Yesterday I was at this Activ8 trade show thing to promote The Movies (although all i did was drive a lot and play games). One of the other games on show there was Rome:Total War. This game looked totally amazing, way beyond the sprite-based mess that was Medieval:Total War. The only problem is that the anims are all synched (no dithering) so the units look a bit robotic. Easily as cool looking as Hal-Life 2 anyway.
One of the other imrpessions I got from the 'show' was how noisy and conflict0based all the other games were. There were about ten million World War 2 games, all involving lots of butch men yelling and screaming and stuff exploding. Im sure the target audience loves this, but I doubt these games sell well with the over 30s or women.
Hopefully StarLines has a 'slightly' broader appeal, if I ever get the update to it finished ;)
I have sold a copy of Planetary Defense, and a Super Games bundle in the last 2 days, so thats encouraging.