Sid Meier's Civilization V Play For Free until the release of Beyond Earth

Shariiiif don't like it... rock the casbah! Rock the casbah!

It seems that Firaxis are banking on the fact that if they can managed to get even more people hooked to Sid Meier's Civilization that could potentially mean more fans willing to give Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth further down the track. Consequently, you can now play Civ V for free over the next couple of days leading up to Beyond Earth's release. I think a good majority of friends on my Steam friends list already have the game (there you go: 74%, almost 3 in 4 Steam friends) and considering the game has been on sale so many times over the past few years, it's understandable. However, the opportunity now presents itself to the remaining Civilization virgins to try out the game and finally understand what Civ fanatics mean when they say "just...one...more...turn..."

In other news, Beyond Earth is now available for pre-load for those of you that pre-purchased the game off Steam. Me? I'm still waiting for my Ozgameshop code by email which apparently won't arrive until the actual release date or the day before.