The fine folks over at Gamers with Jobs has given Sins of a Solar Empire the award for Best PC Exclusive Game of the Year!  Not only that, Sins was also a runner up in the Game of the Year award.  

Link: 2008 GWJ Community Game of the Year Awards

“As a rule, we at Gamerswithjobs avoid putting together any kind of intenal Game of the Year awards, primarily because the debate over the value and standards of such a thing would result in bloodshed, assault charges and the very likely ritual suicide of our own literary leporidae. Besides, it's far less interesting for us to make grand pronouncements from on high, and far more interesting to hear what a few hundred gamers we trust actually have to say on the matter.”

They also had a great article “analyzing the stories of 2008”, and Sins also had a feature there as well.

“Stardock and Ironclad broke all the conventional rules. They created a strategy game for the PC with virtually no DRM protection, and managed to be rewarded by a grateful, if desperate, PC gaming fanbase. An outstanding game on its own, it is also a slap in the face to companies too lazy or too jaded to believe that this kind of market still exists.

If you were to hold a gun to my head and make me pick a Game of the Year, this is it for a variety of reasons.

Why This is Important: Large corporations with the resources to risk tens of millions of dollars in the hope that they will collect revenue in the hundreds of millions are timid juggernauts. With that kind of scratch on the line, these companies must play it safe at every opportunity, and like financial hypochondriacs, the more risk averse they become the more they see risk in every option.

With a more modest budget comes the ability to be successful with more modest sales, thus opening up the opportunity to tap otherwise untapped markets. Ironclad proved that you can still create a strong product from humble means without sacrificing quality or integrity”

The Best of 2008 lists keep rolling in, and Sins of a Solar Empire makes it into the Top 5 PC Games list from Gamasutra.

“One of the year's great success stories was this space strategy title from Vancouver-based Ironclad Games, which put the small developer on the map and scored another hit for its increasingly influential publisher Stardock. Ostensibly a member of the "4X" genre of domination-oriented titles, Sins of a Solar Empire, with its explicit focus on battles and its real-time nature, is more like an RTS with 4X scale.”

Link: Gamasutra Best of 2008 PC Games.

Sins of a Solar Empire is the winner of 'Best Strategy Game' at Gamespot's Best of 2008 Awards.

"Sins of a Solar Empire boldly goes where no RTS game has gone before, deftly combining the empire-building of 4X strategy games (explore, exploit, expand, exterminate) with the tactical precision of real-time strategy. "

Read more here:
http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/genre-awards/index.html?page=11

A hotfix for Sins of a Solar Empire - Entrenchment is now available via Impulse. For more details on the changes, please see the thread at:

http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/333299

The beta for Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrechment started yesterday, and now that many should have it downloaded and ready to play, we wanted to put up some 'Tips and Tricks' to get the most out of the experience. Now please note that Entrenchment is still in beta, and you might still run into some issues. This article will give you a good overview on what some of the features are in Entrenchment, and what some of them hold for future updates.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment is available for order now, which will give you access to the beta.

Link: Entrenchment - Tips & Tricks

GameSpy.com has started publishing their 2008 Game of the Year Awards, and Sins of a Solar Empire is in the top 10 PC games of 2008!

“The concept of marrying the small-scale moment-to-moment strategizing of an RTS to the big-picture conquer-the-universe gameplay of a classic "4X" would seem ridiculous. It took the brilliant insight of new developer Ironclad Games to make the impossible possible with its brilliant Sins of a Solar Empire. Sins casts players as wannabe galactic despots with little more than a single planet and burning ambition to conquer the universe. From that beginning, players send out spacecraft to conquer enemy worlds, battle rabid space pirates, and deal defeat to other AI or human-controlled empires.”

Link: GameSpy PC Top 10

IGN has announced their winners for the best PC games of 2008 and Sins of a Solar Empire has earned the top honor as the Best Game of 2008!

View the award here:  http://bestof.ign.com/2008/pc/22.html

IGN also gave Sins the top honor in the following categories:

• Best Strategy Game
• Best New IP
• Most Innovative Design

A huge thanks to all of our fans who helped to shape Sins into the awesome experience it is today!

Gamasutra.com has their top 5 PC games for 2008, and Sins of a Solar Empire is on that list! This covers the top 5 games out of 15 "standout" titles from the year.

"One of the year's great success stories was this space strategy title from Vancouver-based Ironclad Games, which put the small developer on the map and scored another hit for its increasingly influential publisher Stardock. Ostensibly a member of the "4X" genre of domination-oriented titles, Sins of a Solar Empire, with its explicit focus on battles and its real-time nature, is more like an RTS with 4X scale."

Check out the full article at Gamasutra.com.

The Sins of a Solar Empire - Entrenchment beta is now underway!  All pre-order customers are now being charged and should gain access to Entrenchment via Impulse (http://www.impulsedriven.com).  Please note you must have Sins of a Solar Empire v1.12 for Entrenchment to function (also available via Impulse for registered owners).

Please note that due to the huge number of pre-orders, it will take several hours to work through the queue, so please be patient.

For more information on the Entrenchment beta, visit: http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/333020

Ironclad and Stardock are pleased to announce that the beta for Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment will begin Tuesday, December 16th.  Please note that all pre-orders will be charged tomorrow when the beta is made public.

Entrenchment requires the full version of Sins of a Solar Empire v1.12 and will only be available via Impulse (http://www.impulsedriven.com).  While the beta will be English-only, we expect the final release to be available in several other languages as well through cooperation with Kalypso.