I've been waiting a long time for someone to do a "4X" space strategy game that I felt was a reasonable followup to the Master of Orion series (and no I'm not counting MOO3... as far as I am concerned that game never happened).

Well, someone's finally done it, with the awfully named 'Sins of a Solar Empire'.  Retail this week but you can direct download from Stardock Central (though it's developed by Ironclad, not SD). 

Homeworld meets Master of Orion is not a bad way of describing it.  You build fleets, explore a network of "phase lanes" to adjacent planets & star systems, research techs, and generally do all that good stuff.  But it is in real time, it is gorgeous and it is not micro-managey at all, which I love.  It's very polished by small-label standards, and just plain a lot of fun. 

If you like these kind of games, you owe it to yourself to pick up this one.