Civ V was a good game, just not as good as it’s predecessor. If you really want a long and less simplified game of Civ IV, download this mod http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=9301
You mean open source? The only good 4x game IMO is Anacreon 2.
They were never sophisticated because they have all been C&C clones, with the exception of Men of War and Theatre of War.
My cpu is far too old for games like Crysis. Crytek’s Far Cry is the only FPS game that actually improved something, namely the group AI.
Aside from the rare exception everything is ye olde reskinned clones of 90’s games. The few economic games that still get put out are universally dumbed down to nothing. With a few modifications Tropico or Patrician III could have been made into something like David Friedman said he was working on. Instead they reskinned and dumbed down. Not even worth playing for free. There is Startopia, which is great except for the minor detail that they published it before making employees cost wages and then the company folded. It seems like the progressive design always goes belly up while the junk somehow gets pumped out year after year.
I have lots of ideas. I think the problem is that consumers don’t want them. All of my favourite developers folded. Btw, I found this graph on Phil Steinmeyer’s (PopTop Software) site showing sales declining after the 90’s.
As for Civ/Colonization games, I’d say everything went downhill after Alpha Centauri. AC also had the economic policy system that made the most sense- not much, but more than Civ.
What about Achron? They added time travel to the rts genre, increasing its sophistication. Unfortunately, its in beta.
How about Freelancer? It has a helluva lotta features, and if you get the Crossfire mod it becomes absurdly detailed (Despite being made in 2003)
If you want to talk realism, i played the game Capitalism II for PC many years ago. It is a terrible game, but sim city-like.
Sim Ant is probably a more fun game. And that game sucks.
I loved Civilization II for playstation, though. I haven’t played the others in the series.
Theme Park and Theme Hospital were kind of cool games along these lines, too. Probably better if you like running things and seeing how they work out. Though I don’t know if they have aged well. Maybe not.
Capitalism II is far too easy and also dumbed down in a way from the first. I found it rather funny that in that game it tells you exactly what demand is for everything you sell. Multiplayer would probably be good as real competition (unlike AI) would bring the selling prices down to a sensible level. Never knew anyone with the game, though.
Here are my 3 top picks for solo economic/financial games:
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Patrician III
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Tropico
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Free Enterprise
I’d add SimCity-like series. Those are as close as it gets to a not-too-statist, complex non-boring game. All you have to do is imagine that you own all that land and are renting apartment to folk, hence you can do whatever you like with it.
Am I the only person who feels delightfully devious when they step into the role of Rosseau’s “Great Legislator” and gets to develop a whole society? I just had a thought. Does anyone remember Deus Ex the original game? They are coming out with a second one but the first one was really great. Anyways I’m wondering if you can go through the whole first game without killing anyone. Just use the tranq gun.
I know this will shock you, Andrew, but there has already been a second one. This is the third one.
But yes, we all like to forget that the second one happened.
I’v never tried it in Deus Ex, I know its possible to do ‘no-kill’ playthroughs of the Metal Gear games(except for hte first one which didnt have a tranq gun). Although the bosses can be a bit tricky to kill using non-lethal weaponry(Raging Raven is particularly painful).
I’ve got question about Patrician. Is “Patrician III: The Rise of Hanse” addon to original Patrician III or it is sequel?
I’ve never played economic strategies and Rise of Hanse is likely to be my first (as soon as I download it) because of the title. I’ve recently made a report in my german class about Hanse and I really absorbed in this topic.
I read an interview with the designers of the new game, Deux Ex: Human Revolution, that confirmed that you will be able to go through the entire game without killing anyone, which is a big plus for me because I love gaming but I’m pretty terrible at combat.
“Patrician III: Rise of the Hanse” is the English version of the German expansion of Patrician II.
I played SimCity 4 for a while. It is no more a simulation of cities than chess is a simulation of war. The way the game is designed rewards innefficient planning and makes cities comically over-industrialized. An airport is the size of a soccer field. Everything is just ridiculously out of proportion. You may as well play Tropico instead, which is basically the same except much deeper and more challenging, not just a graphically glorified plop-fest.
You mean the real world doesn’t seem like this to you?
Anyway, my turn-based strategy game of choice is Total War. It’s honest about what the state is for. My only realism gripe is that temples, churches, mosques etc increase public order. 
Have you played Jagged Alliance 2 1.13? You play as a mercenary army taking over a country. It essentially demonstrates a “PDA”.
Agree the game felt like a step backwards, it was the first civ game where I felt that I wasted my money on it.
The tactical battles of civ 5 were a fatal mistake, archers cannot shoot at cities from hundreds of kilometers away, the tactical hex battles remind me of ww2 battle games. The sound track was not as good as civ4. They took away religion from the game, whether one likes it or not, religion was key to past civilzations so should have been left there. They had less civilizations to pick from than civ4. The AI was weak. The game slowed down very badly on large maps, much worse than anything ever on civ 4.
I was tempted to get Civ 5(as I was with Civ 4), but I heard it’s a nightmare automating workers, a feature that worked pretty well in Civ 3. Central planning’s not as fun with micromanagement of everything.
I’m pretty sure Civ V had as many civilizations as Civ IV proper(although the expansions to IV added quite a few), and none of the Civ games have had very good AI. .
I just remembered a game called Space Empires V that comes from the MoO family. That game is infinitely better than Civ, especially with some mods.