To describe this game in short words is like painting a masterpiece with dyed monkey feces- It's just wrong.
So I rushed myself back into the world of "Civilization," with the viewpoint of a board game, and I have never enjoyed it more. If you are looking for a fast-paced shoot-em-up RTS, this is NOT the game for you. Go play DoW or a non-crappy C&C game.
I'm not gonna go into details about the game, because if you don't know what it is, then you should read up on it in detail on some official site-thingy. The best way to summarize this game is a Turn-based RTS with a board game feel to it. But... *insert Review Deck Here*
Plenty of balance, although I don't have a particular care for some of the race's abilities. I love all the technologies-as with every Civ game-, Plus Leonard Nimoy to read off quotes to you, and the dialogue with other empires is excellent and hilarious as always! Only reason I don't give it a ten is because of how much of my life it's stolen! No, just kidding. If I could give it a nine-point-eight, I would.
Excellently-made, with a zig-zaggy learning curve that keeps you finding out new awesome stuff all the freaking time. I think the only reason I don't give this game a ten is because I, and some of my friends, have had issues involving graphics cards that should be completely compatible with the game. I have a 9800GT, and my friend has a GeForce 260, and at times the game just acts like it's going to die horribly. Tried game updates, tried driver updates, tried reinstalling, etc. I must point out that it does this RARELY, like once in every 20 or 30 hours of overall gameplay on average. (Not non-stop gameplay.) Oh, and the music can get a bit tiresome, but you just turn that off.
Still, I absolutely love this game, and it's great for LAN parties!