This next review is our favorite around the office out of all the ones posted so far.  G4 turned out a glowing review of the game that really dives deep into the raft of features we packed into the expansion pack.  Like many other reviews, this one floats the idea that this is practically a sequel for all the new goodies tossed in.  Here's a brief snippit:

"That’s largely due to A.I. wizard Brad Wardell’s hard work retooling the game’s "brain." If you have a powerful enough CPU (multi-core recommended), the A.I. will think much further out in Dark Avatar (as if it wasn’t bearish enough already). Flip the optional switch and the game becomes eerily unpredictable, targeting resources thoughtfully (as opposed to "grab ‘em all"), pursuing tech advances more organically and with a smarter eye on terminal prizes, and building attack fleets that operate much less repetitively (e.g. "Oh look, another wave of right-on-schedule blah")."

But, if you're the video watching type, at the top of the article is a streaming video version of the review G4 ran on its TV show XPlay.  It had us in stitches with the added commentary from "Col. Tigh" (you know, from Battlestar Galactica?).  He gave us 5 shots out of 5! 

Check out the video...