Empires of Steel

It's decent, but not great. The game is deeper than the graphics suggest, and even at launch it had a huge amount of user-submitted maps, scenarios, etc, which is always a good sign. I think it would really shine in multiplayer, but I prefer to play against friends via LAN, and I've yet to convince anyone to shell out $45 for what is more a $25-30 title. The AI isn't terrible, however, ably defending their towns, but they seem to expand in a linear way, making it easy for human players to blitz to the most valuable resources and towns.

I'd say wait for the price to drop, then get it. It's a worthy game, but they've aimed for the wrong price-point.

I enjoyed the demo for Empires of Steel well enough, but I refuse to purchase it for two reasons: 

1.)  Price:  As was pointed out, $45.00 is a rather steep price to pay for what is *maybe* a $30.00 game. 

2.)  DRM:  The game's publisher Battlefront uses a form of DRM called "eLicense", which carries a 2-activation limit.  If you uninstall EoS (or any other Battlefront game), you must "unlicense" it; if you fail to do so, you cannot get back that activation.  In addition, numerous users have reported being unable to regain one of their activations after upgrading their machines and/or purchasing a new one.  It's almost as bad as some of the crap EA has pulled.   

Wow, I hadn't even clued in to the DRM. Though this has been my first purchase through Battlefront since.. CB:BtB... well, in a very long time. Oh well, better guard this last activation well.

Yeah, this whole eLicense scheme is a fairly recent development; I believe they just started using it about 6 months ago (or thereabouts).  Supposedly you can get an activation back (assuming you've lost one) if you contact Battlefront and explain the situation, but again I've seen a lot of complaints from folks who've had trouble with this even then. 

I think it is going for $35.00 now.  Would like it more at $30.  Would like it more at...