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This game is so good, I paid full retail. I am a very frugal person by nature. This is usually hard to reconcile with my desire to buy computers and computer games. My usual solution is to wait until a game goes "Gold" or gets some other value packaging ("The Mega Value Pack!"). Very, very rarely, will I ever buy retail - and never the full retail a game goes for when it is first released. Dawn of War has proven to be the exception. Ironically, when I first saw the packaging/cover art for Dawn of War 40,000 (DOW40K) I was turned off. It looked like a cheap game, probably some lousy adaptation of the tabletop game that was going to trade on name recognition. Well, it turns out, they could have sold this game in butcher's paper and named it anything they wanted. It is the best computer game I have ever played. I've been playing since the Atari 2600. I'm old. I should be doing bigger and more important things. My wife shouldn't have to roll her eyes when I tell her I'm going to turn on the computer. Alas, I like computer games. So I have played a great variety of games - strategy, role-playing, first person shooter, simulation. My favorites are pretty mainstream: Civilization, Morrowind, SimCity, Diablo, Half Life, and Medal of Honor. Until DOW40K, I had a "group" of favorites, but no one favorite game. Now, I have a favorite game. There are basically three ways to play, and I would recommend playing them in this order: First, the single player campaign. It is a simple and effective tutorial that lasts about 10 hours, depending on how you play. You will finish it and know the basic game mechanics, controls, and some strategy. Second, the "Skirmish" option on the main options page. You play against one to seven AI opponents on several different maps. You can choose the difficulty level from easy, to standard, to hard, to harder, to insane. When you can beat the computer consistently at the standard difficulty, then try the third option: online play. The people in the online lobby know what they are doing. Try to join a game where it is team versus team, not a free for all. I really enjoy the online games, even though I lose a lot. Which makes the victories all the more enjoyable. If you've read this and see me online, say hello. It's MEF40K (Marine Expeditionary Force 40,000). Good luck!