Gamespot has a preview of Stardock's upcoming PC strategy game, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords.  It's the sequel to the award-winning, best selling strategy game of the same title (Galactic Civilizations) released in 2003.  In Galactic Civilizations II, players take on the role of leader of an interstellar civilization (play as leader of humanity or one of 9 other alien races). 

For WinCustomize users, what you may find interesting is that the entire user interface is created with DesktopX. That is, the screens directory is literally dozens of .dxpacks.  To make use of DesktopX in a state-of-the art PC strategy game, a DirectX 9 based 3D engine was developed that then reads in the DXPacks and uses them that way.  For players, this means that they can "skin" the game itself simply by loading up the .dxpacks and moving them around.  The UI graphics are being done by Stardock's Paul Boyer (Mormegil).

The preview includes many screenshots in which you can see the UI in action as well as the game-play.  The final game won't be out until early next year.

VIEW: [Gamespot Preview]