I just ordered Civ IV: Beyond the Sword from Amazon. It's strange that I held off on buying the game for so long (what a year or two) and now that it's on the way I can't wait to play it. I figure I'll get a couple of playthoughs in before Civ V comes out. Still, I'm worried that the new Civ will lose some of its charm based on what they "learned" from Civ Revolution. I'm not sold on the idea of City-States developing that give your civ bonuses. Why would some relatively powerful City-State decide not to grow and why the hell do they want to give you bonuses with all those barbarians out there destroying early improvements. And then you can't stack units. What kinda idea is that? I only see that there will be a severe reduction in the number of cities that are taken. Nevertheless, I digress.

Can't wait for Beyond the Sword to get here. Looking forward to Civ V.