[Uncle_Joe]

I havent been able to form a valid opinion on the gameplay yet because I its just too unstable for me. Way too many crash outs to try and make a real investment in learning it.

But from the little I've been able to play, I do agree that something appears to be missing. I know its not just me being tired of the genre because I've been away from SE4 for a while and I wanted to get back into it. I came here to see what was up and I saw that the SE5 demo had just hit. So there was definately an interest factor there for me.

As other have said, it does sort of seem like work. The ship construction which should be one of the coolest features seems cumbersome and not intuitive (engines can go anywhere, guns on the back can shoot to the front etc). It doesnt help that the game repeatedly crashes out during both ship construction and the combat simulator.

I'm definately going to approach the final release with caution. Like others, I really WANT to like the game, but so far I havent been wow'ed in any way. I'm hoping for a much better AI than SE4, but I'm being encouraged by what I've been reading about it. SE4's AI never gave a feeling of immersiveness. It agreed to treaties/request and never bothered to follow through. There was no feeling of dealing with other empires (which both MOO2 and the Civ series have managed). I dont expect a strategic and tactical genious from the AI, but something so that you can at least feel like its another actual faction. So far, it appears that SE5 has no done a lot to change that issue.

On the positive side, the change in the combat engine appears welcome, but again I have to reserve final judgement due to crashing issues. In theory, I like how you have to explore the star systems too. How it actually works out remains to be seen.

Still, I'm tentatively looking forward to the release. I'll keep an eye on what others feel about it and I'll see what the patch/upgrade situation looks like. I'm hoping that I can get even a fraction of the enjoyment I got out of SE3 and SE4 (both WELL in excess of the investment).