It's amazing how the indie market is churning out some very cool stuff at the moment, many of which I'm enjoying way more than mainstream titles - Minecrack, Star Ruler, Dorf Fortress, Evochron Mercenary, Aurora...all great games following a "cash for beta" model (come to think of it, kinda like the mainstream market except they actually admit it and give you a discount) that seems to be very successful. A fresh offering that looks interesting is Starfarer - sort of a hybrid RPGish sandbox RTS spaceship strategy game.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/faq/
And like many of these, the devs are very chatty on the forums, which makes you want to support them (I think the main following for this is on the Dorf Fortress Bay12 forums)
Starfarer (Indie hybrid space thingy)
Moderator: Forum Moderators
Might keep an eye on it. I'd rather one that focused on exploration/trading foremost before combat though. It reminds me of my longing for a new Escape Velocity game, or an MMO in that style.