Zombie69 said:This must be why for me this is the best game in the series. I love strategy, and couldn't care less for sims or RPGs. A good game is a game that forces me to think, period.
Well, good for you. You are lucky that the developers' vision about how civ should look like matches your taste.
I am unfortunately not so lucky. I always loved the civ series because it was such a good mixture between strategy, empire building and God games.
Let me paraphrase you: a god game is one that is fun, period. I too like a challenge, and even though I'm a builder, I ocasionally do my warmongering. I like a game that forces me to think, but I don't like a game that forces me to work. I want to enjoy the few spare hours I have, I want to relax, I want to have fun with my wife (yes, she plays with me) and for this I want to enjoy every moment of my game; I don't want to work hard 5-6 hours in order to be happy for 2 minutes with the final victory. I need some rewards for my accomplishments during the game, not just at the end. I'm not saying there aren't any rewards, but there are 10 times less than civ2 had.
In civ4 you choose a final goal (conquest, UN, whatever) and then you work toward this goal. There are no intermediary checkpoints, moments in which you stop and enjoy what you've accomplished. This is why some people find it "boring": because the "one more turn" feeling is gone; ok, not gone, but faded. There are no immediate goals to enjoy. The small projects that were so rewarding in previous civ games and were the basis of the one more turn feeling are of much less importance, they are just small pieces in the big, primary goal, the final win against the AI.
The little joys and tiny rewards are gone, the God-like feeling is gone, and we have instead only more strategy. Good for some, disappointing for a good part of the civ series' fans.