beyond the sword, the new expansion for my favorite video game, civilization iv, is coming out on july 23rd. (unfortunately this isn't a "hard" release date like in some other industries, so it probably won't actually show up in local stores until the 24th or 25th.)

beyond the sword is supposed to be the largest civ expansion ever, and boasts as assload of new features as well as a bunch of scenarios, some of which are supposed to be barely recognizable as civ mods. (i'm really looking forward to trying the "final frontier" scenario.)

the new corporations feature looks interesting, but more importantly, spies and espionage will finally make a proper return to the franchise. (technically, spies do exist standard civ iv, but they're so weak i never even bother with them, which is a shame considering how powerful they were in past versions.)

virago & i have been eagerly awaiting this expansion pack for months, and now we only need to wait a couple more weeks.¶