Yep.  Nothing says the glory of America like a plutocratic megacorporation that openly exploits countries in the Third World and toys with financial markets to its own gain, to which the government of state seems to be little more than an appendix barely worth a footnote insofar as it granted them a free hand to develop the resources of space. 

It does feel like a bit of a shame that they're going so strongly militaristic with Russia from what little we know, though I think it'll be better to wait to actually see the Slavic Federation before we follow CivFanatic's lead in a burst of righteous fury.  Still, with Brasilia shaping up to be the Spartans, the ARC as the Morganites, Kavithans as Believers, and the University niche already claimed by the PAC, it feels more and more like Russia may end up as our Hive-analogue. 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

If they do it right, there should be multiple ways to interpret each faction. The Hive, for example, is the closest society to a transcended one in Alpha Centauri, albeit with massive human rights violations.

[Neonivek]

If they do it right, there should be multiple ways to interpret each faction. The Hive, for example, is the closest society to a transcended one in Alpha Centauri, albeit with massive human rights violations.

That and it was very intentional. There were no "White hats" in the original because the concept was that the leap to this level of technology wasn't made without a cost and often to hold these philosophies these factions would do anything.

So even factions that were rather agreeable at surface value, were almost like monsters if you delved deep enough.

I still don't expect "America" to be anything more then the Angel faction of freedom... As if this game is Red Alert 5 or something.