I will buy it. I have been active on the forums and the dev seems like a smart guy with a capable team of producing a very good game. Don't judge the game by the video's and screenshots though. It is mostly about gameplay, which seems to become great. Perhaps even better than Galciv2 (which was a bit too much micro management imo).

Oops a double post, I thought the forums went boom again..

It says 'on the scale of a massively multiplayer game'.  Does that mean it IS a massively multiplayer game?  Also...RTS Empire builder?  I like turn-based, but will keep an open mind.   The clutter on each screen is a concern.   SO MANY little buttons and doo-dads.  It's like a scene from a Star Wars prequel - 'lets put as much stuff on the screen as possible'.    I'm 55 and even with reading glasses that will be hard to see.  Adjustable font sizes are going to be a requirement here, I'm thinking.

The artwork is very pretty, isn't it?  I do love me a good 'build an empire' game, especially one that's space-based.  This is certainly worth keeping an eye on.

I'll be getting this on the day of release.  While I'm admittedly generally not fond of RTS games myself, this one still looks too good to pass up! 

No date yet. 

Matrix had said a few days ago that they were shooting for early March, but that's not set in stone.  They're currently waiting for some of the artwork to be finished up before they release the game to the masses; my guess is next week (March 8-12) some time. 

I'm going to get this because I'm so desperate for any 4X, but I'm skeptical about how worthwhile it'll be. Armada 2526 was a let down (mostly due to poor AI for me). Here's hoping, though.

Just a heads-up for those of us who are waiting for Distant Worlds to come out: 

The game's release has, in fact, been pushed back from this week to next week (due to the aforementioned artwork not yet being completed).  They don't have an official date set yet, although most of us over on the Matrix forums seem to betting on a Tuesday or Wednesday release (so March 9-10). 

Um....did we play the same game? 

I found Armada to have one of the better AI's I've seen in a TBS 4x title, rivalling even GalCiv2's. Not that I don't have any criticisms of the game (because I have several, actually), but the AI ain't one of them. 

I'll pick it up again sometime soon and give it another shot, but after I figured out how to play and what the hell was going on, I couldn't stop steamrolling the AIs. Maybe it's changed in patches (I haven't played since near release), or I just got constently lucky the times I played.

Okay, guess I'll have to post this again since the forum crash deleted it the first time.... 

Matrix has announced Distant Worlds will -- barring anything unexepected -- be released March 26.  Just a couple more weeks! 

Me 2! Did you see the art on the various races. It looks very cool. I'm very curious about the AI. I hope it is even better than in Galciv2. I hope the graphics are not too bad.

Yeah, the new race art does look pretty good.  I also really like their descriptions, as they lend the various races some actual personality, which I think can go a long way towards improving a game's immersion. 

Well part of the reason why people are "whining" is that -- thanks to how the Matrix staff phrased things when discussing the game's release two weeks ago -- a lot of folks (admittedly including myself) were under the definite impression that the game was going to be releaesed *this* week. 

So naturally, a lot of us were disappointed and/or upset when we realized DW wasn't coming out til towards the end of the month.  Chalk it up to a combination of poor communication from the publisher and the fans hearing what they wanted to hear.... 

I suspect the other main reason why there's been so much agitation from fans waiting for the game's release is that for whatever reason, Distant Worlds seems to have garnered a lot more interest than many of their previous titles.  Subsequently, this has brought in a lot of new members to the Matrix forums the last couple months....many of whom are unfamiliar with how Matrix operates. 

At least until recently, Matrix has/had been known mostly -- and for good reason -- as a publisher of more "hardcore" strategy/war games.  As such, they're used to having a smaller but more rabid/loyal fanbase, most of whom are much more supportive than your average gamer when it comes to developers taking time with new games and not rushing them out the door.  Consequentially, Matrix tends to spend a lot more time getting their games right before releasing them. 

I suspect a lot of DW's fans -- many of whom are new to Matrix -- are unaware of this, and so clamor for the game's release, not realizing that nagging the publisher about it is going to be even less effective than elsewhere. I've no doubt they'll learn better soon enough, though.   

For those who are interested, Erik Rutins (one of the good folks over at Matrix Games, the publisher) has posted a thread with some nifty-looking screenshots! 

Please note that virtually all of the race art/pictures in these screenies are placeholders only (the final race artwork is being completed as we speak). 

I'm not sure where/why folks are getting that impression.  Certainly Armada has had issues like any new PC release, but no worse than any other game I've had, and probably better than most. 

To be fair, however, I may have just been lucky in that I haven't really experienced much in the way of problems with the game; ergo, it's also entirely possible I have a slightly slanted outlook in this respect.  In addition, I don't have an Nvidia card, and so wasn't experiencing some of the difficulties others were with the combat not wanting to work properly (which was apparently one of the more notorious -- if fairly rare -- bugs showing up before the latest patch). 

All that being said, though, I honestly don't feel it would be fair to claim Armada didn't spend enough time "in the cooker" before being released.  It was a solid enough game from the get-go in my experience, and Matrix (plus the developer Ntronium) were pretty steadfast about not releasing the game too soon.  I honestly don't feel like they rushed Armada out the door; that's just not their way of doing things. 

Anyway:  So yes, I'm confident the same policy will be -- and is being -- applied to Distant Worlds.   

Point taken. Armada 2526 is patched up now and I'm thinking I will get it when I order DW from Matrix. I've been eyeing up Carriers at War. I've always wanted a good carrier game ever since I was a kid. I dreamed up a board game of sorts with carriers. I'm even looking at War in the Pacific:AE but I don't think I have the chops for a game of that scope.

@ KillzEmAllGod

No multiplayer in DW. Singleplayer only. I haven't heard of any plans for multiplayer later.

I invite you to read a Distant Worlds first iImpressions I made at SpaceSector.com: http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2010/01/distant-worlds-a-new-real-time-4x-space-strategy-game/

The idea will be to write a review when DW gets out. That is scheduled for the 23rd of March I think.