Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

Incursion is a roguelike that is heavily based on D&D. It's more about creating and powering up your character than most roguelikes. It has a very complete D&D character system, with over a hundred feats fully implemented, and I'd guess 20ish skills. Somehow the developer found a way to make almost every skill useful in a dungeon crawl too. It also has birth perks that make a very big difference to the character. One of my favorites is clairvoyance, which lets you peak around the nearby dungeon for free at any time. But there are lots, and many are very nice. The religion system is similar to many roguelikes, but I find that it is more fun in incursion because of the way the god granted abilities can complement the already complex characters. The god favor/conduct system is very cool, although last I played, it had a lot of tweaking and bugfixing left to do.

The dungeon is fairly typical roguelike. Probably the coolest unusual feature is all the detail that has gone into non-hostile creatures. You can attempt to trade with and recruit almost all of them. Which is especially nice when they pick something up that you want; you have the option of demanding it or buying from them instead of killing them. I don't think anyone will ever write an NPC system that eliminates annoyance completely, but this one is relatively good.

I'd say if you like complex character design and random dungeon crawls, you'll like this game.

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun is its full name.
It is a game of grand stratagy set in 1836-1920. You choose a nation (literally any nation in the world at that time) and make all thier econiomic, military and political decsions. You accumuate prestige, which is how you win teh game. Basically it its a huge world map with every nation in the world on it.
Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victori..._Under_the_Sun

I think you can find it used on amazon for like $10. Totally worth it.

The downsides:
its real time (but you can pause)
weird popup system of notification
There are a fairly limited number of military units
Nasty "civilized" and "uncivilized" titles to nations(this is to reflect the laguage of the period, I hope)

Up sides:
Play any nation
real historical events
change history
47 separate resources
indepth political and economic systems

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

Sounds interesting, but is this a PC game or board game?
I looked on the wikipedia, yet no pics/screenshots.

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

Alpha Centauri, IMHP the best of the Civ type games, was made by Brian Reynolds, who now runs Big Huge Games. I think there is a conflict between him and Sid, as to who actually owns the right to the game. That said, I don't know if we will ever see another Alpha Centauri game.

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

PC game, but there are no graphics.
ADOM screenshot

Several Incursion screenshots

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

The next big project at Big Huge is a RPG, slated for release in 2009. Maybe then AC2 in 2011? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I'm not sure if a question of rights would figure into it. Both he and Sid co-wrote the game, and there are quite a few other notables who helped shape the design. Ultimately I wonder if it's a question of economics. Sure, people who love the game REALLY love it, but overall I have to wonder how many units it actually moved? I'm guessing that if it really did well we would have seen AC2 long before Civ III, or Rise of Nations...

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

For all those who love NetHack, Rogue, or any version thereof
http://www.thefump.com/lyrics.php?id=93

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

/me insists on hailing Master of Magic again!!

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

I think somebody contacted Firaxis about the rights when they were working on a Civ4 Alpha Centauri mod and they said EA owned them.

Re: Comparing it to Civ 4..
 

I don't know if we are still talking about Dom III, but here is how I "play" it:

I don't really have the self-discipline for multiplayer, so I only play hotseat MP (when I have a friend around).

Otherwise I check the forums now and again. People are always discussing something completely new. The only topics which are repeated are newbie problems (like how does the game work, how do I avoid insta-death, etc...) and are fun to read because everyone is nice and has some good, often new tips, or people asking if they should buy Dominions. If I see an interesting strategy/unit/NEW PATCH(should I say expansion?) I rush to my game and try it.

Sometimes I will think of a new nation/spell/item/unit/strategy I want to play with, so I go to my game to try that. And I haven't even found time for mods yet.

...I think Dom III is worth it.