There is a new game in open Beta available for pre-order on Steam called Endless Space. If you pre-order you get full access to the beta and have influence in how the game is developed (they have a voting system for new features and changes). Due to be released in July.
http://endless-space.amplitude-studios.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/208140/
Don't know why I have never heard of this game before but saw it posted in a Sins thread on the Steam forums.
Wow...I have VERY impressed. The reviews so far have been great and I watched several "Lets Play" videos on You Tube and it was enough for me to give it a try so I pre-ordered.
Just checking it out all of a sudden it was 2 hours later still playing and I had a blast. And it's still in beta. Very polished for a beta.
I think if you are a fan of MOO2 or the GalCiv series you will like this game. It's very much turn based and some of the mechanics certainly remind me of GalCiv and MOO. Combat is a bit different. It's not tactical and reminds me a lot of the GalCiv 2 "movie" showing combat however there are 3 phases of combat and you can play "cards" which are basically boosts to offense or defense you want to do in that phase. So you can have an effect on the outcome but not in a true tactical way. Certainly different. You can also auto-resolve any battle.
Honestly I'm having a lot of fun so far with it and it's not fully cooked yet. Very easy to learn yet has a lot of depth too. Give it a look.
Oh, for Stardock and Frogboy - You HAVE to check out the tutorial for this game. It really is what a tutorial/hint system should be. Basically the first time you do something (like colonize, build ships, combat, etc.) the game pauses and a tutorial screen pops up pointing out everything on the screen, what it does, what it means and what you can do. You can go thru it step by step, dimiss it or turn it off completely. I think something similar would be of great help to FE as you move to that phase.
