Do this! We can tell you only looked at the score because reviewers actually talk about what is good in the game and what they didn't like. In doing this you would have read about all the complaints you have in the game(such as they talk about long games in every review). Sorry you made a bad decision but you simply cannot be compensated for your ignorance, from the game developers at least you could try your luck with ebay.

That's kind of what 4x implies....

The game looks pretty good actually... the difference between "High" ship detail and "Highest" ship detail - is LEAPS AND BOUNDS! No joke, turn it up, and the ships look much, much better - at any resolution you set it to, at that!

Keep in mind also, that the scale of battle in SoaSE can be immense... I've been in battles with over 500 ships - easily (and my computer is 4 years old and ran those battles well, and it looked pretty sweet while doing it!)... if each of those had little rotating turrets independently targeting everything, you'd need a beast of a machine just to play the game on a medium scale. The epic scale is the replacement for epic graphics in SoaSE.

Also, you can move your fleets in 3D, there's a Z Axis button you can use to do so (hold it down on a move order, and adjust the axis by moving forwards or backwards with the mouse, then click when ready to move). Although sadly, the Z Axis has little effect in this game... it mostly just allows you to move a little faster by going over things instead of arround them (the pitch rates in this game > the yaw rates, and acceleration doesn't seem affected by intertia when changing pitch and moving forward for some reason).

Also, as for the stand off fleets? Sure. It can be that way - if you let it. Instead of massing one fleet, try splitting your force into 2 or more sub-fleets... Rush a smaller fleet of heavy cruisers backed up by something like a Kortul Devastator THROUGH the enemy formation, and have it turn around and shoot them from behind - now your enemy has two forces it has to choose between - and it's formation will break all to hell and it's fire will become widely spread and much more ineffective - while you solidly roast atleast half of their force between your supporting fleet and your assault fleet.

Or you could (infinitely) chain way points for aforementioned cruisers to move through so that if your enemy wants to shoot at them with all those little missile frigates they probably have, they will have to attempt to chase you (with their god awful yaw rates), which slashes their effectiveness of fire (I'm not certain LRM's can even fire on the move for that matter!). If they say to hell with it and chase your support section? Run it away, let your cruisers chew into their butts. Etc, etc, etc... The tactics are what you make of it, Joeygates. Do not blame the game for your lack of command, just - get - better!

As for the AI running off? Yeah that sucked. The latest patch (just released) should be fixing that a fair amount however. Infact, the latest patch - if you read the notes - is fixing a lot of the problems with the game! Give it a shot now, with 1.03, see if you like it better. Also, you can adjust the game speed (on the fly, no less!) if you are becoming impatient with the pacing.

The tutorials are great - if you read the manual first. Imagine that... you might need to read the "Training Manual"... As for the campaign mode to familiarize yourself? You mean you really want your hand held for a while as you are told exactly what to do? As I said, the tutorials explain all the basic techniques, and run you through them. Couple it with reading the manual and you should understand how to get started. Also... there is, an easy mode... if you cant quite grasp the concepts, that would allow you "familiarization time".

If you are truly, truly disappointed with Sins of a Solar Empire - try contacting Stardock, and asking for a refund. Most decent companies will go ahead and do it if you press them on it... and if they refuse, mention the Better Business Bureau, and they will probably change their tune(works 90% of the time, no joke).

I never tire of saying this: Would you like some cheese with your whine?

What issues are you having with the patch Joeygates?

Like every star wars based strategy game ever made.

LA make great lightsaber hack n slash games but they've proved time and time again that strategy games are best left to the likes of Blizzard/Westwood/Stardock.

I'm still chuckling about the claim that game reviewers give smaller company games higher ratings.

One look at the top games on game rankings should dispel that myth.

While I think the OP's argument is pretty dumb (hard to complain about a game when you've done zero research before purchasing), but I can't let this comment go. I like Sins a lot, but the manual and tutorial, singly or together, are just terrible. This seems to be a Stsrdock tradition, since the same is true for GalCiv2--great games, customer support and postrelease development ummatched in the industry, but woefully inadequate documentation. The manual/tutorial (and I am one of those rare inveterate manual readers--as with most games, I read the Sins manual and then played the tutorials before even attempting a game) fails to touch many aspect of the game, and what is discussed is often inadequatedly explained; it points out features, but fails to give information on what they do or how they releate to the overall game. This is, in part, a fault of the basic manner in which the tuorial was created--a tutorial set up in the context of a game generally can do a better job of instruction than the mere catalogue of features that we were given. That is one reason I am strongly in the pro-campaign camp--one element of a good campaign would have been introducing the player to the concepts of the game. Unlike the OP, though, I was well aware that there was no campaign before I purchased.

It amuses me that people are arguing with this guy. Assuming for the moment he isn't just a troll, taste is subjective. He doesn't like the game - so what? How does that affect anyone else? His hilarious grandstanding 'WOW IN PUBLIC I DON'T LIKE IT I WILL TOTALLY SELL IT SEE HOW MUCH I HATE IT' stuff is great comedy to post on the official forums, and I congratulate him for stirring up so much noise.

I think Army of Poo sucks too. Anyone care? No? Of course not. Nor should you.

I can agree with the comments re documentation, tutorial and ingame text, however.

My qualm is, why should I care that he doesn't like the game? Good for him.....

Hey Joeygates im sorry you don't like the game, if you still want to sell it check your private messages.

Um. The Z-axis movement is actually fully fledged - meaning that range is calculated in all three axes. Your criticism would apply more fairly to Sword of the Stars (an excellent game, IMO, mind you). I can understand where you're coming from since to play SoaSE against the AI you never need to use vertical movement and it might as well not be there, but still, it is not some cheesy imitation 3D movement and if you're a real 3D-space-war fanatic you can use it multiplayer. Whether there are enough unit types to make that really worthwhile is something I can't judge.

I don't think anyone is likely to dispute that the Homeworld series set a new standard for 3D tactical space combat... but it is worth noting that same guys who designed it later designed Sword of the Stars which cut the vertical options back a lot. They gave their reasons on the game forums. I won't recap them, just comment that I think they apply at least as strongly to SoaSE, which nonetheless included 3D movement, even if you'll never want to use it if you play vs the AI.