Galactic Civilizations 2..

[effee]

Just played it, absolutely LOVE it! Definetly a must try if you like Civ 4. The concept is pretty much the same. Although you cannot improve the terrain around you much (duh, space TBS ) you can fix up your planets..the combat really is good!

HUGE tech tree...

pretty smart AI, I was surprised when 3 of them declared war on me as a pre-emptive strike as i was building my army up..

they have the United planets, a conference that allows you to vote on policies to pass..I.E tax rate for warring planets... where the galactic olympics will be held..(something CIV4 should have had!)

its really a good game, the combat is pretty good too and you can design your own ships from scratch.

worth a try!

 

[Hadsus]

I kinda like it too......maybe I need to fire it up again. Yeah it's got a big tech tree. Maybe too big.....it's easy to get lost in all choices and paths. Which makes it a bit of a challenge to design ships to counter other Civs you want to attack. Never seem to be able to complete a game. In any case, I think this is the best space conquer game since MOO1.

 

[amish]

is this in the bargain bin yet?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Is this better than Master of Orion? (the real one, not the POS part 3).

Also, are you able to customize your ships? I really liked that feature of MOO and SMAC.

 

[MarcVenice]

Not better, but it is pretty good. If you crank up the difficulty to the right level you can have a lot of fun. If you set it to low, you will be able to build to many buildings, research things way to fast, and then build an army thats unstoppable and blow all other races out of space, which gets boring real fast.

And yes you can customize ships, you start with a hull, different kinds per class, then you can add like into hundred different kinds of objects, and theres basicaly 100 different kinds of spots on the ship where you can mount a wing or whatever kind of object you picked. That wing will also have different several kinds of spots where you can add something new once again.

When you've got a visually good looking spaceship, you can add weapons, engines, and shields wherever you like. Each class can of course only hold so much weaponry/cargo/defensive stuff.

 

[BladeVenom]

You can get GC2 Gold Edition for $29.99 at Circuit City right now. That's probably the best price you'll see for the game. It's a self published game, so they aren't going to slash prices to make way for the next title. You could buy GC2 without the expansion pack for $19.95 at TotalGaming.net. The first one is still $19.95, so don't expect it to get any lower anytime soon.

 

[effee]

Yes, you are able to -fully- customize your ships and built them from scratch.


here's a shot of the gamemap

gamemap

 

[QuantumPion]

I bought it but didn't like it very much. I found it boring and tedius. Moo2 is still the king of (space-based) TBS's IMO.

 

[lupi]

I gold the gold edition when gogamer had it on one of their 48hr sales. Overall I like it but the campaign mode so far seems soooo slow going.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
I bought it but didn't like it very much. I found it boring and tedius. Moo2 is still the king of (space-based) TBS's IMO.

Good info from a fellow MOO2 lover, I will stick to MOO2 when I need my Space TBS fix (which happens every other month).

 

[shortylickens]

I still prefer Master of Orion 2 and Imperium Galactica 2, but this is newer and has some fun to it.
Though I will say the ground battles are boring and the space battles dont really have an epic feel to them.

 

[Bateluer]

For those wanting to buy Galactic Civ 2, I'd highly recommend you purchase the game directly from the developer, gives them more profit.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
I bought it but didn't like it very much. I found it boring and tedius. Moo2 is still the king of (space-based) TBS's IMO.

Good info from a fellow MOO2 lover, I will stick to MOO2 when I need my Space TBS fix (which happens every other month).

The game has been compared to MOO and MOO2 and called a successor. One reviewer called it Hall Of Fame quality, because the AI is quite shrewed, even though they also said the graphics weren't spectacular.

Space games are out of style at present, but I think in 1-5 years, they'll be back. People are ohing and ahing over the nice FPSs right now.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: aCynic2
People are ohing and ahing over the nice FPSs right now.

They have been since the release of Wolfenstein and Doom. They never seem to stop fawning over FPSs.

 

[Doggiedog]

I have the regular GC2 and loved it.

Anyone have the expansion pack? I'm wondering if its worth buying. I haven't played the campaigns so I don't know if its worth getting.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: aCynic2
People are ohing and ahing over the nice FPSs right now.

They have been since the release of Wolfenstein and Doom. They never seem to stop fawning over FPSs.

And now there will be Crysis (or whatever the spelling).

The problem is that most FPS are very cliche', very much the same.

F.E.A.R. is remarkable due to it's cimematics and story.

Doom was great for atmosphere.

I played Duke Nukem 3D and while it was fun at the time, it didn't stand out.

The graphics improve, but the action is still the same for 90% of the FPSs coming out.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog
I have the regular GC2 and loved it.

Anyone have the expansion pack? I'm wondering if its worth buying. I haven't played the campaigns so I don't know if its worth getting.

Yes. The DA expansion adds asteroid mining as a factor, adds more to the tech tree, expands out the tech tree, etc.

I prefer to play DA over DL.

Onbe more thing, I almost forgot, the expansion can make use of the second core in a dual core CPU for the A.I.