There are a LOT of games every year. The supply of games vastly outstrips my ability to pay and my ability to play all of them or even a lot of them.

"Sins of a Solar Empire Collectors Edition" (Stardock)

As a result, my decision to purchase new games is painful. I have to really want a game to buy it. I have to have heard a lot of good things about it, be in the mood for that style of game and almost always, I have to have played and liked the demo.

All these conditions were true for Sins of a Solar Empire. I played the heck out of the demo a few months back and I have been in an extended strategy game phase this summer. I finished Company of Heroes, got to the final level of Dawn of War 2, and played a long scenario of Civilization 4.

So in July, I finally bit the bullet and bought the Game of the Year edition. The game was offered as a download from Stardock's ESD system Impulse but it was cheaper on Amazon so I actually bought the physical game.

I waited patiently for the mail. Excitedly installed it from DVD. (Where I learned that the license key is only good once. I cannot ever resell the game.)

I jumped into my first trial game. Remembered the basics (it had been months since I played the demo) and then I started over on my first real game.

Only to get bored after getting a few hours into it. I am sad to say that I am over Sins. I heard great things about it. People rave about it as a hard-core gamer's game. But it just didnt do much for me.

This is a game designed for playing with friends and I wanted a single player game. I just dont like games without a story (with the exception of Civ4). Im also finding that I only like a handful of real-time strategy games. More often than not, when I want to play a "strategy" game, I want to play a turn-based game.

Oh well. My filter for buying games means that this kind of disappointment almost never happens but I like to support small developers so my $40 is not a complete waste. On to the next one.