Everything I hoped MOO3 would be, but better. This game oozes style.
I'll leave the gameplay comments to other reviewers (in short: great), but I'd like to focus on Stardock's community involvement. I've been lurking on the galciv2.com website for months have been reading practically hourly for the last week. The project manager and developers are all over this thing. Any questions people ask (even if it's the friggin 10th time it's been asked!) is answered quickly and personally by them. It's amazing.
They let the gamers know what's working and what isn't. They're intent on frequent upgrades. And these aren't just bug fixes, these updates include features the community feels might improve the gameplay. With care like this I'm excited not only about playing another round against my galactic foes, but also how the game itself will mature over the years.
GalCiv2 is already on my all-time top ten list. I don't see it getting bumped off.
(By the way, support a caring developer, _buy_ this game, don't get it off the dark side of the web.)