The Civilization 6 launch trailer is an inspirational tale of Sean Bean's family

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The Civilization 6 launch trailer is a good one. It's inspirational without being overbearing, efficiently covers the game's millennia-spanning breadth, features the new theme song, "Sogno di Volare," from Grammy-winning "Baba Yetu" composer Christopher Tin, and includes enough Sean Bean deaths to cover a solid decade's worth of Hollywood blockbusters. 

He's not actually shown meeting an untimely end at any point during the trailer, but that trip off the edge of the cliff doesn't look like it's going to end well, and that machine-gun fire into the cockpit of his Spitfire is pretty ominous too. And then there's that photo and face at the end, as humankind indulges its drive to "push itself toward the horizon." Yet even though Sean may die, the spirit of Sean lives on. The whole thing kinda gets me right here, y'know? 

Yup, that's a good trailer. The game seems to be shaping up pretty well too: We've got a breakdown of the five biggest changes from Civ 5 to Civ 6, info on all the Civ 6 leaders, and a few things you might want to know before you start playing. Civilization 6 preloading has begun on Steam, and it will unlock on October 21 at the times listed below.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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