Stardock has released a new update for their huge 4X space-strategy game Galactic Civilizations III.

The new 2.8 update brings with it a host of new improvements and updates for the entire game, including an AI-based supreme commander system that oversees each computer player.

“One of the advantages Galactic Civilizations III has is its new 64-bit, core-neutral game engine,” Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock Entertainment said in a statement. “Now that most PC gamers have at least 4 CPU cores, we took the opportunity to develop a semi-genetic algorithm based AI that allows the computer players to play much like a human being would.”

Here’s some more screenshots:

For the full list of changes and updates – head over to the Galactic Civilizations III forums.

The game has a big “Intrigue” expansion coming sometime this spring that introduces politics and government to the already massive sci-fi 4X game – you can read more about it here.

Galactic Civilizations III is currently available for Windows PC, via Steam. In case you missed it – you can find our review for the original Galactic Civilizations 3 here (we highly recommend it!).