IGN has a preview up of Civilization 4's newest expansion: Beyond the sword. Beyond the Sword aims not only to provide new units and technology to the existing game but also introduces some new tweaks and features to make non military means of victory that more enjoyable/easier. Beyond the 10 new nations and 16 new leaders, for example, is the changes made to the space race. The nation who reaches Alpha Centauri now wins instead of the first nation who launched a ship. Glorious changes, indeed.

They're not just putting out some measly expansion here, they're going into the guts of Civ 4 to add new gameplay mechanics that should make the game more enjoyable in the late game. Firaxis is also adding in new units, new wonders, new great people, new leaders, new civilizations, advanced starts, random events like earthquakes, and a bunch of highly creative new scenarios that are going to add a range of options never seen in a Civ game to this point. Firaxis dropped by the office a while back to show us what they'd been working on and we've finally been given the go ahead to share what we saw.