Ya know--I was told 250 programmers worked for over two years straight on one of the iterations of Call of Duty. Everyone wanting a full CGI movie mode in Dolby sound and the like go ahead--buy EA games, get a PS3 or whatever.

Sins is a game made by gamers for gamers. The fact that they have some programming savvy people is what has allowed it to work on a smallish budget with a small company--and they are small compared to the TV commercialed, giant publishing companies. They don't have dedicated hardware systems tied to their games, publishing and developing houses doing the work for them and dozens of millions to spend on development.

Great games are augmented by graphics--not made by them. Play through an old version of Freelancer sometimes and you'll be amazed how much fun it is--even with the crude polygonal ships and people (by today's standards).

Released by the biggest software company in the world at the time, Microsoft. Where is this stand-out game now? Kept alive by hard-core fans and modders and completely abandoned by Microsoft. Companies don't always get games. They usually get "packaging" and profit.

Read a book--where the heck are the graphics and sound!? The story and surprise is what makes a book--not effects. For me, the Wing Commander series was one of the most fun games ever--and the graphics were laughable by today's standards.Where is Wing Commander now? Abandoned and kept alive by fans (no disrespect to GOG). What took it's place? Nothing.

I'd trade most games out there now for a good sequel to Freelancer with some of the original development that was intended at first for it. As an old wargamer, I can see the sort of nuance in Sins that just isn't in most other games. This is a game by people who know about unit counters, stacking limits, zones of control--etc. Not some arcade shoot-em-up.

No complaints from me except why did it take so long for somebody out there to make this!? I also appreciate the fact that this is in the last generation of games that will run on nearly any system--both older and newer--when big companies are speculating that the marketability of PC games is likely to be less profitable.

Lot's of value here for me and considering you won't have paid more than the cost of two releases of some console game for both core games and the expansions combined, it's a great value.

I'm excited to see the work continuing on it. I'd give you karma but you own it all here