Relative to Vicky 2, very poor. Relative to World in Conflict, very poor. Relative to Tropico 3, poor. Those are the newest games I've purchased of late. 

I've not played Elemental in a while due to lack of interest, and am slowly losing interest in even checking up on how it is doing. 

Release:

Elemental D+

Civ 5 C-

Starcraft2 B

Vegas B+

End 2010

Elemental C

Civ 5 C

Starcraft2 B+

Vegas B+

Now

Elemental C+

Civ 5 C

Starcraft2 B+

Vegas B+

Starcraft 2; doesnt count for me for two reasons. First, I can't stand the multiplayer, and therefore, it is a single player game to me. Because it is a single player game to me, it was only 30% complete on release, and will not be purchased until I can purchase the entire game (probably another two decades on Blizzard time)

Fallout; I've not yet purchased this game, but would like to when I get done with school.

Release:

EWoM: F. Unplayable and unresemblant to the game I was hoping I had purchased. I may have been able to tolerate playing 3 games between release and 1.09.

Civilization V: C. Playable and somewhat fun. Poor AI and graphic memory leaks limited my enjoyment after about 5 or so games.

End of 2010:

EWoM: C. Amazing stability improvements. Some positive changes in gameplay fundamentals. Overall lack of feeling of importance of most aspects of the game. At this point, I probably caught up to Civ V in terms of playtime, but did so when I had nothing else to do.

Civilization V: C+. AI Improvements notable. Graphics slowdown in late game not resolved on my machine, making playing Civ unappealing as I like the late-game content.

Now:

EWoM: C+. Marked Stability improvements. Game still totally lacks that feeling of urgency which drives 4x games. Choices either seem mandatory (pushing warfare equipment tech) or absolutely utterly without any particular value over another choice. Overland AI is stunningly improved. Still not the game I paid money for.

Civilization V: C+. No improvements since last patch. No spare time in my life to enjoy them.

Bonus question:
Did yesterday’s beta build (1.19c) solve your memory issues if you had them?

I actually got my first Out of Memory error since post 1.09 yesterday. Of course, that has a lot to do with the fact that I managed to play a game long enough to get that far in (couple hundred turns), which I think winds up as a backhanded compliment.

Overall:

You guys are making good improvements on the core system, and doing good work. I am hopeful for FE and look forward to the new team's work. As it stands, I have chosen to leave EWoM pretty much unplayed since December because the issues that I have with all the primary aspects of the game are largely unresolved (Tactical Combat is boring either because you or your opponent is overpowered, Magic is boring because most of it is based upon what random shard you got at world gen and even then most of the spells are not compelling, City Building is boring because after the first 50 turns resource income is so unbalanced as to make resources meaningless, plus general lack of interesting choices in city building).

I'm keeping an eye on progress and remain hopeful, if presently not thrilled with the product.

AT RELEASE:
E: War of Magic: D
Civilization V: C-
Empire Total War: C-
Hearts of Iron 3: D

Victoria 2: B-

Europa Universalis 3 Divine Wind: B-

Civilization IV: B-

Tropico 3: B-

END OF 2010:
E: War of Magic: C-
Civilization V: C-
Empire Total War: B
Hearts of Iron 3: B

Victoria 2: B

Europa Universalis 3 Divine Wind: B-

Civilization IV BTS: A+

Tropico 3 + Expansion: A-

NOW:
E: War of Magic: C+
Civilization V: C- 
Empire Total War: B
Hearts of Iron 3: B

Victoria 2: B

Europa Universalis 3 Divine Wind: A-

Civilization IV BTS: A+

Tropico 3 + Expansion: A-

Concerning major games that I bought and played in the last 5 years I would say that CIV V and CIV Colonization were my biggest flops. I bought both on pre-order and neither worked for me at all. After trying the first patch for CIV V I simply gave up on it, it just isn't for me, while Colonization suffers from big balance issues and the only way to even try to play is using an unofficial mod that just tries to fix things the game does wrong.

HOI3 was at another frustrating release, though since I knew Paradox for a long time I just left the game for a while and came back to it after it's expansion to be much more pleased with the results. With a second expansion coming HOI3 is shaping up to be a fantastic game worthy of my personal hall of fame.

Empire Total War was not a huge flop for me because I didn't buy it till 5 patches were out. That said, it is still quite frustrating that CA abandoned it having released it's expansion as a stand-alone and not retro-fitting the new features. Too bad, it could have been an amazing game, I keep trying to enjoy it but I just can't cope with the horrific AI and lack of diplomacy.

E:WOM was also not a flop to me, sicne I bought it AFTER I knew it was a failed release. In short I accepted to pay for a game that might be good in the future. I feel like the people that bought the game during the beta, only I know that the proper release might still be some time in the future. A lot of what I don't like about the game has been mentioned countless of times by other people on numerous threads. I'm not upset with the purchase since I made it knowing what to NOT expect.

There are too many games that fall into the category of my favorite played games in the last 5 years, but only a couple reach the top of my personal scale. GalCiv 2 and CIV IV are the ones that I consider in this category in the last 5 years. They can go join MoM, HOMM3, MOO2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Caesar 3, Pharaoh, IL2-Sturmovik and Children of the Nile.

 
Bonus question:
Did yesterday’s beta build (1.19c) solve your memory issues if you had them?

Haven't tried it yet.

Really? You really think that Elemental modding is that much more powerful then what people can do in Starcraft 2, considering the obvious things Elemental doesn't support (like any kind of scripting)?

At Release:

E:WoM:  3/10 (very few "crash" issues [for me personally], completely un-polished, bland landscape, horrid AI, disgustingly simple tactical battles, no random maps, very little "flavor" [cool things like quests, weaponary, etc. etc]) 

Civ V: 6/10 (polished interface, seemed stripped down version of CIV, huge lags at end of turn)

At end of 2010

E:WoM: 3.5/10 (very few "crash" issues [for me personally], completely un-polished, bland landscape, horrid AI upgraded to terrible AI with Brad's work, disgustingly simple tactical battles, no random maps thanks to Cephalo and Elementerra this is fixed, very little "flavor" [cool things like quests, weaponary, etc. etc]) 

Civ V: 7/10 (polished interface, seemed stripped down version of CIV, huge lags at end of turn patch fixed this for me)

Current State:

E:WoM + APC and UW MODS (1.19c):  4.5/10 (very few "crash" issues [for me personally] one giant leap backward with constant crashes in BETA, completely un-polished "better" polish, but still below the level one should expect for a $50 game UI still has many bugs [just to give one of many examples the city names/flags changing constantly], bland landscape, horrid AI further upgrades to AI making it "decent", disgustingly simple tactical battles, no random maps thanks to Cephalo and Elementerra this is fixed, very little "flavor" [cool things like quests, weaponary, etc. etc] Awesome work by impinc and company to add a ton more "content" and interest in the game; but it is like a delicious frosting piled on top of a gluten-free/sugar-free cupcake)

Biggest peeve here is: aside from minor UI improvements and solid AI improvement....most everything to improved the game has come from MODDERS NOT STARDOCK!

Civ V:  5.5/10 (no major advances in patch, game has lost all "replayability" that I have come to expect from CIV series)

Guess I'm looking forward to "UFO: Extraterrestrials 2"....a game that most likely is going to be just a duplicate of the original X-COM...which is totally fine by me.  I still wonder how tactical battles can be so bad in E:WoM when a game like X-COM, made in 1992(?), can be light-years ahead (or the subsequent "UFO" series tactical battles).

lemmee see what games have i been playing recently.

nwn2

titan's quest

x-com

i'm looking at buying homm 3 and 4

been playing  homm 5

took a look at gal civ 2 to see how it compared to elemental and master of orion 1 & 2

gonna try master of orion3 see what it is like

starcraft 2

diablo 2 (titan's quest > diablo but won't run on my macbook)

master of magic

i tried battle of wesnoth but don't like the lack of magic

freedom force

freedom force 2

age of mythology - would have been more interesting with the iron resource from age of empires

temple of elemental evil

dungeon siege 2

warcraft 3( i love playing the dota map)

age of wonder shadow magic

I love the potential of Elemental but i think the ideas of what the dev team wanted to do with the got ahead of what they were able to do due to the development of the new game engine. It has improved a lot since it was released but as others have said some of the simple things have not been addressed in the updates - perhaps the nature of the way file data in elemental is handled makes it irritating to tweak because you have to catch all the cross referencing - maybe a batch file system could make updating them easier.

on  the other hand, people on the forums sometimes want conflicting things as has been mentioned a few times recently - sometimes the dev need to put their foot down, and be more transparent in saying what they intend to do. (yes i am being grouchy here and i know it)

AT RELEASE:

E: War of Magic: C (crash city, but it was new and I thought it had potential if Brad could get the good delivered)

Civilization V: NA (Didn't buy, not going to.  Some philosophical differences though combat looked much improved.)

Starcraft 2: A- (liked the story, upgrade/research system, even though the combat feels like a standard RTS to me)

Fallout: New Vegas: F (couldn't get it to run)

END OF 2010:

E: War of Magic: B (it's okay, still feels rough.  Limited to no story even with the huge background info, Bland combat)

Civilization V: NA (Didn't buy, not going to.  Some philosophical differences though combat looked much improved.)

Starcraft 2: A- (same as initial buying feel.  Play it for fun, not competition or MP)

Fallout: New Vegas: B (finally got it to run with that one big patch)

NOW:

E: War of Magic: B (Still feels rough/empty. No story elements even with the huge background, Bland combat.  My favorite tatical combat has probably ben AoW games)

Civilization V: NA (Didn't buy, not going to.  Some philosophical differences though combat looked much improved.)

Starcraft 2: A- (same as initial buying feel.  Play it for fun, not competition or MP)

Fallout: New Vegas B (haven't played for some time, not going to reinstall, etc.  Got bored of it.  Never finished it.  Beating on slavers and Caesar's troops was a highlight)

I almost couldn't remember the password to my email account, so I still seem to have memory issues. 

AT RELEASE:

E: War of Magic: D

high expectations paired with poor release

Civilization V: F

did not run at all, purely 2k's fault

Starcraft 2: A

Great production values, huge anticipation

Fallout: New Vegas: C+

same bugs from FO3's release, nearly unplayable, what was I thinking preordering a game

END OF 2010:

E: War of Magic: C

wow Stardock is really working fixing major issues

Civilization V: C+

Thank you for letting me play the game I paid for, I like hexes and 1UPT is a step in right direction, your AI is the worst I've seen

Starcraft 2: B+

Nostalgia factor and initial campaign awesomeness wore off (horrible writing and super cheesy ending!)

Fallout: New Vegas: B-

OK it works mostly now, I can play the game and find its pretty fun, is more like a stand alone expansion than a sequel

NOW:

E: War of Magic: C+

Seems very stable now, looks like features/fun reserved for new stand alone expansion. I get it for free and I'm sure I'll play it a lot, ty Stardock

Civilization V: N/A

Have not played it more than once since the first big patch, but been playing lots of RoM-AND and FF2-RiFE for those into Civ 4 mods (or modmods)

Starcraft 2: B+

still good but got bored with archaic multiplayer, is fun to play with friends and utterly wtfpwn people in unbalanced non-1v1 multiplayer occasionally

Fallout: New Vegas N/A

I can assume it plays a lot better now from patches, and will likely come back to do another playthrough someday.

On related note...Games I would preorder if I believed in that anymore:

Shogun 2

Dawn of War 2: Retribution

Crysis 2

Shogun 2 has a beta out this week, I"ll judge based on that.  I won't buy full price, but the Gamersgate $15 in credit would be enough of a discount for me to get.

I'll preorder if I'm confident in a title. 

Stardock had that confidence until Elemental, they can regain it if one of the expansions turns out very good, or if a future game gets good reviews on a site that I trust.  (some gaming sites are nothing but Steam fanboys when it comes to PC)

AT RELEASE:

E: War of Magic: 4/10

Civilization V: 8/10

Starcraft 2: 9/10

Fallout: New Vegas: 9/10

END OF 2010:

E: War of Magic: 5/10

Civilization V: 9/10

Starcraft 2: 9.5/10

Fallout: New Vegas: 10/10

NOW:

E: War of Magic: 5/10

Civilization V: 9/10

Starcraft 2: 9.5/10

Fallout: New Vegas: 10/10

AT RELEASE:

E: War of Magic: D

Victoria 2: D

Fallout: New Vegas: C

Two Worlds 2: C

Distant Worlds RotS: B

END OF 2010:

E: War of Magic: C

Victoria 2: D

Fallout: New Vegas: A

Two Worlds 2: B

Distant Worlds RotS: B

NOW:

E: War of Magic: C

Victoria 2: D

Two Worlds 2: B

Distant Worlds RotS: B

Elemental is clearly improving the most. Victoria 2, is another game release close to unplayble. I do not expect it to get fixed without a PAY FOR expansion though. That is the way of Paradox unfortunately. Fallout 3 NV, had a few bugs at release, but for PC those issues were fixed within a few weeks, and the game has become the best open RPG release for years.