Pros: Great gameplay, decent graphics, intuitive controls, fast learning curve.
Cons: Cut scenes are sometimes annoying.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is, without a doubt, the best build-strategy game currently on the PC market. Easily surpassing all of the Sim lines and edging past sid's own Civilization brain child, Alpha Centauri combines great and innovative graphics, a quick learning curve, and addictive gameplay to climb up as a PC smash hit.

Originality
Yeah, we've all seen this one done before, right? You know, you are a leader of a faction who has to build his place bigger and better than all of his competitors or else suffer interrogation and the extermination of your city or race. Wrong! Alpha centauri takes the time-old struggle of resource competition and throws it out into outer space. You are placed on the planet of Alpha Centauri, you are a faction leader, one of seven leaders who follow thier own philosophy to riches and glory or to ghettos of despair. The actions to take are up to you, it is your choice how things go. In this game, the play engine has been so well developed that actions the player takes can result in ecological or diplomatic consequences 5, 10, or 20 years down the road.

Gameplay
Frankly, this game is beyond addictive. I could not peel myself off of my keyboard and mouse for a week. With 7 different, customizable factions, the ability to build and customize your own vehicles, bases, and maps and the ability to create, customize, or play existing scenarios provides no end of fun and amusement. There are occasional breaks in the game play for cut scenes corresponding to major events and some times these become an annoyance, especially if you are in the process of conquering a people and they break your concentration.

The actual game itself is turn-based so you can do whatever you would like each turn, allowing for more relaxed data input/output than you would have if you had to worry about all of the real-time strategy involved in some of the faster real-time games. One of the best things that I noticed about this particular game, however, is that you do not neccessarily have to conquer everyone else to win. You can achieve transcendance (get the highest possible technology), create a diplomatic victory (get the council to vote you supreme ruler), and find alternative ways to use your strengths to achieve a victorious outcome.

Controls
The controls for this game are easy to learn and master yet powerful enough that advanced players will still enjoy this game. you have the option of automating units and bases to function on thier own instead of you having to micro-manage every aspect of your empire. The controls are easy and simplistic with most options being availible through short menus that you can access with the right mouse button.

Graphics
The graphics for this game are sprite-based and are reasonably good. Most tile-based games do not sport very good graphics but this one makes an exception. The looks of the vehicles and the symbols are intuitive and easy to recognize. Colors and such represent different things and thus the graphics can tell you quite alot about a particular unit or space of land. The bottom information area is well rendered and concise. Very little has escaped the graphic artists' attention.

Multiplayer
This game is excellent if you are hoping for a turn based strategy game to whoop your friends at. This game supports IPX, TCP direct connection, servers (IE MPlayer.com), hotseat, play by email, and several other forms of multiplayer gameplay. When playing hotseat, I was especially impressed by the ability to password-protect your player, hense securing your game to a greater degree.

Overall
All in all, Alpha centauri is one of the best games you could hope to own on your home gaming system. Resonable graphics, addictive gameplay, awesome multiplayer support, intuitive controls, and wide-spread customizability make this the single Must-Have game this year.