Civ V’s Brave New World expansion lets you conquer the world with trade or culture wars (preview)

Civilization V games often bog down when each society expands until the borders of empires bump into each other and wars become unproductive. But that’s exactly where the newest Civ V expansion, Brave New World, starts to generate opportunities for some real conquests. Based on a preview of the new expansion, players will be able to extend their aggressive behavior when borders bump into each other by engaging in culture wars or building trade empires. These kinds of victories give players an alternative to all-out warfare.

Firaxis Games packs so much content into its expansions that they are almost like new game launches in their own right. Brave New World should give you a lot of reasons to stay up late and play obsessively. We recently got a preview of the game, which comes out on the PC on July 9 in North America and July 12 overseas.