What’s that? Galactic Civilizations II, one of my favorite turn-based strategy games in recent years, is getting even more content? What wonderful news to wake up to on a Monday morning.

The new add-on for the futuristic space-based strategy game is subtitled Endless Universe, and, unlike previous expansions Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor, will not require the original game to play, acting a sort of stand alone title. It will also come bundled with the aforementioned previous two expansions, if you happened to miss out on them.

It also turns out that Stardock will not be publishing Endless Universe, but are instead handing over the reins to Kalypso Media, the folks that handled Sins of a Solar Empire’s distribution in Europe.

There isn’t any word yet on what, exactly, Endless Universe will contain, but based on what we’ve seen so far new campaign missions, gameplay tweaks, and plenty of new features are to be expected.

Galactic Civilizations II: Endless Universe will be released towards the end of August for £19.99 (no word on what it’ll go for in other regions). Are you looking forward to more GalCiv goodness?

The battle for galactic supremacy continues in Endless Universe; the new stand-alone add-on for the acclaimed strategy game Galactic Civilizations II, to be published by Kalypso Media at the end of August 2008. A stand-alone version, it requires no additional purchase and also includes the two previously released add-ons: Dark Avatar and Twilight Of the Arnor.

Galactic Civilizations II is the best selling strategy game in the United States, has received several awards, and spent a number of weeks in the U.S. Top Ten Game Charts. Endless Universe builds on the epic story, following on from Dark Avatar and Twilight of Arnor.

Thanks to Dark Avatar the different races now have multiple characteristics which adds variety and fun during the game. Now, the races range from “super-diplomatist” to “super-destroyer”. Also, Dark Avatar provides the planets with environmental conditions. Thus, the player needs to decide whether he wants to invest into research and development or leave the planet to a hostile player. Furthermore, Dark Avatar presents new scenes, new challenges, asteroids which can be used as mines, new races, and a new version of the spy system.

Further differences in characteristics between the races are provided by Twilight of the Arnor. Here, the player can experience new features, starting with individual developments to race-specific weapons, skills and buildings. In addition, there are sensational improvements to the planets, many new star ships, a much bigger galaxy, and a new soundtrack! On top of that, “Twilight of the Arnor” includes editors for the planets, scenario, and technological development.

“Galactic Civilization II: Endless Universe” will be released at the end of August for a recommended price of £19.99.