Galactic Civilizations III and Crusade just got a major update

Galactic Civilizations III and Crusade just saw some major improvements with the v2.5 update. We're seeing a lot of modifications to the base game in an attempt to improve performance by strengthening the parts of the game already lauded by players.

One of the most notable aspects of this update is that it makes an effort to migrate some of the features of Crusade over to the base game, given how much it improved gameplay in the first place.

The updates for Crusade include:

• Improved AI
• Better game balance (via tweaks to missions, bonuses, etc.)
• Faster turn times
• Improved and increased performance

The base game updates (from Crusade) include:

• UI: the cleaner, more functional UI from Crusade now exists in the base game.
• Economics: Galactic resources now accumulate.
• Diplomacy: The "trade bar" has been added, along with better resource trading and more informed trade offers.
• Performance: The AI system has been moved to a core-neutral engine.
• AI: The AI system has been improved overall from Crusade.

The base game is $29.99 and the game plus Crusade is $39.98 on Steam right now. Update v2.5 has just gone live, so now might be a good time to jump back in.