GameSpy's Allen Rausch recently took the latest build of Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor for a spin to see what had been added to the game since he last played it back in November.  After many hours with Beta 6, Allen found himself still consumed by the new, unique racial technology trees, and the implications they have on gameplay.

"We played through several games as the Krynn and we discovered that we had actually underestimated the impact that unique technology trees would have."

While for the first preview back in November Allen played as the evil, soul-crushing xenocidal Korath, this time he took the religious Krynn for a spin, playing with their unique, religious approach to galactic conquest, focusing on culture, conversion, spies and ascension to take on their interstellar adversaries.  The preview closes out with...

"Based on Stardock's past history, though, there seems no reason to doubt that any minor issues will be cleared up by the April 23rd release. The good news is that the version we played is already so good, we already can't imagine Galactic Civilizations II without it. How could we live in a world where the truth of the Krynn isn't made manifest?"

That's a pretty strong endorsement, and with the game just a few weeks away from release, strategy gamers don't have much longer to wait until they can take the finished game for a spin themselves.  If you're eagerly devouring every tidbit of information about Twilight, give this preview a read.