And so far, I can't even get the game to play. I installed and uninstalled twice. I have downloaded updated drivers for NVIDIA GEFORCE FX 5200 128meg video card. I have changed all of the settings over and over again. And still can't play. I see the beginning story in the aftermath that follows the end of Homeworld, of them rebuilding. But as soon as I see the ship fly in on the first cutscene, I get kicked back to Windows.

My recommedation is if you have XP, don't get this game. So far, it's more trouble than it's worth. So now I guess I will try Homeworld 2.

The interface is more evolved as I would expect and a lot of the little annoying bits to Homeworld's interface are gone in this game. You can set waypoints as one of the other reviewers stated, but on top of that, you can do everything from the sensor manager that you could from the regular mode in Homeworld. Also, when in sensor mode, selecting ships doesn't automatically zoom in the way Homeworld did. You can also select a group of ships and attack a group of enemies all from the sensor manager - this is highly desireable, since you don't have to zoom in and lose track of ships in another part of space. I would say that the Homeworld interface is 4 star and this interface is 5 star, far superior.

Someone also mentioned that the graphics weren't as good as Homeworld. I find this unusual, since they use the same gaming engine and they look pretty much identical to me, and I've played them almost side by side and both are installed on my computer.

Also, I find the story line excellent, it might not be the Battlestar Galactica story of homeworld, but it is just as engrossing with the release of "The Beast", a bio organism that is intelligent and that threatens to take over the universe. It's your job to escape and try to destroy the beast. It's very cool.

What I love about both of these games is how most of the action is at the macro level, controlling fleets of ships and squadrons of fighters, but at any point, you can zoom in and watch the action in an "over the shoulder" view from any ship and see an individual fighter engage against a squadron of other fighters or even a large capital ship. I love watching destroyers firing their ion beams... it's so movie like that I feel like bringing the popcorn. Other feel that same and I can sometimes have an audience of 2 or 3 people over my shoulder sometimes.

In fact, the overall movie like quality is what made the game great for me. The way that you can direct the camera while letting everything proceed automatically (these 30 ships attack those 22 ships and let them go) is immersive. It really has a Star Wars feel when you see a space battle. This is especially fun when you have large numbers of capital ships on both sides with multiple fighter squadrons. In a situation that large though, you almost always have to direct some of the action, since some small battles finish and you have to re-deploy to other parts of the battle.

The challenge is in finding the balance of which ships to use against which enemies, as fighters are fast and hard to hit, but do less damage, whereas the larger frigates and super-capital ships do tons of damage but are vunerable to large groups of fighters.

All in all a completely superb game. It is 100% of what I wanted in a computer game and have never found elswhere, although there were a lot of these features in games like "Master of Orion", but that was really more concerned with administration aspects of running multiple colonies and space battles were 2D and cartoony. A great game, but not as neat as this.

"Okay, but I liked the original better", Okay, so this game has a great plot and excellent story line. But the graphics are lacking. The first Homeworld game did a great job but this one was like a step back. Don't get me wrong, I liked the game, it's just not as good as I expected.

"Easily the best RTS I've ever played", Imagine Homeworld with an entirely new fleet of ships and technologies. Now imagine these ships and technologies split between two new races, each with unique styles of play, and you'll have a good idea of what makes Cataclysm so fantastic for people who liked the original.

The single player in Cataclysm is more complex and challenging than in the original Homeworld. Being able to move your command ship was a huge plus and gave the player more options. I enjoyed the single player a great deal, at least until the last part of the last level, where it went from fun to extremely not fun quickly (it's plot-related, so I won't say why).

The multiplayer is the real selling point though; the maps involve much more interaction and strategy than in the original, and the ability to play different races makes the gameplay much more complex and interesting. I've never enjoyed multiplayer in the RTS genre until Cataclysm came along, and now I love it (provided I'm playing Cataclysm).

"The absolute best", Don't be fooled by the fact its older. This game has every aspect of a good game, play, AI, action, adventure, choice, selection. If you want to have hours of fun get this!

The first time I saw it was on my friends computer, I was hooked instantly.

Trust me. Get this game!