I picked it up yesterday and man am I hooked. I haven't been hooked on a game like this since Starcraft. The game has a ton of customization options, lots of different ways to play (you can be a full on military nation, use religion to conquer, or just play by being nice). So far I just started the space age which is the last and biggest stage but I already want to go back and start all over to try out other models and options. Replay value on this game is just through the roof.
Game runs extremely well on my PC running Vista 64bit, 2gb of ram, and nvidia 9600GT 512MB video. Running the game at 1600x1024 @ medium to high settings. This game is definitely an example of substance over style. I also liked the fact that the disc you buy is a hybrid disc for MAC and PC because I installed it on my wife's mac as well. As long as one game is not logged on to the EA account, both computers can play and you just need to log on to download patches or character, building, or vehicle models.
If any of you guys are fans of strategy/sim games I really recommend you try it out.
