Master of Orion III - First Impressions

I picked up Master of Orion III about a week ago, and I must say... I'm feeling a little underwhelmed. I suppose its possible that my expectations for this game were just too high, but frankly, I don't care. Master of Orion is one of my favorite games of all times, and anything using its name needs to live up to its standards. So far, I haven't seen anything in this game that has been that impressive. The graphics are so-so, the gameplay is dull and I've already ranted about the problems I've had with its copy protection.

Rantz Hoseley, the art director of Quicksilver Software, has responded to various complaints, but I'm not sure I'm appeased. One of the points made by Rantz is that MOO3 is a different type of game than Master of Orion was, and therefore gameplay/goals/etc are different, but does this really make any sense. As I see if, if you're using a well known brand, then people are going to have expectations from the product that comes out, and you should try to live up to those expectations. However, if you're just using a well known brand in order to help boost your sales on a new game you're developing, then you're betraying the vision of the series and the games.

Or maybe I'm just being stubborn. I'm going to try to step back and let go of my expectations, then try to play the game fresh, but I'm still not convinced I'll enjoy what it is.

Anybody else have any feelings on the game, good or bad?