Civ V will be fine. Never been a bad Civ game (main franchise), never will.

Now how about Alpha Centauri 2...?

Having to stare at Sid's mug like it was the inside of John Malcovich's head in Civ 3 was pretty bad.

So was everything else in Civ 3.

And Civ II's advisors...

I seriously love how the Civilization games have this undercurrent of awe and wonder at humanity's progress...then Alpha Centauri smashes that all to bits by showing that as we inevitably march forward technology will only serve to great disenfranchise the average person while allowing greater atrocities to be committed by the elite.

I just wish somebody would make an (admittedly huge, probably impossibly huge) mod for Civ 4 that allows you to play into Alpha Centauri after the space victory...

I've said before, but that's basically why Alpha Centauri was was way better at forcing privileged, doughy white computer nerds to face actual, selfish philosophies head on. Plus the mindworms and shit. What a great f'ing game.

Look up the mod Planetfall. It's a pretty good representation of Alpha Centauri but with the game concepts of Civ 4.

Personally I don't like it nearly as much as I thought I would.

How about a version where after you blow the planet to bits you gather the last tidbits of survivors to either rebuild or conquer the other remaining survivors into slavery? - Civ's been too "nice"

Planetfall made me sad when Floyd died

Well obviously you're not cynical enough or you would realize that the artistic and human achievement represented by those artifacts far outweighs the evils done to erect them.