4x games: recommendations?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Anyone play these games?

Is Civ 5 the daddy? What of GalCiv 3? Or Endless Legend?

Any others worth looking at?

[Dandontdare]

Well, on the PC I keep looking for (and buying and not playing) similar alternatives, but I've never found better than Sid Meir's Civilization series. I usually have a game on the go whilst I'm "watching" (i.e. largely just listening to) the telly. There are difficulty levels beyond where I've ventured if you're into the "challenge" of gaming - I prefer to stay in the low-to middling levels where I know I'll eventually dominate the world unless I do something stupid.

I still go back to Civ4 and even Civ3 occasionally if I fancy a change. Sid Meir's Railroads and Sid Meir's Pirates are also great fun, but I never really got on with Colonization. I'm planning to try Beyond Earth as soon as the price drops a bit on Steam.

If you want to lose hours, or entire weekends to "just one more turn" syndrome, then yeah, go for Civ5

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Got Civ 5 on Steam and CalCiv 3 from Amazon for £6.53 - both on Hogmany, before my self imposed Year of No Games purchases.

Quite looking forward to a couple of games without a bombastic Hollywood-lite plot.

[Dandontdare]

Things I like about Civ5:
a) that you can play it on easy levels without being made to feel stupid if you're not very good - I hate games that have a strict linear progression as I pay full price and only ever see about 25% of the content.
b) that you can play at your own pace - you can get up and make a cup of tea and then finish your turn whenever you're ready.
c) the odd historical quirks that it sometimes throws up - such as this odd request from the Vatican I had recently:


Things I don't like:
the diplomacy - it often seems to make no sense - you can cultivate a freindhsip with another nation, share open borders and agree to all trade requests for over a thousand years - and then they'll suddenly denounce you; or you can declare war on a  neighbor for spying, smash them hard and force them to agree to a humiliating peace treaty and they are immediately "friendly". I always disable the diplomatic victory type and go for science or conquest.