I found Civilization V to be absolutely unspectacular. Entertaining for a while. But disappointing compared to Civilization IV, which I personally think is the best of all three (Civilization III, IV and V). I have long uninstalled Civilization V and will only go back to IV if I want to play Civilization again.

Lazy Game Reviews posted a retrospective on the first Civilization game. Pretty neat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpW9jTULNmM

1. AC
2. Civ. 2
3. Civ. 3
4. Civ. 5
5. Civ. 4
6. Civ. 1

4 is a much more solid design than 3 IMO.