Hum contrary to most, I'm in no hurry for Civ 6 and adopted a "wait and see" approach, the 4x i'm most looking forward to is Endless Space 2 <3
Then again i'm the kind of person who finds civ games unplayable without mods like caveman 2 cosmos/sage of man/nights, like seriously they reduced the number of techs in civ 6, how is that even possible?!?
Anyways on to 4x ive played in the last 6 months:
-Civ 5 with mods: have been toying with mods, have yet to find one that equals caveman 2 cosmos for me and the one i found that adds features like order and crime, i find mostly annoying (what? one of my cities has outright rebelled and seceded cos my crime was too high? What? TWO of my cities have seceded cos my order is too high? Now i gotta conquer them? eughhhhh) so the search is on.
-Fallen enchantress: been toying with mods, overall whilst i wished this game had an additional expansion to beef up unit customization options, this is still a 4x i greatly enjoy
-Master of Orion: massive disappointment, i can't believe another forumite here not only enjoyed it, but RECOMMENDS it.
Goddamnit guys, don't settle for mediocrity just because of fancy graphics!
-Played Beyond earth with echoes of earth mod which makes game far more interesting and i like the rp aspect of how you deal with earth (this mod places a bigger emphasis on storyline then the original where "fate of the earth" is something you resolve at the very end of the game once you have high affinity, not in this!). To give an example, i built an optional wonder that allowed me to reestablish contact with earth (earth stays in touch with you during your first 50 turns before circumstances prevent them from continuing to do so) and continued to embark on projects and questlines afterwards just for the rp and story aspect. Overall i enjoyed this more then i did my civ 5 game (heresy!), it's still no alpha centauri but modders have done a good job salvaging this game,
-Distant worlds:
Played a game of this recently, i love to relax by just watching my many thousands upon thousands of ships just populate my empire like some sort of blood cells. Nothing says prosperity by seeing the massive activity going on in your empire, gives you a true feeling of life <3
-Galactic civ 3:
I'll have to catch up on this, haven't really played it since launch and honestly all of the dlc for it seems to be mediocre for my tastes, but ultimately i play gal civ for the ship designer system anyways.
-Pandora: it's allright'. Feeling like a civ mod isn't an inaccurate description, even if it does do have major divergences. I haven't touched it in a while and haven't felt the need to, maybe if i hear of a big mod it might tempt me back.
-Endless legend: i need to get back into it, probably will do when all the expansions are on sale at the future but for now it's its space cousin im interested in.