One of the best 4X games I've played

Game: Cosmic Supremacy

This is an excellent strategy game. Game balance is suberb, the interface is clean and easy to understand, very friendly community, very active developer, and its easier to learn than most other strategy games, (at least until you get to the point of creating govenors and admirals, which are very useful i admit) plus the game was in development for nearly 5 years! I'ts free to play forever, but if you ever decide to get a premium membership, it is only about $2.25 per month if you buy a year membership! (about $27, less than half the price of big-budget games) Overall, i highly recommend Cosmic Supremacy.