GalCiv and many games directly trace their heritage back to board games and possess many of the qualities that make board games so great, including a laser-sharp focus on mechanics and gameplay that were not originally paired with flashy graphics, but with imagination. TBS games complement those fine-tuned game mechanics with drastically increased scale and a polished graphical presentation.

That focus on gameplay is a strength. For all of the hulla-baloo and dowdy-doo Stardock is making about the tech they're investing in for GalCiv 3, it should be well within their power to engineer a highly optimized low-fidelity mode that sips battery, alt-tabs well, and exposes only the best elements of the game -- those mechanics and that highly structured gameplay -- for those on the move with ultrabooks and laptops. Of course, it would also need a nicely polished UI and iconographic presentation, which Stardock has demonstrated it is capable of if these screenshots are any indication.

Civ V has just such a mode in its strategic map, but it's far from perfect: It requires loading up all of the game's high-fidelity 3D graphics, consumes lots of power, and doesn't have truly crystal-clear iconography, oftentimes being muddied and hard to read.

Provide this to us, Stardock. Set a precedent, and make sure that, going forward, one of the most consistently high-quality and critically acclaimed genres in gaming has this essential, perfectly paired option available to players. Because playing actions games on an ultrabook is just a stupid waste of time.