[url=]http://game-central.org/2009/reviews/sins-of-a-solar-empire-entrenchment-review/[/url]

I gotta do what I gotta do, eh?

I don't wish to create another digital distribution bashing fest, but what's wrong with Impulse?

Nothing. Just that people are pissed that after we've all embraced Steam, another distributor comes along and we have to get in bed with that as well.

No, that is not it at all. StarDock (i.e. Brad) put out every patch for Sins as stand alone files. That is until the last largest, and best patch of all. It was then that he said Impulse was going to be the ONLY way you would be able to get future patches for Sins or any SD game. When pointed out that every other patch was stand alone, Brad basically said, he did not give a rip and it was all about making money.
It was at that point I was done with SD and any game or program they create. Impulse is nothing more than SD version of DRM. Yes, you can remove it from your system and still run the game, but you do not get ANY updates or patches without it, ever. There is also no second hand sales and in all likelihood Impulse will be expanded in the future and who knows what Brad will want it to check on your system. After all it is about the bottom line not the user of the game.
I simply do not trust SD or Brad and therefore no more SD games for me. I have uninstalled Sins and I will never load it up again.

Personally, I think you are overreacting, but to each his own. I don't find a client that keeps my games fully up to date and functional to be a problem. Doing Google searches for patches and finding them hosted everywhere except the publisher/developer's website has always bugged me. With the client method, I know I am getting the correct patch from a fully trusted source every time and I know I will always have the most current patch. What's wrong with that? Additionally, so what if it could be considered DRM? Not all DRM is evil, only the DRM that imposes excessive restrictions or is unnecessarily invasive is evil. Getting your patches through client software is not excessively restrictive, as it doesn't change the fact that you can still install the software anywhere you want as many times as you want and it will never be invasive at all. You do realize that SD and Brad in particular are the people who are on our side when it comes to DRM and privacy issues (i.e. the "Gamer's Bill of Rights")?

But you only need Impulse to actually download the patch and that's all, once the patchs are downloaded you no longer need Impulse ever, you can play and copy the games to any computer you own or will ever own without ever needing to reconnect online or even need to reinstall Impulse.
That's actually what I does, I have impulse only installed on my old computer and only in a VMWare machine, once I download/update a game I copy it to my main computer and that's it, no installation, no activation, just have to create a shortcut.
That's one trillion'th times better than Steam or any other DRM online activation scheme.
Heck it's not really any different than GoG except that with GoG you need to redownload the whole game everytime there is an update...

I will gladly care for and nourish any copy of Sins you boycott! I'm eyeing the prices in retail to wait for it to drop a little before getting one.
If you have the retail disc though, can you not just install SIns and be done, without going through Impulse?

If you lived closer you could have my disk. Also, I removed my account with SD. Well I changed the name and pass and can not longer remember either. So, you would be stuck with never being able to update it beyond the free patches you can find on the web.
I am simply done with SD.

Someone is overreacting.

Oooh - I see what you mean about being annoyed with Impulse.
I step forth to be the devil's advocate and say... you paid for it once already, surely there's no harm done if you visit a certain Swedish website about valiant men of sea.
And cheers for the intention, much obliged ^^.