Comparing it to Civ 4..

[CUnknown]

Interesting, you didn't like Alpha Centauri, solops? I'd like to chime in and say that I agree it's the best Civ-game out there. The game itself was great, certainly, but what made it really shine to me, anyway, was the backstory and the basic sci-fi concept of it.

I know it sounds odd to praise a game's "backstory", but you can tell that they really put a lot of work in Alpha's backstory, voice acting, characters, etc. They showed a lot of knowledge of actual and near-future scientific advances, intertwining that with sci-fi elements to make a very belivable tech tree for humanity's next 200 years or so (assuming we don't kill ourselves, which is a big caveat). The movies for the wonders were superb, and were emotionally moving at times (anyone remember the one for 'Self-Aware Colony'?).

Basically, I think the game moves beyond merely a "game" and progresses to something that really has to be considered a work of art. In the same way, I think that Dominions in a sense can also be considered to be more than just a game -- it's also a great compilation of humanity's myths across cultures. You can learn a lot from playing both games, imo.