From the moment you step onto a new map in Civilization VII, you have access to the water. All maps have some kind of water element to them, and how you navigate the ocean plays a huge part in the establishment of your empire. After all, you can't dominate the world from a single patch of land.

However. when you begin Civilization 7, you'll notice that you don't have any access to naval ships and the units that can move over water cannot cross into the open ocean. While staying on the coastlines can help you uncover new parts of your current continent, exploring the seas is what takes your empire to the next level.

In the guide below, we'll tell you everything you need to know about sailing the blue waters of Civilization 7.

Across all three ages in Civilization VII, you'll find yourself constantly acquiring new settlements in one way or another. Maybe you just won a war against another leader and took over their districts or one of your settlers discovered a location on their own. In any case, as you stack up more settlements in your empire, you'll eventually want to make most, if not all of them, cities.

Settlements start as towns, which can only be expanded up to a certain point and carry a specialization with them if you choose. Cities, on the other hand, are generally larger and act as more of a focal point in the grand scheme of your empire. Below, we'll show you how to upgrade towns into cities and the pros and cons of doing so in Civilization VII.

Fortunately, the process of converting a town into a city is quite simple. The process can begin once you have founded or acquired a new settlement from another leader. Even if the settlement you took over from another leader was an existing city in their empire, it reverts back to a town once you take control.

Resources are what drive your individual settlements forward in Civilization VII. Not only do they improve all of the pertinent stats your empire needs to sustain itself, but they also improve relations with neighboring leaders. The more resources your civilization has access to, the better off you'll be.

The best way to acquire resources outside your settlements owning resource tiles is by establishing trade routes. Trade routes can only be established by merchants, who are individual units you can produce or purchase in a city or town. However, the process of using your merchants is not as simple as it sounds in Civilization 7.

Merchants are one of the earlier units you can produce in Civilization VII. In our initial playthrough, we were first able to produce a merchant at the 50% mark of the Antiquity Age. You'll know you can start producing merchants when you see the first "Trade Opportunity" message appear during one of your turns. The message will state that a neighboring leader has abundant resources, and you should send a merchant to set up a trade route with them.

It's not always rainbows and roses in your Civilization VII empire. Sometimes, the various towns and cities you rule over will become susceptible to the plague. This most commonly happens during the Exploration Age, as ships crossing the ocean between continents can bring back diseases to your homeland settlements. The plague causes your settlements to go into a state of "unrest," where their happiness hits all-time lows and citizens can die.

To stop the plague from ravaging your empire in Civilization VII, check out the guide below.

You'll immediately notice that a town or city has gotten the plague if you see green clouds of smoke engulf the capital and surrounding tiles. If you see the green clouds, you can click on the settlement to see that it's likely in a state of unrest. This means you can't produce anything or spend gold on the settlement until balance has been restored.

During the Exploration Age of you Civilization VII playthrough, you might stumble across a special kind of ship called the Treasure Fleet. This is only granted to you by procuring a specific type of resource and it's required to complete some objectives for the Economic Advisor. However, beyond that, the game doesn't truly explain what the fleets are used for or how they work.

Fortunately, we played enough Civilization 7 to understand the Treasure Fleets, and they are a goldmine if used properly. Below, we'll show you exactly what to do with Treasure Fleets and how to make boatloads of gold with them.

For starters, let's talk about how to acquire your first Treasure Fleet. This type of ship is only given to you if you procure the Silver resource, which is indicated by the silver pot and orange background icon. You need to have this resource within one of your settlement's borders and then build a mine on the resource tile when you get the chance to grow your settlement. It's also required to have the silver resource be connected to a settlement with a coastal border.

Civilization 7 starts you off with one lowly settlement in the Antiquity Age, but as you progress, you can amass an entire empire's worth of towns and cities. Your cities are the powerhouses of the empire, producing massive structures, while the towns can specialize in one type of production to aid the capital of your civilization.

However, to get to the point of ruling over dozens of settlements, you need to first learn how to acquire them. There are roughly four main methods to get more settlements in Civilization VII, and you can see what they are in the guide below.

All settlements, except for your capital, will usually start as a town. Then, as your empire grows, you can convert the towns into cities, which comes with various pros and cons. Civilization VII doesn't just hand you towns and cities on a silver platter, though. You have to work for them and put in plenty of time, effort, and resources into acquiring settlements one by one.

Sid Meier's Civilization is known for being one of the most brutal strategy games you can play at the highest difficulty level. Of course, if you're looking for a more laid-back experience or you're a new player, the franchise has always let you swap to a lower difficulty. Civilization VII has brought back the difficulty levels and options from previous games, but they're not a copy-and-paste list of settings.

There are several difficulty levels, different map types and lengths, and other advanced settings that you'll want to know about before hopping into Civilization VII. The guide below explains how to change your difficulty level and everything about customizing your game.

First and foremost, let's go over how and where to change between the game's various difficulty levels. Unlike other games, this can't be done by going to the settings menu and flipping between the different levels. Instead, you have to start up a new game and go through a few menus before you're able to customize the difficulty level and other options in Civilization VII.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has finished another successful weekend in theaters, going on to achieve a new milestone at the box office. The film has now earned $462 million worldwide, surpassing Pokemon: Detective Pikachu ($450 million) to become the No. 2 highest-grossing video game movie of all time.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3's performance at the box office is split nearly evenly between domestic ($230.6 million) and international ($232 million). For comparison, Detective Pikachu skewed much more heavily to the international crowd ($306 million) compared to domestic ($144 million).

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is not going to reach No. 1, though, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie made $1.36 billion globally and will remain the top video game movie for at least the time being. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was so big that it's actually the No. 17 highest-grossing movie in history, not adjusted for inflation, surpassing Black Panther, Aquaman, Iron Man 3, Frozen, Deadpool & Wolverine, Iron Man 3, and more. Sonic the Hedgehog 3, meanwhile, sits at No. 294 all time, which is also very impressive.

Marvel actor Simu Liu has revealed that he is attempting to revive the Sleeping Dogs series with a movie and a sequel to the 2012 game. Liu, who starred in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, said on social media that it's been a "tiring" process to pitch Sleeping Dogs to executives, going on to note how only a small percentage of film projects that are pitched ever get made.

"Everyone's overwhelming love of Sleeping Dogs here has give us life," he said, referring to the social media campaign to get a Sleeping Dogs movie off the ground. Liu said his plan is to make a Sleeping Dogs movie first, "then a sequel game for everyone," or at least, "that's always been the dream."

A source told IGN that a Sleeping Dogs movie is actually in development, with Liu on board to play the lead role of Wei Shen. A movie being in "development" doesn't mean it'll ever get made, though, only that pre-production work is being done in some capacity.