Hey, I've not got the game yet but I'm thinking of downloading the demo.  I've played GalCivII and I will either return to that or do this one (have only played Dread Lords, not Dark Avatar or anything more advanced).  I'm trying to NOT get something that will eat all my time away as I don't have a ton to feasibly spend on games, but I really like the looks of this game.  For one thing I'm a sci-fi nut and I have always loved the idea of commanding a real space fleet (one reason I liked galciv was designing my own ships... I already know you can't here, but that doesn't matter that much).

This is my main concern, though: when I used to play Star Craft, I never even got far on the campaign for the thrill of multiplayer.  Playing against AI is fun only so much.  How long does a multi-player game usually last and can it be played over Satellite (I have WildBlue internet through our TV satellite company)?  I'm thinking "no," due to lag time, but maybe the half-second or so won't be as big a deal here???