I'm very excited about this game. The graphics look good, seems to have a great modding system, many different ways to conquer the land, awesome upgrade system, and is running ahead of schedule making the release date on time. If done properly this could be the next big thing. That leaves this question, what do you think about this game?

This game looks really, really sweet.  I'm really looking forward to giving it a go, but unfortunately it's coming out in too close proximity to Civilization 5, which I already know will be destroying my social life for a long time to come.  A few more months between them and I'd be all over this, but I can't justify the double cost at this time :(
 
Still, I will be keeping my eye out for this showing up as an Impulse deal on Stardock's distribution platform.

I've been playing the beta and think this game could be great. I have some concerns (balance, multiplayer, magic is boring, interface is clunky in some spots, etc etc) but Frogboy, the lead dude at Stardock, says the release version will be much better in most of these areas. He also said (IIRC) that this game is going to be Stardock's focus for atleast a few years now. So we should see plenty of updates and expansions like they did with Galactic Civilizations II.
 
I'm really looking forward to the release, to say the least. This game could be a real gem. At worst, it will be a sandbox for the modding community to make an amazing fantasy TBS. I will even be putting Civ 5 on the back burner for this.

I hope GB does a quick look some day! I think Dave would like this game.

I'm afraid this game will be steamrolled by Civ 5, no matter how good or bad it is.

I pre ordered and couldn't get my money back. I sure hope it's good.

I never heard of the game before today, and what a pleasant surprise! Reminds me of Masters of Magic and Age of Wonders.

I'm gonna buy this day 1. It looks very creative.  They've got Random House building the stories,
each game is randomly generated (like the Rogue game of old), the game is like Civilization & 
you get to run through RPG adventures.  Although I've been told that dungeons aren't going to
be available in the upcoming release, but will be added in a month later or something like
that. They said that you will be able to make your own dungeons on Day 1 however.
 
I kind of wish they would do this with Galactic Civilizations.  Create the grand strategic 
game that it is but add in roleplay, heroes, & sci-fi dungeons. :-)

Just found out about it today. It looks like Sid Meier's Lord of the Rings, which is ok in my book.

The beta was a pretty fun departure from the standard 4X strategy game (though being a true beta, it was pretty rough around the edges/buggy).  I felt like it was more RPG than traditional empire building, so keep that in mind.  Hopefully adding the heavy RPG divergence means that it won't get eaten alive by the monster that is Civ5, but we'll see.
 
It's turning out to be a pretty good year for 4x strategy game players!  

Seen a article on CNN,     http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/24/digital.rights.games/index.html?hpt=Sbin, so I will be checking the game out as I got much respect for Stardock.

The game should still be in beta, they should have aimed for their other possible release date which was Feb 2011 IIRC. Stardock still has a way to go to make this the game they talked about on their forums before and during the beta.  That game is probably a pipe dream though, so how about good modding and map making tools, because what we have now is surprisingly shittastic.
 
I used to have a lot of respect for Stardock (even though I agree with the people that say their games "have no soul") which is why I preordered, but this has been a disaster.
 
The forum drama is the icing on the cake. Smug Dude vs Smug Dude, round one, fight!

" Ugh, I getting so tired of the game slowing down after a few hours.  I hope it don't end up like another world I made where it would just crash every time.  Sigh, they tried to beat the holiday rush and we are paying for it. "

I'm waiting to hear impressions from people post .6 patch.

I assume that unlike most people, I have no desire to play online in an strategy game real time or turn based.  I play all my Civs (regular and Galactic) by myself against the AI and I have a blast.  The way that you can basically start a new game every time on a new map against new computer opponents using a new race/faction if you want, is absolute crack to me.  
 
 
So, will I be able to do that in this game, Civ style?

Well, the game still has memory leak issues post 1.06 patch. But more seriously, the game has been found out to have a DRM system regarding patches. People have been reporting errors whereas the system will tell them that a corrupt patch has been detected. People are not allowed to launch the game. This varies from a pop-up window to an in-game screen showing a smilie (that isn't smiling but rather crying) and the background is the start-up video, the menu or the game system itself. 
[Edit - this only happens if your computer is connected online. If it isn't then there seem to be no patch corruption errors.]
  
There have been some user-modified executables as well (something that deals with memory leak errors) and this will cause the game to prompt this corruption error as well. 
So for a company that claims that they have no DRM - they are basically lying. 

So what's the actual SP game part like?

It could be described as a blend of Heroes of Might and Magic and Civilization.