I really like Posts like this. We are obvioulsy a group of people with similar interests, and are well suited to share information about those interests. Furthermore, Shrapnel staff has often advocated that the popularity of ANY wargame or niche product boosts the success of the entire industry.
That said, the reviews and featurelists from SS look cool, but not nearly as cool as X2 from
www.egosoft.com - which i have long meant to pick up, but have still not gotten to it.