A persistent universe where players from all over the globe can gather and fight for the same limited resources, with no sharding at all, and a learning curve that is steep enough to discourage many casual players while being deep enough that intense strategic and tactical considerations are always rewarded.
A game with video makers who produce stuff like this with its own (unofficial) news/fan 'zine edited by a dashing man about town.
Er, I mean, no. Obsession makes no sense.
And here I thought you meant Pirates of the Burning Sea…
I actually haven’t tried Eve Online but I know some friends who are among the faithful.
-XT
I have to agree somewhat with FinnAgain. As someone who played an awful lot of the previous 3 versions, Soulstorm was kind of a letdown- the SoB & Dark Eldar aren’t different enough to make it interesting enough to play very much.
On the other hand, the slavegirls on the Dark Eldar top vehicle (looks like Jabba’s Sail Barge) were an awfully funny touch.
I still haven’t bought the game but think I will take Finn’s fine advice and wait for it to go into the bargain bin. Shame really…I’m looking for a new game and was hopeful this one would be good.
Ah well…c’est la vie. Maybe DoW II will be killer. I’ve seen some of the early screen shots and it LOOKS promising. I just hope they allow you to zoom out a bit more than the old DoW game…I always felt a bit cramped with the really close perspective.
-XT
And I didn’t even mention the massive load times 
I actually picked up Sins after reading the thread that (I think) you started. I like that one, but it gets old pretty quick without multiplayer. When I don’t have time for EVE, I’ve actually been loading up old games like Planescape:Torment and Freespace. And I really can’t shake the feeling that the golden age of gaming has somehow passed me by. For all the coolness of Halo 3, I wouldn’t trade it for X-Com. Or Deus Ex. Or Baldur’s Gate II. Or…
Meh. 
I’m excited about DoW II’s graphics, even though they’ll mean I need a new computer. But at this stage, I’m actually getting a bit worried. After DoW, I was a fan, and I bought Winter Assault without even bothering to read reviews. After WA, I was a bit disappointed, and made sure I read up on Dark Crusade before I bought it. After DC, I… considered getting it off torrent before deciding if I was actually going to spend the money to buy Soulstorm.
And SS is disturbingly close to shovelware. Even the addition of my beloved Tyranids won’t be enough for me to invest in the next game unless something really major happens to change them milking the hell out of this franchise. Heck, I’m much more excited about Company of Heroes II than DoW II.
They actually said that the engine “couldn’t do [the tyranids] justice.”
Which emans if they tune the DoW2 engine for them they’ll be awesome.
Until then you could check out the tyranid mod. http://tyranids.dowfiles.com/
It adds an (as of now incomplete I believe) tyranid race, it’s quite fun.