I wanted Spore to be super-cool.  Actually I was told and let myself be convinced that it was super cool.

Yet when I actually played it I was deeply dismayed with its lack of depth.  What seemed like deep pools of awesome turned out to be cleverly disguised puddles.

Elemental leaves me feeling much the same.  I can see awesome but when I get there it is mostly just a cardboard cutout and some tape. 

I love GalCiv2 and I am hopeful that the team is able to infuse some more soul into this game.  I'm not sure that mods are going to cut it, although I keep thinking about the massive overhauls that have been done for Oblivion to make it an awesome game. 

I'll keep checking in to see what the changes bring.