New games I wish were worth getting...

[Kevin]

It does feel more like SMAC than Civiliztion IV: Colonization felt like the original Colonization to me. Yes I got to the series late, but I had played Colonization then it all dropped off my radar for like a decade.

I was a bit of an obsessive about Colonization, and I was entirely disappointed with the new version, which seemed pretty terrible.

Is this just rose coloured glasses? Or has Firaxis just lost the plot? At least X-Com was good.

-Jester

I too was very disappointed with the Colonization remake. I'm not completely disappointed with Beyond Earth. However, I didn't go into Beyond Earth looking for a new Alpha Centauri either.

I don't know if I would go as far as saying that Firaxis has lost the plot. But I think they wanted a different feel to BE than the feel SMAC had. Like you said the remake of XCOM has been excellent and I've been playing that a lot after getting my free copy. I think they actually made BE the game they set out to make, but as mentioned I think there is more potential to it than they implemented. I worry that is intentional because expansion for Civ IV and Civ V sold so well. I think they designed it "good enough" but didn't do everything they could have or plan to. So I think part of the issue money driven design. Since you've waited this many years, you might be happier waiting until after the 2nd or 3rd Xpac is released getting some bundle deal and by then it will really feel like the SMAC successor you wanted.