Gal Civ 2 Ultimate Edition - worth buying in sale?

Yes it is worth it. There are several mods that will update the graphics and the core game is still good.

I still find myself looking up from a game of GalCiv to see the sun rising, sneaking in to bed, and then when my wife stirs, pretending that I am just getting up and then having to pretend that I'm not tired all day. 

It's full of "just one more turn" goodness.

Best 4x game since Civ 1 IMO. Never played the campaigns but the sandbox mode is perfection. You can also d/l quite a few mods and profile pics for custion races/ships etc. Great game.

BTW you might beable to find the hardcopy alot cheaper if you look on Amazon, i got mine brand new for £9.00 (about $14) a couple years back.

How about Sins of a Solar Empire? That's also in the sale and both games appear to be very highly rated!

They both seem to be 4x games and I'm wondering which is better?

@ Thizzbaby, thanks for the Amazon tip but I live in the middle of nowhere in China, so it's safer to go with digital download!

Neither are better than the other.

GalCiv2 is a TBS in the veins of Civ and MOO

Sins is technically an RTS but is much slower then your usual RTS so you get more out of a game.

If you like strategy games you will like both. I know I do. I have both.

I've read a bit more and I think I'm more inclined to go with GC2 because Sins seems to be more designed for multiplayer and RTS like you said. I love empire building games like the Civ series, so GC2 sounds more up my street! I found the most popular mods too to update the graphics.

I'll just do a bit more reading and then I'll prob go for GC2!

Are there any mods that are highly recomended for GalCiv? I haven't played with any yet.

I've been looking to buy the expansions (already have the base game, bought it when it came out), but Impulse doesn't offer them separately. I wonder if the only way to get them is by buying the bundle, and essentially purchasing the same game twice.

@fadedC - For GalCiv2 I recommend the high resolution mod as it increases the graphics nicely though that is mostly a graphical mod

@Mivo - You should be able to. In fact here it is http://www.impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-TGN-W263

I would recommend it myself, its an AWESOME game.

What do you want with your 4x?

If you want separate tactical / strategic battles with ship design: Sword of the Stars.
If your main concern is the strategic battle and planet management (and a campaign): Galciv II.
If your main preference is RTS with a 4x flavor: Sins of a solar empire.

I've treid all 3, spent quite a bit of time and all 3, and they are all good games - the question of which is best answered by what you want in your game.

Personally I have a strong preference for designing ships and fighting the tactical battles manually. As such, Sword of the Stars is probably my favourite choice. However, GalCiv II is much better in other areas.

Bottom line, direct answer: If you want a 4x space game, Gal Civ II is worth it.

Thank you! I have no idea why this didn't come up when I searched for it a couple of weeks ago, on two separate occasions. It only displayed the Ultimate edition. Appreciate it.

+1 t the purchase

If you enjoyed the base game, I would highly recomend the expansions. Whichever one adds race specific techs in particular really adds alot to the flavor of each race, and made me want to play each race once to see what their deal was.

It was the second one, the first expansion gave the view from the Dengi in a bad guy pov,

Definitely get GC2. It was the second TBS I ever owned, after GC1, and I've loved every minute of it. Also download my Metroid Mod when I'm done with it!

You can get "GalCiv2: Endless Universe" for like 10$ on Amazon. It's the same GalCiv2 with both expansions.

Definetely worth buying, my second favorite space 4x (after Master Of Orion 2)

If this hasn't been stated enough already, Gal Civ 2 is worth the purchase. It's a fantastic 4X strategy game, a classic in the industry (imo), and a game that every true gamer should have played.

No thanks, I'd rather play Sword of the Stars than micro-manage every aspect of my civilization.  I've played GalCivII UE, and I can't stand the sheer minutiae involved in leading an empire.  Planetary governors should be able to develop worlds without any input from me, since that's way below my pay grade as supreme executive dictator-for-life of a galactic civilization.  I should be supervising the expansion of territory and the crushing of my race's enemies, not making sure some world has enough farms.

To each their own.

Though I completely agree with you that GC2 is a boring slog through mundane and uninteresting game mechanics.  Oh it was fun for me until I finished the learning curve (which isn't that steep), after that I had to play various 'challenges' of my own design because otherwise the game was too easy and boring (well it was still often boring anyway).

Though others disagree, that's what makes the world go round, plenty of decent space 4xs for us to chose from over the past ~5 years.

Totally worth it.

GalCiv 2 is the reason I'm here. I played Elemental at a friends PC (until he got pissed off with me hogging the PC) and was disappointed with it. However, this game is from the people who brought us GalCiv 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire, and I hope that Stardock will take a leaf or two from GalCiv 2.

It's epic. Totally Epic gameplay.

Once people compare Elemental favourably to GalCiv 2 I will buy the game. And the expansions.

Um...

Some 'people' (though they are usually referred to by a word which begins with the letter 'f') already are.  Though mostly along the lines of 'it's not as bad as GC2 was when it was released...

Just played some tonight.. and the economy baffles me.  I haven't played in a while and I can't figure out why my economy tanked.  Do I just colonize a bunch of planets to prevent my neighbors from grabing them and then do nothing with them to keep my economy from crashing.  Ugh.

Galciv's economy is definitely counterintuitive. I've read the manual, studied changes based on my decisions and read detailed designers notes on how it works and I'm still not sure I really understand everything. In terms of keeping your economy from completely tanking though I find the trick is keeping a reasonably high population on your planets and having lots of trade routes. I often turn my home planet into an economic capital with lots of population and income boosting buildings too, unless I find a planet who's resource tiles are clearly better suited.

Galciv 2 is why I've stood by Stardock despite Elemental, and will pre-order GalCiv3.

In fact, I am thinking of ways that Brad could implement Elemental features to improve GalCiv3 in 2012-3.

(reading by Brad's posts, it looks like GCIII is going to be what comes after Elemental now, part of the fallout from the launch)