Civ4 did very little for me. I don't like playing "history", and the game itself ran very poorly on my pretty decent rig - if I played significantly past 1000 A.D. the game started to run vvveerrryyy slllooowwww.

I hope very much that Elemental is more akin to Alpha Centauri, my all time favorite game. My hopes are high.

Did you try Civ 4 with the Beyond the Sword expansion? I really enjoy the game. That said with the unit devellopment planned for Elemental, Alpha Centauri might be a reasonable comparison. Only totally fantasy, where AC was Sci-Fi

The advantage is thanks to digital dist, elemental can keep on selling. But hopefully it manages a good retail performance in the first set of weeks. 

I expect some strong marketing, more so than for GC or Sins! 

We're sure there will be a window in which paypal can be used right?

No, we're not sure - I don't think it's ever been concretely confirmed by a dev. However, there has been a paypal window in Stardock's past betas, so it's a strong possibility at least.

Is there some way to verify that very early preorders have gone through?  I preordered in January or February, never received a verification, and preordered again, with no verification.  I want to make sure I'm in, but I'd rather not have 3 copies.

Erm you probably have 2 copies. Preorders aren't charged until the beta starts.

Contact [email protected] to see if you have 2 copies, and to cancel one if thats what you want

We can still get in on the Beta if we Pre-order at Gamestop with cash, right? Or is it something that has to be done online with a credit card?

I just pre-ordered.. That message about closing the Beta after it goes out scared me straight... I'm not sure if "after" means a day or two after.. or seconds after.. either way... I guess no reason to take any chances...

I'm also giving up the bottle, and any homosexual thoughts I might of ever had are forever gone from my mind...

Powerful post.... powerful...

Roland

I believe you need to do it online, as they obviously have no idea/information from gamestop on YOU personally.

gamestop  isn't taking pre-orders yet.  Doing it through impulse should* be the only way to pre-order at this point.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.

September 22nd isn't that far, and it'll probably be out before then. While I realize this is going to be "work", it's going to be work that I love. I have to second some questions though:

1.) If you preordered early and didn't receive verification, do we need to preorder again?

2.) Will it just show up on Impulse or do we have to do something special (like send in a verification code, see above)?

3.) How long will the the "window" be to download the beta? A day? Two? A week? An hour? (lol, hope not)

Also, thank you for allowing us to have this remarkable opportunity. I'm sure people who have been waiting for months, even years, will appreciate it. I know I do.

1.) No.

2.) No idea

3.)Once it's there should be there till full game, as well as beta updates of course.

Where I come from, Summer ends. September 1st. So GIEF EPIC BETAZ!

...to me it's Labor Day..which is..er..today.  Beta plz?