Civilization V

I've been a life-long Civilization, and the shift to hexagonal tiles, actual ranged combat and the end of unit-stacking was the most-brilliant update to the series formula in the history of the franchise. Unfortunately, this change came at the expense of a gutted diplomacy, game-balance issues, and a monotonous late-game that was improved upon slightly with the expansions.

Civ 5 with the expansions and certain mods is the best the Civ series has gotten, and is responsible for several timejumps to 4 a.m. in my life. Still could have room for improved diplomacy, trade & espionage.

i was genuinely expecting something of a lightweight history lesson when i got this, so i was really disappointed when i found out that all the historical names, countries, landmarks, were all nothing but pretty packaging for an admittedly decent strategy game. you could replace everything with star wars lingo and it wouldn't make a damn difference.

crazy slow, awful UI

No stacking and launch was rough. The final game is quite something though.