Civilization V, now optimised for Windows 8

Fans of Sid Meier’s addictive Real Time Strategy title from Firaxis will now be able to lead their fledgling prehistoric villages into sprawling metropolitans with new Windows 8 gesture support.

The Windows 8 and Ultrabook functionality is made available through a downloadable patch released on 1 November. Along with a few bug fixes and AI refinements, the touch-centric ability is the most important aspect of this latest patch.

These enhancements are specifically targeted to Ultrabook users running Intel Core processors. This does not mean that Civilization V players are relegated to solely using touch controls. There is an in-game menu that users can select and then opt to utilise the new gesture features.

The commands are far-ranging and enable users to select units, drag to specific locations and assign tasks when in movement mode. Users will also be able to use sliders to control momentum, two-finger drag to move maps together and pinch functionality to zoom in and out of maps.

This should serve as a stern test of Windows 8’s gesture capability, as touch-centric gaming has rarely worked well for a game of this scale and popularity. No news however on touch features spreading to iOS just yet.