For what it's worth, this is my first impressions with Sins, using the Beta pre Hotfix, played two games with TEC against 'normal' opponents.  I consider myself a 'casual' gamer -- I don't play multiplayer, only against the AI, and I tend defense first i.e. I like expanding till I get to a chokepoint, and then fortify that chokepoint to free up time and space to race up the tech tree.  I'd be killed in multiplayer with that strategy, but that's okay, since I don't play multiplayer. 

I had no problems installing or running the game.   Intel E6850, 4GB, Windows XP SP3, GTX260.

I noticed that there's no blue triangle on starbase upgrades when they're not researched, the same way that there's a blue triangle for civil / tactical upgrades / construction.  Small thing, but, would be good for consistency.

Mines are... annoying.  After visting the forums several times, trying to figure out how to sweep minefields, and after reading about the scout/flak technique it becomes very tedious, rather fast.  To be honest, after trying them out, I think I would prefer mines not be in the game -- they just seem to interrupt the game flow that Sins has successfully created.  They don't seem to add much to the tactical choices you have available, and balancing them in a way that everybody would like would be a nightmare, I think.

I was also hoping for more powerful starbases, even if they were more expensive.  At least tactically, I was hoping a single starbase would be able to slowdown even a late game fleet, if only for a short period of time i.e. make the anti-structure ships critical to a balanced fleet that doesn't want to spend time beating down a starbases defenses.

Other than that, just some bugs that other people have already mentioned... but nothing that really broke the game until I attacked my first fortified mined world, and the game started being work, micromanaging the covering force in co-ordination with the minesweeping force.

Thanks,

JGH