So I was thinking about getting Galactic Civilizations II on Impulse, but I also see Sins of a Solar Empire. I just wanted to ask that, including all the expansions, which one any of you thought was the superior game overall.

Sins of a Solar Empire. I couldn't get into Gal Civ 2, it seemed needlessly complicated, and nothing is ever explained well. Even digging through the manuals, your looking at a steep learning curve. On the flip side Sins of a Solar empire offers just enough depth that it can compare, and it happens to be capable of being a truly epic and long game. Like week long or more matches if you feel the need to have no life. Or can scale down to a few hour matches on only a few planets. It also has some impressive AI (though Gal Civ 2's stomped me flat even on the easiest) you don't have to micro manage too much, except as one of the races. Impeccably balanced so that all of the races have their strengths to play to and win. I would recommend Sins of a Solar Empire over Gal Civ 2 any day, it's just better in every way except depth. Which was too much of a good thing in this case. The real time battles in Sins look bad ass as well, and I know for a fact if you ask around on the forums here you can get a game with some people.

Also remember Sins of a Solar Empire trinity, it has all of the DLC which does expand the options of the game significantly. Offering sorely lacking defensive and diplomatic paths to play.

I haven't played SoaSE but I prefer turn-based games so I would say Gal Civ II, which is very good. The biggest thing you need to know is if you prefer RTS or turn-based (like Civ) gameplay, that will likely make your decision for you.

Sword of the Stars is a pretty decent game that does a good job of combining the two genres but the map looks like ***.

I like Civ style gameplay, but Gal Civ 2 was too much for me. It overwhelmed me, just couldn't focus on all of the information it expects you to know and throws at you.

Hmm, I haven't played in a while but I don't remember it being that complex. Most of the game I play are rather complex and deep strategy games though, maybe I am just used to it.

EDIT: I hope that didn't come out wrong it was just meant as stating a fact not judging anyone including myself.

Its the only RTS/4X game to date I've never been able to get. Just gave up, better 4X games out there.

Gal Civ 2 is brilliant, but I believe SOASE has a bigger following.


Gal Civ 2 is actually pretty simple and easy to understand to my mind, but then I am a SMAC masochist.


There's quite a lot of room for modding and custom civs in Gal Civ (I have a Babylon 5 mod on mine) so that might factor into your decision. I've invented several of my own species, you don't even have to use the premade ones if you don't want to.

Sins of a Solar Empire is to GC2 what Age of Empires is to Civilization. Can't really compare that.

A better comparison imo would be comparing GalCivII to Space Empires IV or V, although the interface in SE svcks raw eggs..

GalCivII is fun as hell, and it's major selling point is modability (already mentioned by TTP -gotta check out the Bab5 mod :goodjob: ) and the ship design interface -all my ship design resemble 18th century sailing ships :biggrin:

MOO3 is available through GoG.com for $9.99, and pretty good once you patch it and get the balancing mod for it (can't remember the name for it) atm I'm playing MOO2 and having a blast :disco:


My only beef with the genre is that out of all 4x games, the ground combat and planetary invasion invariably blow chunks. :pinch:


I guess my choice is then GalCivII or the MOO series..

Mine look like http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr212/Qeros/lap.jpg.

I've never played galactic civ2 but Sins of a Solar Empire is a darn fine game, it's like the space combat from Empire at war perfected