Yea, I've been playing a bit lately. Haven't made it through a whole game yet. To be honest, there's a lot I miss from Civ IV. I loved playing the religions, civics, and corporations as they added some variety to the game. It really seems as if they went RTS style with this new version, which isn't entirely bad, but not always good either. You're right, it is way more steamlined and much easier to get to information I think. The same basics are there, but it is a lot different than the last two versions. I do like the city states. Very cool addition, and while they can be annoying sometimes, they add a nice element to the diplomacy. A huge part of the earlier Civ's stategy was in the placement of cities, much due to the "fat cross". That seems to have disappeared with this version too because of the hex design and that a city will just expand to use tiles (at least as far as I've seen.) Overall though, it's still addicting as **** and fun. The graphics are great and I love the new leader/diplomacy interface.