'Civilization 6' release date, news: Major changes to be announced at E3 2016

There are still more than four months to go before "Civilization 6" hits store shelves. But before it drops, fans of the "Civilization" series will get a taste of what's to come when the upcoming 4X video game is unveiled at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

According to The Telegraph, the game, which it calls one of the "most wanted games of E3 2016," has been confirmed to appear at the highly anticipated annual event.

The upcoming installment, which lets players build an empire from the Stone Age to the Space Age, reportedly sees some major changes to the video game series' usual design, elements, and gameplay.

Video gaming website US Gamer, which was able to test out the pre-alpha build of "Civilization 6," noted several big changes, including cities expanding outward, new ways to attack and defend cities, an all-new Civics Tree, and Eureka Moments.

It should be noted that major changes are quite hard to come by in the "Civilization" series. While "Civilization 5" was released in 2010, it wasn't until 2013 that its second major expansion "Brave New World," which contained major modifications, was rolled out.

"We went into this very ambitiously," Ed Beach, the game's lead designer, told Polygon. "We had all the systems working well there in 'Brave New World,' but we decided to take a new look at everything. Everything is tweaked one way or another. Nothing is identical."

In an interview with US Gamer, lead producer Dennis Shirk talked about some of the changes in "Civilization 6."

"There's around 12 districts now," he said. "Each city will have to specialize. You cannot build all of the districts; there's not enough room."

"You're going to run out of space for farming," he explained. "You'll run out of space for mining. You have to decide, based on where you put your city, what kind of districts are going to be best for that city."

"Civilization 6" will be released on Oct. 21 initially for Windows PC. Versions for OS X and Linux will soon follow.