I considered the changes in V risky and they wanted to change the paradigm in some features that were carved in stone like sacred law. I respected it and to me they were perfectly functional and fun.

I liked the art direction, liked the interface, the change to hexagons and the one unit for tile. It is said that it is problematic depending the map and the pathfinding but in previous versions the stacking was also the origin of other problems as well. As players we use to make dissections and we give more importance to the negative, indeed.

About Beyond Earth, never played it, but what I watched about it is just an Alpha Centauri wannabe. It was impossible not to make comparisons, and in my point and view, they didn' t were close to its spiritual predecessor.
It was not horrible, I'd like to play it deeply, and maybe with the expansion it was much more complete, but Alpha Centauri is Alpha Centauri.

I remember Civ 2 having that Fantastic Worlds expansion, which added many science fiction and fantasy scenarios. Like there's on that takes place on Midgard; there's an advance that obsoletes basically everything (without providing replacements) and automatically spreads to other civilizations the next turn. There's one where aliens are invading Earth. There's one based on Jules Verne, which is so full of scripted events that it uses up nearly all the space allotted for them. I remember one being in a future Earth, but the environment has basically been destroyed. And there's one on Mars; I've read that the only reason there's water at the start is that the AI would literally take forever to decide on a move after a while (as in, the game would hang forever) otherwise.

Civilization 6 uses Red Shell to collect information. Per several Steam reviews, the EULA states the following about what data is collected:

"The information we collect may include personal information such as your first and/or last name, e-mail address, phone number, photo, mailing address, geolocation, or payment information. In addition, we may collect your age, gender, date of birth, zip code, hardware configuration, console ID, software products played, survey data, purchases, IP address and the systems you have played on. We may combine the information with your personal information and across other computers or devices that you may use."

Additionally on top of the Steam Launcher being required, the game currently requires you to login with the 2k Launcher. Per a review from July 2022, the game ran with no issues until the 2k Launcher went from being optional to mandatory. It doesn't play as well now. Other reviews state that the 2k Launcher being mandatory has broken the game for them.

A review from November 2022 cites that the game is opening up at least 10 data connections just to transmit your personal data.

I'm on a laptop that meets the minimum requirements but not the recommended. I need a cooling pad just to play games that are not opening up a bunch of data connections to transmit my personal data. Even if I was totally okay with the require launchers (DRM) and all the data collection going on here, it is going to contribute to the fact that Civilization 6 isn't going to run well on my computer.

If a game isn't going to run well on my computer all other issues are moot (even if those issues are why it won't run well), I won't touch it.

Thanks for bringing this to the conversation. I had the CD of Civilization II, but I never got the expansion. I really would like to, one day. Also, I cut my teeth with the original game, but Civ II was a wonderful experience.
I could see how many would prefer an hexagonal grid and the lack of stacking. It was good either way for me: When someone complained about the "stacks of doom", they seemed to be forgetting that in a game where production was important, they had allowed their rival civilization to create a massive army for which they had no response. And yes, you can pack 38 divisions around a city in real life, and overwhelming defenses with a massive attack is a thing as well. My worries about Civ 5 was more that I could not find a "spark" of originality or soul or however you want to name it, unlike it had happened up to Civ4 (and with Civ4, scenarios and derivations helped to its longevity, up to the present day).

(Edit: I do not say that such soul was not there, only that I could not find it)

There were actually 3 expansions IIRC:
* The first one added some historical scenarios, as well as adding new engine features to support them (notably, rules.txt can be loaded from the scenario's folder, allowing customized units and other rules, and I believe the whole event scripting system)
* The second one is Fantastic Worlds. It added science fiction and fantasy scenarios. and increased the space available for event scripting (which some of the included scenarios, particularly the Jules Verne one, needed).
* The third one, Multiplayer Gold, added online multiplayer.

Thanks for describing the expansions of Civ 2 comprehensively. We need all those in GOG!!