What is your favorite 4X game?

[That Guy Ya Know]

I have to throw out another vote for MoO2, I picked it up a year or two back of GoG and love it.

My favourite part is creating ridiculously overpowered races, like a telepathic race with the +20 spying bonus so they can steal all the techs. or a tolerant and subterranean race which has so many people per planet it's a joke.

 

[roshelsanchez]

Combat is attractive. Superb shield and weapon effects, I always like to find a good choke spot and put although of gauss cannons there and watch them brake upon it like a wave.

 

[Starke]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

This. What other game lets you control rainfall by terraforming mountain ranges?

Yeah, I'm going to go with this as well, but with the black mark that I have never gotten Alien Crossfire to work. :\ I've always wanted that Pirate civilization that replaces the Spartans... but never did get the chance to play them...

After that Galactic Civilization 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire are my two picks.

 

[Brawndo]

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.

Speak for yourself. I used to frequent the Civfanatics forum and there was a sizable minority of Civ veterans who hated Civ 5. I played about 25 hours before I got sick of it, compared to the 400+ hours I put in on Civ 4 and who knows how many on Civ III and II.

 

[Silvianoshei]

MoO2. Also, if you haven't tried the Endless Space Beta, you should

 

[Wicky_42]

Space Empires V >>> GalCiv II

New weapons that actually do different things, huge variety in technologies and strategies - weapon equipped satellites, fighter/bombers, mine fields, space stations, orbital shipyards, constructor ships and all the dozens of utility ships needed to supply, repair, transfer, stock and maintain your fleets and planets. Not to mention end-game constructs such as Ring Worlds and Dyson Spheres.

It's a lot more interesting than a laser of +2 vs missile of +3...

 

[Razentsu]

Civilization III was my first, so I'm going to go with that.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Alpha Centuri is a favourite game of mine behind Bastion

 

[Aeshi]

Star Ruler

X3 might also count as a 4X game, albeit one where you yourself control a unit as well.

 

[Violator[xL]]

Galciv 2 is pretty good but I sometimes miss the array of special devices that you could fit onto your Masters of Orion 2 ships, like cloaking, displacement devices or black hole generators. If they'd ever combine something like that into one game, I'd be sold.