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Italian website Multiplayer.it has recently posted what appears to be a screenshot-by-screenshot walkthrough of the beginning of a game of Civilization III, an upcoming turn-based strategy game that allows players to manage their own empire from flint tools to the height of culture. Their preview starts with character creation and ends in a short illustration of the player being crushed by the Egyptians, and manages to show much of what a player might expect when starting up a new game in this much-anticipated 'threequel.'

The player setup screen, which starts off the tour, has plenty of options. Players can pick from 16 different civilizations, including the Aztec Empire, the Iroquois and Persia. Up to seven opponents can also be selected or randomized, depending on the player's choice. Various rules can also be toggle on and off, including several victory allowances. These victory allowances include Victory by Domination, Diplomatic Victory, Cultural Victory, Space Victory and Military Victory. The difficulty level can also be selected, ranging from Chieftain to Diety.

Once this is done, players move on to the Choose Your World screen. Players can choose from a large variety of worlds differentiated by land mass and water coverage. The climate, temperature and ages of various continents can also be tweaked to a player's liking. To further add to the mix, a Barbarian selector of sorts is also in place, allowing players to adjust Barbarians from sedentary to raging. Barbarians are the ultimate predators of any empire, and must be guarded against at all times.

From there, the tour walks the player through the beginnings of building an empire, including diplomacy, ruler relations, and tech trees, all of which are shown through various screenshots.

For the rest of the tour, be sure to check out Multiplayer.it's latest Civ III feature. Westlake Interactive currently has dev rights to the Mac version of this title, though it's currently still listed as "Early Development." IMG will be sure to let readers know when we hear of a status change.

Multiplayer.it - Civilization III Screenshots

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