The best 4X game I've ever played is called "business". It's incredibly deep and complex, never ceases to surprise me, has unbelievably versatile multi-player options, and requires constant creativity to come up with winning strategies. One of the great features of this game is that the points earned in-game can be spent in any shop in exchange for goods and services. For example, you could earn £5000 points in-game and, after paying tax (one of the more annoying features - who asked for that?) you can spend that at the Apple Store to buy a spanking new computer. How cool is that?
There are all sorts of scenarios available, and depending on your starting resources and chosen strategy the game can provide a vastly different feel. It's really good, I recommend it.
One big downside compared to traditional 4X games, though, is you're never really in control of anything. So if you really crave that sense of control that you get from having a well-organised empire and steamrolling over your opposition in the controlled environment of Civ-like games then you will want to go back to the traditional computer-based versions from time to time.
"£5000 points in-game and, after paying tax (one of the more annoying features - who asked for that?)"
If you had spent some time playing Civilization, you would know that taxes allow your country to have things like roads, an army, public education, and many other things that put together create the conditions for you to play "business" :)
In Civ IV though, it's possible to get enough great merchants and then run at 0% tax rate in some kind of scientific utopia, which I presume is where silicon valley libertarians got their ideas from.
There are all sorts of scenarios available, and depending on your starting resources and chosen strategy the game can provide a vastly different feel. It's really good, I recommend it.
One big downside compared to traditional 4X games, though, is you're never really in control of anything. So if you really crave that sense of control that you get from having a well-organised empire and steamrolling over your opposition in the controlled environment of Civ-like games then you will want to go back to the traditional computer-based versions from time to time.