I normally don't bother blogging about games. Otherwise my blog would be chock-full of ravings about BattleField 2142 - my current addiction (I play around an hour/day - sometimes a bit more).

But one game I've been keeping a close eye on in the past is Sins of a Solar Empire. (Don't let the semi-cheesy steam-punky/Dune-esque graphics on the front page steer you in the wrong direction, this game has great graphics.)

I even bought the game prior to release to get in on the beta after watching this killer 'hands on' preview/video on gamespot. (I just loved that the demo video wasn't some polished marketing 'puff piece', and the game engine and game play looked great.)

Buying the Beta seemed a bit iffy/risky (I actually pre-ordered the game - which gave me access to the beta, but I figured it might end up being fairly buggy). But the Beta turned out to be much more stable than a lot of games I've played in the past.

But what was cool about the beta is getting a good feeling for what Sins is going to be. The game is terribly exciting in that it provided a lot of new approaches to game play, and really provides an amazing UI that makes management of resources scattered over a vast field of battle miraculously easy.

Now it looks like Sins is going gold well before the end of the month!

If you like RTS games like AOE and Warcraft III, you'll likely really like Sins. Especially if you're a total geek like me and like Conquer the Universe/Space games.

Here's a great review I read this week that really does a good job of summarizing some of the great things about this game. One of the best things about this game though, is that it feels clean, light-weight, and non-bloated in terms of the engine. It's amazing responsive and clean/bug-free and just feels like it was coded really well.