Rating: 
Summary: Civ III?
Review: Having played more games of Civ II than I care to remember, I was really looking forward to this game. Initially I had thought it was just more of the same and I should have saved my money and kept playing Civ II. Dozens of games later I can honestly say this game was well worth the 49$ I had paid and at the current price of 19.99$ it's a real deal. The game isn't a departure from Civ II in anyway and may fall short of other's expectations when they are anticipating Civ III but with any amount of game play they will be pleased. Is it the same game? Basically yes. Are there THAT many improvements? No. Is it better than Civ II? Yes. Just the little things like unit customization, new techs, new races, improved network play, etc. make it worth it in my book. I've had the game since it was released and still play on occasion and most likely will still play a year from now. If you approach this game not expecting it to be a huge breakthrough in the Civ series, then you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: It takes some time....
Review: Alpha Centauri was not easy transition. While AC plays much like Civ II, I found the techs "alien" and the topography confusing. The whole "alien life form" story line does not add much to gameplay. The aliens are much like barbarians in earlier versions of Civ. The "fungus" is also just a large clean-up task.The game does incorporate changes that make management a bit easier. The AI is not bad, but it makes life difficult by cheating... not by playing smarter. The random map generator offers a fair amount of replayability. Unless you like huge, drawn-out affairs, stay away from the huge maps. This can turn into a management nightmare, even with the automated assistants. I didn't find the factions very balanced. Deidra and the "Tree Huggers" are the easiest to win with. It's much harder with Morgan, Yang or Miriam. Swaping techs and making alliances does make the game more winnable. It took me some time to warm up to AC. It improves on Civ II, but confuses gameplay with the esoteric technology tree. If you enjoyed Civ II, AC is a easy purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific game, but software problems?
Review: The gameplay is really good with a terrific feature for playing that will walk you through features rather than having to read the entire manual to play it the first time. When you start playing over time, it gets really addictive, but things slow down as the game advances. The pieces move like they are on drugs, really sloooow. Unless you have a terrific system to play it on it will slow down as you advance. I have also had two separate lockups in a very advanced stage of play that caused me to have to start over when it reached a stardate even from a stored game, really frustrating when you have spent weeks getting it to that point! Still really worth buying, maybe the lockups were a corrupted copy
Rating: 
Summary: IT IS DA BOMB
Review: As a kid, this game is great. It has 7 factions, or groups, all with different outlooks on the planet they crashed on. The challenge at the beginning is contacting the other factions. My bro has already lost a unit to mind worms (However, that unit was damaged). There is one other annoying part. Whenever you make a gigantic leap in the progress of your faction, this little screen comes up with a weird image on it. I haven't played Civ 2 yet, so maybe it's good if you haven't played its predessors. One more thing. Don't expect to become INSTANTLY dominant.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing and the cover wasn't explanitory
Review: Awful! A real disapointment. This game is confusing and boring much like civilization 2. The game cover made it sound much more exciting than it really was. I bought it a while ago from Rinho and it was bran new then. I was sooo dissapointed. It takes forever to play, the battles are cheesy and a waste of time. If you are considering buying this game, I reccomend you try it before you buy it. Belive me it's not even worth $5. I've always been dissapointed with Sid Meier's games. So I think I'll stop trying them. If your considering this game, try Imperium Galactica 2. It's awsome. No comparison. I hope you found this reveiw helpful.
Rating:
Summary: A great game
Review: I really enjoy this game. There are seven fractions that all broke up when they landed on the planet. You must choose to represent one. There are several changes that this game made along with improvement, A.) There is now a concel that all the countries make up. When issues arive they all go to meet on the issue. You can run for planetary governew where you are essianly the leader of union. I really enjoy this and it opens up the option for a diplomatic victory. B.) You now have boarders. This is simple where your city limits are. An improvement for a possible AC2 would be that you can move the boarders by notation and not but building a city. The one thing I did not like about this game was the tech tree. I never felt like I was in charge. Only having seven diffrent fractions, (countries) may seem like a down fall but if you stick with one fraction you will become bitter rivals with other fractions. I would highly recommend this game. There is the enivitable question of wiether it is better than Civ2. That of course is tough compition but considering that Civ2 came out a few years ago AC was able to update some parts. I think AC has a slight egde but CIV2 was more impressive for its time.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've seen from Sid!
Review: I am a long time fan of Sid Meier's games since the moment I played the first Civilization in 1991. From then on, I mostly bought all of Sid's games. I recently got Alpha Centauri and man is it incredible. The gameplay is good, the graphics are great, and overall the game is excellent. The only thing I don't like about the game is that I finshed in two days and now there is nothing more to discover about the game. Other than that, I loved this one from Sid. If you have played any of the other Civs or even any other game from Sid Meier, you will love this one!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent concept, but not smooth enough
Review: The game is Civ2 in a new world (so I guess we could also call it Civ2: After our rocket landed). The interface is pretty much the same, if we neglect optical changes. From 30 nations we got 7 factions, which are specialized (in Civ2 there were no special abilities), so you have to know from the beginning, to which type you are most suited. Automation is by my opinion not very helpful, the most helpful thing is building queue, which enables you to forget many smaller cities until they grow to size 4 or 5 (then you must check every such city or bigger ones regularly, if you want to make enough progress). Great bonuses can be won from the seas (not usable in Civ2) and City improvements and Wonders are little more numerous than in Civ2. The whole scene is almost too dark and morbid (Alpha Centauri is a sun, therefore a planet could at least have a little light!), it runs very slowly (units travel as they would take sedatives all time) and the diplomacy is very limited (as is perhaps in real life, but every faction leader is tremendously aggressive). Therefore best start for you is even more essential than in Civ2, if you fall back at the beginning, it will be very hard for you to gain back what you missed. The terrain is extremely unpleasant and it can also be of great importance, where you land. I had best experience with the science faction (Zakharov), because I was able to overcome my opponents through technology. The game is very uneven from the beginning (if you don't get a good draw, you are soon in trouble) and it could run much faster. That took away one star for her. Otherwise - if you like Civ2 and if you don't mind too much about this lacks, it's no question - buy it. If you expect another revolution form Sid, lean back, play another Civ 2 and wait for part 3.
Rating:
Summary: I CAN'T STOP PLAYING
Review: Being a huge sci-fi fan, I find this game to be the best thing I've ever played on a computer. There are so many ways to set AC up that you really can enjoy unlimited playability. Between the many game setting choices, the design workshop (where the real fun can be had), faction choices and military/sociolgical choices, this game will keep you interested for quite some time. The thrill of battle, building colonies up with improvements and the race to discover the next technological breakthrough will have you feeling like an Emperor in a matter of hours. I've owned the game for well over a year, and still haven't grown tired of it. If you like strategy games, then you NEED to own Alpha Centauri.
Rating: 
Summary: Civilization goes wrong
Review: Sid Meier is a true artist in the realm of software, but with each new addition to the Civilization family the games become more oriented toward conflict and less fun to play. In AC the Believers will appear on your borders within the first 50 turns and you will never really be at peace again. Forget about the fun of managing a nation: this is a non-stop Darwinian struggle to keep your head above water. (Some players might like this, but I find it tedious.) There's no point in trying to negotiate with other factions because they'll just turn right around and violate your territory or declare war. Then after you have spent decades trying to build up your industry, when your output reaches a certain level the planet itself will being to attack you with an inexhaustible supply of mindworms. *Every* game of AC is a race to achieve the victory conditions before the planet itself defeats you, and there's not much sense of satisfaction in that. Add to this the fact that the game runs unbearably slowly. You will spend more time watching units go plod-plod-plod across the screen than you will playing. I really wanted to like this game, but after a while its defeatist atmosphere and tedious play just got too wearisome. Let's hope that in his next game Side remembers that growing an empire is more fun and challenging than beating one.
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