Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth, a turn-based strategy game based in the interstellar age, in which you travel to and colonize habitable planets by realpolitik, was announced last weekend, with support for AMD's Mantle API, besides DirectX 11. Mantle should make the game increasingly playable on AMD "Kaveri" APUs with eye-candy cranked up, and at reasonable mainstream resolutions such as 1080p. Mantle reduces the CPU's role in graphics processing, and should benefit APUs. Developer Firaxis announced the game for three PC platforms, Windows, OS X, and Linux (over Steam). Don't add it to your summer bucket-list just yet. It's slated for this fall.A trailer video follows.

NVIDIA posted GeForce 314.22 driver-suite, just in time for Bioshock: Infinite. The WHQL-signed drivers offer performance increments as high as 41 percent in Bioshock: Infinite; and up to 60 percent in Tomb Raider (2013), up to 23 percent in Sniper Elite V2, and up to 13 percent in Sleeping Dogs. These results were produced using a GeForce GTX 680, and NVIDIA claims the gains "will be seen on other GPUs also, though to varying degrees." The results are in comparison to the previous GeForce 314.07 WHQL drivers.

GeForce 314.22 WHQL is also claimed to improve SLI performance (tested using GTX 680), for Sniper Elite V2 by up to 21 percent, up to 14 percent in Sleeping Dogs, up to 10 percent in StarCraft II, and up to 15 percent in Civilization V. SLI support is added/improved for Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter, and BioShock Infinite.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 314.22 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP, and Windows XP 64-bit

For those interested in taking Crysis 3 Open Beta (multiplayer) for a spin, NVIDIA released the new GeForce 313.95 Beta drivers, which addresses known issues, and is features optimizations for the game. NVIDIA expects performance increments as high as 35 percent. The driver also packs performance enhancements for other AAA titles, such as SLI and single-GPU performance gains of up to 27 percent with Assassin's Creed III, up to 19 percent for Civilization V, up to 14 percent in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, up to 14 percent in DiRT 3, up to 11 percent in Just Cause 2, and up to 10 percent each in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, F1 2012, and Far Cry 3.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 313.95 Beta

AMD posted its first major release of the Catalyst software suite for this year, Catalyst 13.1 WHQL. Much along the lines of its 12.11 "Never Settle" driver, the new 13.1 WHQL brings performance enhancements for a boatload of games, targeting Radeon HD 7000 series GPUs based on the Graphics CoreNext (GCN) architecture. We know that AMD is yet to unlock the full potential of GCN, and 13.1 WHQL appears to be a step in that direction. In addition to performance enhancements and fixes, AMD introduced a new 3D settings and profile management user interface within Catalyst Control Center (CCC).

DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 13.1 WHQL for Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit, Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows XP 64-bit

A slice of the change-log follows.

2K Games announced today that Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings, the expansion pack for the award-winning Civilization V, is being developed for Windows-based PC. Developed by Firaxis Games, Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings introduces new gameplay content, enhancing the Civilization V experience and providing even more ways for players to achieve world domination. The Gods & Kings expansion pack spans the breadth of human civilization, taking players from founding the first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying spies in enemy cities to steal information and technology.

"Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword set a precedent in new content and game features in a Civilization expansion pack. 2K Games is continuing that tradition with Gods & Kings," said Sarah Anderson, senior vice president of marketing for 2K. "The Gods & Kings expansion is the quintessential Civilization V addition, making Civilization more addictive than ever before."