Master of Orion 3

Loved the redesigned and new races, the graphics, the interface. Hate everything else. Micromanagement takes so long mid-game, sometimes it seems like the "end turn" button is just there to torment you. Combat was also dull and uneventful

This is the game that took a big dump over the legacy created by MOO/MOO2. It was not developed by SimTex which created the first two games. I vaguely remember buying and playing this game for a couple hours when it first came out. I was so appalled by this garbage I uninstalled it and never came back.

This game is about as far away from a Good Old Game as you can get. As a huge fan of the first two MoO games, this one failed to capture darn near anything that made the other games fun. This is probably the closest a game can come to be the embodiment of running spreadsheet macros, except less satisfying.

Sure, this game was buggy and horrid for the first months it was out. After all the patches it ended up being an ok game. I personally still own the CD I bought a year after original release at Babbages for $10 because no one wanted it, with the thick book that's half story half about the game. The manual is a good read to be honest. The game in it's current condition is playable, and I love the ship design and space combat. Spinal mounts, missiles, fighters and etc. are all factored in and make for great battles. The management is a bit dry and research is random what you unlock but the game is still a great game for me. It's below Space Empires 4 but only because SE4 is much simpler and makes for faster turns.

Master of Orion 3 was made by a different development studio that released an unfinished product.