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Expand Your Galactic Civilizations For Free
Thanks to GamersWithJobs for pointing to the free Expanded Universe add-on for PC strategy title Galactic Civilizations, launching later today, and expanding this previously discussed game with multiple features (better AI, new ships, new random events) for free, providing the player installs the Stardock Central updater. The site explains their rationale: "Statistically, only a tiny fraction of the total sales of the game occur direct [from the developer]... but with that 10%, a different incentive is created - keep the game fresh and improving over time in order to help sales over a long period."
I never played the original on OS/2. However I was one of the beta testers for the current version. The same developer built all of the GalCiv games, so there is a lot of continuity between them. The differences are basically more things have been added. All the original races are still in existance. You are limited to playing as the humans (I don't know if you could play as the others), but that isn't very limiting as you can customize them anyway you want. More starships have been added, larger galaxies are possible. Multiple planets orbit stars (I don't believe that was the cas in the original). Starbases, trade (not sure if new), and culture (ala Civ3, but implemented better) have been added. If you liked the original and/or 4X games in general you will probably like GalCiv.
The gameplay is very similar to the OS/2 version, in that you still colonize planets, and fight pretty much the same people. The combat system is still pretty much the same, as well.
The diplomacy system is completely redone, and you can make any offer at any time, instead of going through a list of predefined offers. In addition, you also fight to control galactic resources, which provide bonuses to your entire civilization.
Of course, the tech tree, ships and planetary improvements are changed somewhat.
--It burns! --It's loaded with wasabi.