MoO I and II were one the best 4x games of their time and the second one is probably still worth trying out today. MoO III had a miserable start (buggy release and far less features than the previous games) but I heard that with the numerous (community) patches it has become quite the enjoyable game.

For 4x recommendations - My suggestions would be Civilizations 5 and its add-ons as well as Endless Legend, the later is my personal favourite due to its setting and interesting factions but Civ5 is certainly worth its money (and has a lot of interesting mods to play with)

 

Master of Orion 2 easily holds up to this day.

I'd be wary of the new game though, wait to hear whether it's any good before purchasing.

As for 4X games, Civilization 4 is, IMO, the best of the Civ series, and it has a lot of total conversion mods for it, including one of my favorites Fall From Heaven II.

I'm going to second Erandil on Endless Legend recommendation. Great game, very unique and beautiful in terms of visuals, which is all too rare nowadays.

If you don't mind playing some older games, give Alpha Centauri, Galactic Civilizations 2 and Master of Magic a try too, they're fantastic games.

 

My monstrous sabertooth tiger picked up the cannibalistic caveman she just murdered with her massive jaws and ambled over to me as I was picking leaves.

She then dropped him at my feet with a thud and looked expectantly at me, desperately seeking my approval.

I showed that to her by feeding her a haunch of meat and petting her like the good kitty she was.

Far Cry Primal is pretty alright.

 

I hear your MoO praises, anyone wants to rec any more pre-2007ish games? Old laptop is old. Aside from AoE, HoMM, fallouts, red alert, C&C, Blizzard's stuff. Btw, any quest fans - check out Monkey Island series, i've been a fan for the last 15 years i think, brilliant stuff

 

Pre-2007 games?

Here you go:

Splinter Cell & Pandora Tomorrow & Chaos Theory, American McGee's Alice, Deus Ex, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force 1 & 2, Heroes of Might & Magic 3, Disciples 2, Prey, Bully, FEAR, Gothic 1 & 2, Psychonauts, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within & Two Thrones, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Jade Empire, SWAT 4, Rome Total War, GTA: San Andreas, LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth, Star Wars KOTOR 1 & KOTOR 2, Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption & Bloodlines, Thief 1 & 2, Fable, Max Payne 1 & 2, Freelancer, Freespace 1 & 2, SimCity 4, Homeworld & Cataclysm & HW 2, Star Wars: Jedi Outcast & Jedi Academy, Neverwinter Nights, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind + Bloodmoon + Tribunal, MechWarrior 2 & 3, Harry Potter: Philosopher's Stone & Chamber of Secrets, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, Arx Fatalis, Black & White, Clive Barker's Undying, Arcanum, Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 + Throne of Bhaal, The Bard's Tale aaaand I'm gonna stop here. I think this is more than enough recommendations for now from me.

 

Several days ago I installed Aveyond 4: Shadow of the Mist and by looking at the save file it seems I've already played it for a grand total of nearly 19 hours.

 

Dark Souls 3: Exclusive Early Footage

 

Deadlock is the first space game that really got me into the genre, and I found Master of Orion shortly after it. I have countless hours playing Deadlock back in the mid-90's. It's actually still quite fun to this day, but that might be a little nostalgia showing through. I've actually recorded a playthrough of it before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdwv-AXNna8

As for something newer, there is Sins of a Solar Empire. Still a really fun game, and I've played it as recently as last week. I've only got the first expansion though, and I don't think it's in the Steam store.

-edit- I think you can get them both on GoG

 

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion is on Steam. From what I've heard, it appears to be the same game at its core, with each original faction now being split into two "splinter" factions. If it comes on sale, I'll be sure to pick it up.

I do own Civilization 5, but Endless Legend is a new find. I've looked up some gameplay, seems really quite enjoyable.

I must agree. While Civilization 5 is a great game, some mechanics really annoy me, such as the fact every single unit that has an attack can fire at aircraft. Every. Unit.

The instruction manual for Civilization 4 was, in itself, a small book. I must have read through that 4, maybe 5 times?

 

Yeah Rebellion is the (standalone) expansion/update to SoSE - it includes all the previous updates + base game. It is one of my favourite 4x space games (likely due to there not being that many^^) and certainly worth its money though it's late game on the truly massive maps can become a bit tedious.

 

Civ 1.5 (call to power) is my favorite civ. It went far beyond modern technology, and you could have space cities in orbit, as well and underwater cities, and like fusion tanks and space fighters and mag lev infrastructure... it's sweet.

 

Just played through a conquest campaign in Imperivm III:Battles of Rome. I loved the first 2 games in the series( Celtic Kings:Rage of War and Imperivm II: Punic Wars), the 3rd installment kept the same feel, added 2 more factions and made some definite improvements in AI and difficulty. Rage of War has the best single player campaign of them all i think, about a gaul soldier swearing revenge after marauders killed his wife and sacked his city. This sets him on a bloody path against the Teutons and, later, Julius Caesar. The goddess of war gave him her blessing, which is part blessing and part curse. I think i played through the whole thing 4 or 5 times over the years, 100s of hours of fun.
Punic Wars has 2 campaigns, both quite decent, one on the side of Rome (Scipio Africanus), the other - Hannibal. Aside from campaigns there are random/single player custom maps, multiplayer(haven't tried) and scenarious based on great historic battles.

Fantastic series overall, highly recommend. Best rpg/strategy blend i've ever seen.

 

Which one is the better Total War game: Rome 2 or Attila?

 

I really do like Attila. The game isn't boring, even in peace times. I haven't actually played Rome 2, but from what I've read and seen, Attila appears to have better gameplay, with the campaign being much more difficult. The game is more of a survival/strategy, and can be quite difficult to get right.

 

Coming at it from the opposite end as Ethrillarr (played R2, haven't played Attila), Rome 2 is a classic example of "a game with a lot of good ideas that fails to execute them properly". Factional politics/civil wars are mostly just annoying, features like satrapies don't actually work particularly well, and the actual battles are pretty bleargh.

In theory, a properly-done RTW remake could have been ludicrously compelling (see: EB, RTR, etc). In practice, on release it was almost unplayable, and the added content was pretty mediocre. Even the Steam workshop doesn't really have anything that turns it into much other than a stackfest.

The game kind of pushed me to the breaking point with Total War; reached the "not buying another one until there's one that interests me and I know it's actually good" level.

 

Cheers for the differing perspectives on the matter. I'll be playing Attila then.

And speaking of Total War: Attila, I saw on the TW Youtube channel that they announced some kind of limited edition of the game, but without all the DLCs. Which doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What is CA even thinking at this point with their business practices? As if making Warriors of Chaos pre-order DLC for Warhammer wasn't suicidal enough.

 

And TW: Warhammer isn't even moddable! Although this isn't the fault of CA, it still sucks. The Limited Edition include the Forefathers DLC, as well as a biography on Attila himself, and a double sided poster with a map and a faction "reference" guide.

As to what their thinking, I've got no idea. The Blood and Burning pack for Attila is complete idiocy, plain and simple. You have to pay and extra US$3 to get some more simple blood effects.

Are they serious? You would have thought that they would stop being such pricks and actually stop doing this, but it's looking like this is going to be the way of the future.

 

Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord gameplay demonstration - PC Gamer Weekender

 

Eh, with all the updates CA has done, Rome 2 has become infinitely more playable and interesting.

^That said Attila is as good as Rome 2 Emperor Edition.
Rome's terrible reputation exists solely because the product at launch was beyond bad.