[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLcc2p_PXZg[/youtube]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/644 ... than-light

Somehow, this little game manages to appeal to the same part of my brain as Gratuitous Space Battles, despite being GSB's polar opposite. Where GSB lets me enjoy playing Emperor MoD commanding the United Human Galactic Territories in pursuit of that most noble goal that is total obliteration to all who oppose us, with only my most trusted and brilliant admirals commanding only the best and most loyal captains of only the best-outfitted, most advanced, and best-developed ships in the universe, FTL lets me play captain of a puny vessel that's probably going to die soon, if I don't put out that fire, transfer power from life support to shields, and get those damned internal sensors back up so I can see where the intruders beamed in. Somehow, they both scratch the same itch.

This Star Trek as a micro RTS, where battles take place between--and aboard--your ship, and enemy ships. But it's more than that, too, because it manages to make every encounter feel visceral and threatening.

I'm in love with all of it.

This game is out now. YOU GO BUY.

As much of a console gamer as I am I'll be checking this out based on your description. It's like as micro-managed game of Star Fleet Command, where you just need to manage power for weapons, shields & shield reinforcement, movement and electronic counter-measures as well as managing combat positioning and weapons fire.

This seems much more aimed at keeping your ship from beating you instead of the enemy beating you. Very cool.

RPS was promoting this game a while ago and I was sold then. I'll be picking it up once I finish off Black Mesa and Borderlands 2

This game is amazing and I AM SO TERRIBLE AT IT.

I played about ten games on Normal and got no further than the fourth sector (even sticking to friendly sectors!!!) so I switched to easy mode to see how that would go. Seems like easy doesn't make things easier, so much as shift the focus. I got to the fifth sector, which was nice. Now I can try normal with the Engi ship.

On Normal, I find that I regularly find a fourth crewman, and occasionally loose a crewman to an event.
On easy, I have NEVER found additional crewmembers, and I constantly loose crew to events.

So the way it works out is this:
Normal mode: My ship is always right on-par with the competition, and combat comes down to systems- and crew management. I usually loose due to being boarded by superior numbers and not being able to keep up with repairs.
Easy mode: My ship is always overpowered and I have so much power available that there's very little systems-management. I also generally run out of crew fast, so there's very little crew management--stick someone on shields until something else fails. Unmanned weapons take forever to charge, so battles get tedious as I have trouble keeping the enemy's shields down with a slow rate of fire.

I definitely prefer the way Normal plays. A very fine-tuned balance of strategy as opposed to a click-fest. Easy almost feels like diablo with tiny maps.