When I was but a whee boy a decade or so ago I had no consoles to speak of. My first major console I ever owned was an Xbox. However, I loved PC games. Especially games of the 4x genre. I would while away days of my life play Star Trek: Birth of the Federation, Star Wars: Rebellion, and Master of Orion III. Looking back these weren't the most stellar examples of their genre but I loved them. Recently I've rediscovered my love of that style of game but I've noticed a disturbing situation. The few games in the 4x style that are made today are generally of a high quality (Sins of a Solar Empire, Sword of the Stars, and Civilization) but they're made by smaller developers and get almost no major recognition.

While I know that consoles are the dominant money makers, and people love to shoot things from the first person, it breaks my heart to see an entire genre of games fade into obscurity. I would personally give my eye teeth for a big budget, well made, Master of Orion game. So, while I sit here and wait for Kerberus to patch Sword of the Stars II into a playable state am I the only one?

I'm 100% with you. Sins of a Solar Empire is great, but if someone pumped AAA money into a game like that today... Civ V has some pretty great production values, but it's not in space.

@Fripplebubby: Indeed. While I love stabbing other civilizations with sharp objects it's infinitely better when I can bombard some dirty aliens from orbit with explosives. My incredibly fan boy dream would be a 4x game set in the Mass Effect universe but I somehow doubt that will be happening.

@CenturionCajun: Oh man, a Mass Effect 4X would be rad! They've already got all the archetypes they need: a mercantile race, they have a race of machines, they have a hive minded race, scientific societies, militaristic societies, fast breeders, diplomats. They would obviously have to screw around with the timeline to make it work, but Civilization already does that with the real world, so I think it would be doable.

Cause they're too haaard.