You may have heard of a game called Galactic Civilizations II. If not, you’re about to. Lucky you!

GalCiv II is this monstrously complex and deeply involving strategy game from Stardock that has you shepherding a  race into colonizing the galaxy and hopefully becoming the dominant race in space. It’s a lot like Civilization, but set in the void instead of on terra firma. You build colonies, encounter anomalies, seek out new life and new civilizations, boldy go … well, you get the idea. Plus, you can design your own ships!

What makes the game truly exceptional are the many ways you can win, and the many, many ways you can go about winning in those ways. Instead of elaborating, I’m just going to direct you here and here. These are long blog entries detailing two long games of GalCiv II, the first using its first expansion, Dark Avatar, and the second using its most recent expansion, Twilight of the Arnor.

In the former game the writer decided to take on the universe with military might, only to desperately pursue a different path as doom closed in. The latter game is still in progress, with our intrepid blogger (a writer for PC Gamer) attempting a cultural victory, with no warships or direct attacks of any kind. It’s going to be fun to see how this game turns out. Fun for me, anyway.

Oh, and the races he plays as are his own custom creations — they look like rabbits.

It isn’t a free game, but I think it’s cool. So check these blog entires out (beware some swears), and the game’s demo if you’re so inclined.

(Image from GalCiv2.com)