It's been nearly a year since Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword gave gamers their last new fix of Sid Meier's acclaimed turn-based strategy series. And had things gone according to plan, interested gamers could right now at this very instant be playing Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution on either their Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Nintendo DS.

　　However, with Civ Revolution's launch now occurring on July 8 on all three platforms, the publisher has come through with a make-good for console gamers. The publisher said today that it will be releasing a single- and multiplayer demo through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network this Thursday. The demo will be available worldwide through Xbox Live at 2 a.m. local time, and will go live on Thursday as part of Sony's weekly PSN update in North America. Take-Two expects to roll out the PSN demo to its global audience later this year.

　　As for the demo's contents, players will be able to assume either Caesar's laurel wreath as the head of Rome or Cleopatra's crook and flail as Egypt's pharaoh. Players can either play against the game's computer-controlled opponents up to 1250 AD or head online to battle it out with human opponents over the same time period. The demo also comes packed with a tutorial for those unfamiliar with Civilization's turn-based gameplay.

　　All said, the demo will occupy about 1.08GB of hard-drive space.