Sins or GalCiv 2...

Well Gal Civ 2 takes a lot of time if you want to not rush troop transports into the enemy's homeworld while they build conoly ships (Only works for Small/medium maps really or it takes to long to get to their planet)

Gal Civ 2 takes a while to do anyway, the AI is the smartest AI in any game i have ever played and will completely destroy you without cheating in any way.

Sins has not got as much depth as Gal Civ 2, the research tree is not as big, the diplomacy is plainly terrible in how it works, but the combat is better and in an RTS so it wont take as much time as Gal Civ 2.

You choice but Sins will not take as much time to play and Gal Civ 2 can takes days to finish.

If you like to play online against human players - take sins

It seems GalCiv may cater to your casual gaming style a little more. Sins would do so also, but only in single player. You may find multiplayer to be extremely frustrating if you just want a casual gaming experience.

GalCiv 2 is a bit hollow... Once you get going with it, there really aren't any surprises. This faction will hate you, ths one will like you. With the release of the Twighlight of the Arnor expansion it's changing alot. Not only do the races get their own tech trees making each one play entirely different (for a while...), they are also supposed to release some modding tools, which will open up the game and allow players to make it a little deeper. The best part is the ship designer... whoever thought of that is a genius and has my vote for "Rocket Scientist of the Year"... I usually lose a good hour or two a game just playing with that. It's more suited to the Civ type player, building your empire and all. Combat happens because others in the universe would like that planet you want too, but the game isn't about combat. It's not a bad system, but really... I can hardly think two alien factions would come together in space and start with "fire?, why no, after you..." and proceed to alternate rounds until one guys ships were gone. This is where the combat in Sins excels IYAM.

Sins is more about the ships and the battles, with the empire building in the background. The economy and diplomacy are very simplified, and the big battle for territory is the main event. To that end, each race is different, plays different with different weapons types and strategies. Just be ready to wade through acres of "balance" issues in the forums. If you ever wanted to mod a game, Sins is pretty straight forward. I play single player, and mod certain aspects of the game like the pirates... I like for them to be in the game, but not visiting me every 3 minutes.

Multi-player is a big thing too. Sins has it, GalCiv2 doesn't. Makes no difference to me, as I don't like multi-player much at all, but it is a far different game online than off.

They are both decent games, and both worth the investment. It seems to me that the strengths of one are the weaknesses of the other. If you're going to get GalCiv2, get a combo pack with the earlier expansions, then get the Twighlight pack when it comes out.

T

The GalCiv Ship Designer is more than worth the price of admission right there, and that would tip the balance in favour of GalCiv II. You owe it to yourself to try out ship design.

Then, save up the money for Sins, as it's not the most expensive game on the shelf by any means. The Sins space battles are not necessarily foregone conclusions, and they can get very, very large which is fun.

My friend above is right, where one is strong, the other is weak, and vice versa. Other war-RTS games to look out for are Supreme Commander (with Forged Alliance) and Company Of Heroes, which I think are both tremendous games for the money. For the ultimate in Empire Building, I would go with Civilization IV with Beyond The Sword, or maybe Rome Total War or Medieval Total War (if they ever get the Gold Edition fixed).

And Sins doesn't use ugly green font.

I'd say it really depends on how much "action" you want. Some of the later and larger battles in Sins are quite fun to watch and micromanage. However, if what you really want to do is build a rich, deep civilization where things like diplomacy are stressed a bit more, GalCiv is probably more to your liking.

-- Retro

I recommend looking around the Gal Civ 2 forums as well, lots of information there and in the AAR section some threads tell you what happened in their game which would tell you a bit about how good the game is when it comes to AI.

GalCiv2 is only $9.90 at Gogamer.com for the next few days, so you can get it on the cheap (this is the original game, so it doesn't include the Dark Avatar expansion):

Linky for GalCiv2 on the cheap!

-HM

I dont think you should buy the first Gal Civ 2, it was greatly improved in Dark Avatar and with Twilght of Arnor coming out on the 23rd of April (6 days left) it will change the game so much for the better, so wait for it i say and buy the complete pack from the site.

I've never played GCII but am interested in the latest expansion of it. Do I need the base GCII before I can install the expansion, or is it standalone?

I'm guessing it's standalone because Stardock is too smart to do something like that wrong based on how they released Sins, but I wanted to ask before I purchased it.

Eeek. Oh no! I'm a casual gamer now? I've been playing games for ever... I just don't have as much time as I did as a teenager. But I'm a veteran of older strategy games. I've played Total War, and I didn't like the feel of it. What I like the most about GC2 is that when I colonize a new planet, there's things the planet needs to survive. Not just a new Town Hall and a Burrow for my peons. I actually have to take care of the people. I like that.

When I tried GC2, the depth felt like a fun thing to learn, but it also felt kind of daunting at the same time. In Sins, it felt much easier to learn, and kept some of that new colony feel. And I LOVE multiplayer, for sure. I wonder though if I just suck at Sins entirely, since I read that the 90 minutes is more than enough to beat one of those levels... By the time the time limit hit me, I had like 4 planets... a fleet of like 25 ships and just started bugging my opponents fringe worlds...

Galciv2 is moo3 done right. Sins is more of an rts than an empire game, although if you've got the hardware, you can have one.

I'm not sure how much of an upgrade you'll need, but when you get in the 100 planet range, you can really stall out and end up in a brutal slugfest with the ai to continue your conquest. It's severely limited in terms of infrastructure and technology improvements compared to galciv2 though, very combat oriented.

id go with sins - more fast-paced and the battles are interesting.
in galciv2, i was always so excited to build my own ships - which is plenty of fun - but i very rarely got to use them. i rushed with transports to te enemy planets - who happened to have no space defenses. i think i may have seen 2-3 fleet battles - and ive played it a lot. not to say thats its a bad game by any means - its awesome. it just comes down to whether you want combat or empire micromanagin/building. Personally, i prefer the combat and sins.

Buy GalCiv II and be sure you get at LEAST the first expansion. The second upcoming (this month) expansion is gonna be fucking nuts as well so buy it too. That game is much deeper than Sins and will provide you with more time sink. GalCiv II becomes exponentially more exciting with each expansion. The difference between vanilla and Dark Avatar blew my mind, and Twilight of Arnor is adding even more stuff than they did in Dark Avatar.

Sins is an excellent game, but it sounds like you are looking for something more like GalCiv. Sins is also in its initial growing pains, come back in 3 or 4 months, and it'll be just as top-rate as GalCiv quality/balance-wise. Be advised that there is no multiplayer in Galciv II.

You can't really lose, though, going one way or the other. It's one of the best decisions you'll ever have to make.

I love GalCiv II but I think I made a small mistake when I got Sins.... Because I have a GeoForce 5200 with 256megs, I forgot why I was scared to get it the first time. Well I loaded it and it doesn't work right. I get only half a page distorted view. Can't get a 6600 because I only have 200 watt power supply. I guess I was hoping that having 256 instead of 128 might make up for it not being a 6600. If anyone has any Ideas I am eager to listen...

I agree with this 99.9%, and only because of one excitable word that I also basically agree with

Seriously, I own both. I play each when I'm in certain moods, and it's very true where it's being said here that one has strengths where the other possesses weaknesses. But also, I can along with others attest to the scale of the improvements in patches/expansions.

GCII doesn't have MP, but the AI is sooo good you won't be able to tell. The game still does things to me I would only expect from another human, and can walk all over me without needing any sort of cheating. Can't put a $$ figure to that in my eyes. However.. other side of the coin, in terms of making soup Sins has only just come to boil and I still see chefs working on it. I actually believe both games are going to continue on and improve far beyond their vanilla versions.

My advice, get GCII:Dark Avatar (because of the comments you made about liking the building part, I'm not so different) and then perhaps save up for SoSE, it sounds as if GCII would suit you just a little more than Sins but both are stellar games and I don't know which I'd part with if I had to make a choice...

The model number really indicates different chipsets, which are going to have different capabilities.. and perhaps in this case it's going to hold you back, but I'd check all drivers are up to date or even the download itself for them wasn't corrupted. I'm running Sins on a GF 5200 with only 128 of RAM, mind you it's on a P4 3.06 with a gig of system ram.. but it runs pretty good if not ultra fast, which tells me you should probably be able to run it also unless there is something physically wrong with the card itself.

Well, if you look here, http://totalgaming.stardock.com/games/?id=gc2ta , you will see that you need GC2: dark avatar to run TA. And DA requires GC2. The individual price at the Stardock store https://store.stardock.com/browse/strategy are:

GC2: 19.95$

GC2:DA : 29.95$

GC2:TA : 29.95$

and the ultimate GC2 bundle pack: 59.95$

Basicaly, if you want to play TA and you don't have GC2, it will be more useful to purchase the ultimate bundle pack since it will be the lest costly. By it will be only a digital download.

Are you sure those aren't integrated versions?

I bought a copy of GC2 at a local games store, then later GC2:DA but my copy of Dark Avatar was a complete one... I've never seen just the expansion on the shelves personally.

Galciv 2

Although I wish oneday for a GalCiv2 to have ships and combat like Sins. DREAM.

GC2:gold containt GC2:DL (the base game) and GC2:DA (the first expansion). The only versions available in retail stores are GC2:DL and GC2:gold.

And you can't play DA if you don't have GC2:DL.

I dunno I've seen elsewhere this latest one being billed as a standalone expansion.

I'm going to bet the latest release is standalone after all.

You could just do what I did and buy both...

They're both different types of games at the core, and suit a different mood of play.

If you can wait though, wait till the expansions are out and you can purchase a combined pack with everything. Patches always improve things too. That's what I did with Oblivion, and I'm the happier for it.

I liked Sword of the Stars too, as that is yet another different type of game than either GC2 or SoaSE. SotS is a mature game, I think you can get the whole thing together.

If they decide to release Twilight in the stores, I expect it will be released as a bundle with GalCiv2 and Dark Avatar. I highly doubt it will be standalone, and I also doubt they will release it in stores as just an expansion.

-HM

It isn't. TA requires both DL and DA, and it's only available direct at present (we don't currently have any plans to take it to retail). So as Peace Phoenix says, if you have nothing at all and want to get up to the very latest, the ultimate bundle is the cheapest way.