I had played Civ 1 a long long time ago, but there was no cross-hairs, leaning or grenade button so I got bored fairly quick. as I got older, realized I was fighting 9 year old's with super twitch reflexes, I decided to give another game genre a try. (I still play BFBC2 rarely, though Civ made me realize how little content is in that game).
Anyway, when i get a game I usually go all in, so I got Civ IV BTS. I loved the idea of commanding an empire, not just the combat, but the destiny of that empire. Civ IV gave me that, but, the deeper I got into it, the more I browsed here for strategies, the more I began to despair, because I found the more complex strategies were all about tricks with numbers. Have so many of this by this, and you win, give so many _____ to _____ and you win, get your spreadsheets out run the calculations and you win. Cottage spam, city spam, trade spam, diplo spam, FTW. On the higher difficulties, it was not about building an empire it was about exploiting game mechanics. To me that's not a game, that is a job. (I don't want to sound like I'm hating on everyone's favorite game, I understand that some people just like that kind of stuff, and if the hardest levels are like that on CIV V I'll be the last person to complain, diversity is good for a game's shelf life. i just want to have challenging games without resorting to calculus.) I loved the game on the easier levels, but then there was no excitement or challenge. I hated the combat system. Stacks of doom was annoying and I avoided combat like the plague. The interface was also something I learned to live with but didn't like. Still I played and tried to play it like a civilization strategy game, not a math game. That might say something about my number crunching skills, which are not that great, but playing a game where you have to decide whether or not to build another city so close to a border of another nation and the repercussions it has on your relations with it's leader is so much more the game I want to play than 6 cities by 1000AD or else your toast, or resorting to cottage spam as a tactic, or getting out a grid paper to align your cities. The new game feels more fluid, and that's what I'm looking for. I haven't played more than 20 hours or so but I've loved ever minute so far.
The interface in and of itself is a complete winner. It's clean, not cluttered with every bit of information in the game. I wasn't sure I would like the art deco style, but I do. The Leaders are less cartoonish, which I really like, and the game-play overall is much more natural, although admittedly it needs some tweaking. Big deal. It seems like you have to think a little bit more on your feet than in civ IV. 1upt, the combat system, and the way AI behaves, are great changes I have been waiting for or hoping to see in another strategy game.
I guess Civ was designed on a computer like mine, because aside from 2 extremely minor issues, that are totally acceptable (for me) for a brand new game release, (intro movie and alt-tab functionality, and the intro movie can be disabled via usersettings.ini) the game has been perfect!
Hell I'm even happy that it's a steam release. Steam (digital downloads in general) is one of mankind's greatest inventions. I'm sorry that some people are having problems, but a major new game released to people playing an almost infinite number of different computer setups WILL NOT BE without small hiccups for some, and major headaches for others. Face it, for those with problems, this is your Beta version, be patient, the Alpha is on the way, and it's worth the wait.
Bang on! 
