About Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Going under the banner 'Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri', this game had little or no direct input from Sid. It was instead handled by Brian Reynolds and Firaxis Studios.
It is a continuation from Meier's meisterwerk Civilization II, picking up from where that game left off with a colony ship from earth being sent to Alpha Centauri. So it is, ostensibly, 'Civ... but in space!'.
This is a sweeping statement, but AC borrows very heavily from Civ II, hardly touching the game mechanics (why mess with perfection? some would say). Little has been added save a custom unit workshop (as seen in many strategy titles) and automated governance for colonies.
However the new factions are very well balanced and the future technologies believable and genuinely interesting. This game may not do much new, but it copies an old master with style and panache, while cleaning up a few of it's predecessor's rough edges.