What is your favorite 4X game?

[Clearing the Eye]

I played a good fifty or so hours last week of Civilization IV. I forgot I owned it and once I started playing again... the addiction took over D:

Been thinking of getting Civ V, but it seems to be little more than a shallow graphics update that's slowly having the features stripped from the series after IV patched and added back in through expansions.

Also used to play a ton of Sins of a Solar Empire. Typically played custom maps that took weeks to finish <3

 

[Justyn Stahll]

Alpha Centari with Sins of A Solar Empire coming in a close second
Alpha Centari is one of the few games that allow me to Terraform half the world and then completely destroy those stupid Gaiens...
I really hate those guys.

Sins Gets an honourable mention because nothing beats warping in a Fleet to destroy everything
FOR THE ADVENT!

Surprised Masters of Orion did'nt get a mention here...

 

[paislyabmj]

Well overall from what ive played masters of Orion 2 is the smartest alpha centuri the best written but i have sunk the most time into the total war games so call me undecided.

sins of a solar empire definitely gets a mention for being the most badass.there is nothing like steering your universe size fleet to go and splatter people across the pavement like the pathetic sub vassari that they are.

 

[Dirty Apple]

anc[is]I want to like GalCiv2, but I never fully wrapped my brain around it and the races bore me.

When I used to play GalCiv2, I never played the campaign once. So, for me, the races were just enemies to push through instead of characters in a story.

Actually, there are quite a few race packs you can download if you'd like to create your own race. I took great pains and considerable time naming races, writting up bios, and fine tuning their personality parameters to suite my ideal game.

I like me some GalCiv2.

 

[Jeff Gennick]

The Civilization series, I have a hard time choosing the best (Haven't played Alpha Centari) with Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion coming in REALLY friggin' close second.

 

[Joseph Harrison]

Probably Sins of a Solar Empire for me although, some don't consider it a 4x game.:/

 

[Vigormortis]

Alpha Centari with Sins of A Solar Empire coming in a close second
Alpha Centari is one of the few games that allow me to Terraform half the world and then completely destroy those stupid Gaiens...
I really hate those guys.

Sins Gets an honourable mention because nothing beats warping in a Fleet to destroy everything
FOR THE ADVENT!

Surprised Masters of Orion did'nt get a mention here...

My thoughts exactly, though Sins wins out for me solely on game-play and multi-player. (by a very small margin)

And I agree. There're few things as satisfying in any strategy game as phase-laning in a fleet of Advent drone carriers and watching that swarm of hundreds of little dots spread out across the gravity well, decimating everything. (or as terrifying as phase-laning into an enemy Starbase or mine-field)

Though, the one addition to this list that I'd make, beside the obvious Civilization games (Call to Power 2 was always a fave for some reason) would be Populous: the Beginning.

It's technically not straight 4X, but it has a lot of 4X elements to it. Besides, it was an amazing little game. Loved it so much.

Probably Sins of a Solar Empire for me although, some don't consider it a 4x game.:/

That's only because it's real-time instead of turn-based. A lot of people get too nit-picky on the definition of their game genres. Hell, I know people that consider the X series to not be 4X. It's the title of the series for God's sake!

 

[sextus the crazy]

Civ V is the only one I can get into, but I've played 100 hours of it.

I also wanna try out hearts of Iron III or PzCom III.

 

[lacktheknack]

Alpha Centauri vs. Civ V... Y U MAKE ME CHOOSE

I'll say AC because it was a 4x with a linear plot, and it WORKED.

 

[Ralen-Sharr]

GalCiv2 was pretty good. I liked to spec my race for tech and economy.
Bribe my enemies to fight each other and by the time they actually pay attention to me it's FAR too late.
Most games doing this lead to me doing more research than the rest of the galaxy combined.

 

[FreeCookies]

Gal Civ 2, with Civ IV coming a close second. I might have to pick up Alpha centauri now though.

Civ V is the only one I can get into, but I've played 100 hours of it.

I also wanna try out hearts of Iron III or PzCom III.

If Civ V is the only game you play, Hearts of Iron 3 will kick your ass.

Screw Hearts of Iron, I could never get the hang of it.

 

[joonsk]

I don't own that much x4 games, but I am beginning to like the Total War series more and more, and I am planning to buy Alpha centauri from GOG.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

MOO 2 is the best by a long shot. Its downfall is the micromanagement required it the later games made it tedious.

So my solution was to always play in a tiny or small galaxy. That made things a bit more luck based but the games tended to be much faster so it didin't matter.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Civ V is the only one I can get into, but I've played 100 hours of it.

I also wanna try out hearts of Iron III or PzCom III.

If Civ V is the only game you play, Hearts of Iron 3 will kick your ass.

How so? Is it hard to learn, hard to navigate, or just hard in general? or all 3?

 

[NoPants2win]

I am a huge fan of Civ III and IV, I just randomly bought Alpha Centauri last night...

I just hope I can get over the horrible control scheme. Older games are bad for that.

There's a fan mod that fixes a lot of the bugs, you might want that. If I was nicer I'd get you the link.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Civ V is the only one I can get into, but I've played 100 hours of it.

I also wanna try out hearts of Iron III or PzCom III.

If Civ V is the only game you play, Hearts of Iron 3 will kick your ass.

How so? Is it hard to learn, hard to navigate, or just hard in general? or all 3?

It's very complicated first of all, it's hard to keep track of your economy, Tech, military, diplomacy you have to intensively micromanage it just isn't fun IMO.

don't know if I can get into the gameplay, i'll be fine. I'm a big WWII strategy nut, so I think that'll help a bunch.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

I played a good fifty or so hours last week of Civilization IV. I forgot I owned it and once I started playing again... the addiction took over D:

Been thinking of getting Civ V, but it seems to be little more than a shallow graphics update that's slowly having the features stripped from the series after IV patched and added back in through expansions.

Also used to play a ton of Sins of a Solar Empire. Typically played custom maps that took weeks to finish <3

I see this a lot from people who have never played Civilization V, but once you play it you CAN'T go back to Civ 4.

Eh. I don't know. Whenever I look into it, I don't see anything it has over IV, except graphics. Considering they only just added in religion, a core part of the prequel, I'm not given much reason to want to "upgrade."

 

[goodman528]

nothing can top Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

+1

Best civ game ever made, and it doesn't even carry the civ name.

 

[Elate]

Offt, I'm gunna have to go with a top 3.

1)Alpha Centauri (more so Planetfall mod for Civ 4)
2)Sins of Solar Empire (ALL OF THEM)
3)Civ 4 Beyond the Sword

I see this a lot from people who have never played Civilization V, but once you play it you CAN'T go back to Civ 4.

Disagree completely, I play both. Civ 5 is good for a quick game with friends, Civ 4 is good for those 20 hour games.

 

[Glover09]

I've only played two, only one I know the name of, and both were on one of those 100+ demo compilation game discs. Space Empires 2, wasn't that pretty or complicated, but my god did I rack up DAYS of playing time just going through any situation that either I came up with or the game put me in.