Prepare to leave earth this October and check out the latest Beyond Earth videos.

Civilization: Beyond Earth is set to launch worldwide this autumn on October 24, 2014. Pre-ordering via participating retailers will score you a bonus Exoplanets Map Pack on launch day. The map pack includes six custom maps inspired by real exoplanets:

• Kepler 186f: This lush forest planet is one of the oldest known Earth-like planets
• Rigil Khantoris Bb: Orbiting the closest star to our solar system, the historical records of this arid continental planet’s settlement are well-preserved
• Tau Ceti d: This planet of seas and archipelagos features a booming biodiversity and a wealth of resources
• Mu Arae f: Tidally locked in orbit around a weak star, the southern hemisphere of this planet is a blistering desert where the sun never sets, while the northern hemisphere is perpetually in frozen darkness
• 82 Eridani e: An alien world of scarce water and wracked by tectonic forces
• Eta Vulpeculae b: A mysterious new discovery with unknown terrain

Two new videos have also been released. The first is the closed-doors gameplay demo, narrated by co-lead designer Will Miller, that was shown during E3 to select participants. We were fortunate enough to sit in on it, and it has us very excited for the game! The second is an inside look at the story, leaders and key features of Civilization: Beyond Earth, featuring gameplay and interviews with co-lead designers Will Miller and David McDonough.

• You play a colony from Earth settling on a new world
• Magma and miasma are environmental hazards
• Foreign creatures may have nests and likely prefer to not be disturbed; fighting these aliens can make them more aggressive toward your colonists
• There is another dangerous hazard: Siege Worms. It can destroy tile improvements simply by passing through them and may take multiple military units to kill it
• Resource Pods are akin to the Ancient Ruins from Civilization V; they hold resources that were "sent ahead by Earth"
• Establishing a trade route with a military station can offer bonuses for your military
• Alien artifacts, such as a skeleton, can be excavated for rewards such as research, a controllable alient unit or resources

• Plantations, improvements and wonders can be built around your cities
• Quests are a new feature that give players additional goals and context in their gameplay. Quests will "result in a gain of some kind for your faction."
• Covert Ops are used against other Earth factions on your new planet for spying, smuggling, sabotage and more
• The three Affinities are Harmony, Purity and Supremacy. There's many ways to develop an affinity, including resource pods and the tech web. Your affinity is reflected in the architecture of your buildings and units.
• A new resource, Firaxite (very funny, Firaxis!), is strategic to the Supremacy affinity; we can assume from this that each affinity has a strategic resource
• Combat can be augmented by tactical satellites, but otherwise looks similar to Civ V; units must each have their own tiles and cannot stack
• Taking over cities is like previous Civ titles, with options to annex, raze and create a puppet

• The result of The Great Mistake ultimately leads citizens of Earth to migrate to other planets
• The leaders represent the mixture of cultures up to the point; they speak multiple languages
• A revamped tech tree is now the Tech Web. Its structure allows players to "play exploratively" as they work toward discovering new technologies. The web is so large that, unlike previous titles, you will not complete them all in one game, but should make the game more replayable.
• An orbital layer allows you to place tactical or research satellites in the space above ground; this can augment your settlement, offer defense, spy, improve your economy and more

Prepare for what's beyond and pre-order Civilization: Beyond Earth today!

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor