You'd be amazed how many Civ players prefer this method. Play-by-email takes a lot of time but is reminiscent of the old days of play-by-mail boardgaming. You can set turn time limits to goose the laggers, but otherwise if playing with a large crowd, you'll need to have a book or several magazines handy as you play.

Hotseat is played at the same PC or with a group available at the same time. You can play entirely new games like domination, regicide and princess. Firaxis came up with some great ideas: you can play in hotseat mode at the same PC or over the Internet, you can play by email, or you can opt for the gimmicky new modes of play, simultaneous turns or 'turnless' mode. A noble undertaking, given that a good 80 odd per cent or more of the audience will likely never even try it out. Now it's here and instead of just putting it in and seeing how people used it, the design team obviously thought long and hard about how best to take a complicated and intensive game like Civilization III and make it playable in groups over the net. Multiplayer, which came standard in Firaxis' previous strategy game Alpha Centauri (PBEM was patched in later) was glaringly absent in the original Civ3 release. They've streamlined much of the game, incorporated all the patched-in content, and named it Play the World, which is a fitting title given the primary reason for buying this pack: the addition of multiplayer.

It adds eight new civilizations complete with unique units, advantages and disadvantages, a few new buildings, and a new wonder as well. Sid Meier's triumphant return to Civilization was chronicled a year ago this month, and fittingly the expansion pack is here.

Free Sid Meier’s Civilization III