A good game and definetly something a space strategy gamer should check out. Skip Empire at War and go for this one.
GC2 is another story we have nice graphics and all the things you need for a strategy game in space. We now have the best ship design ever seen in a 4x space strategy game. The game has a lot of options and chocies.
The AI seem to be competent and can keep up with you. Things seem very optimized to run the game with as little effort as possible. The drawback of this is that In the begining of a game you hit end turn a lot. And the most time you spend managing is building new ships.
Overall the game is very good game and with the support StarDock has for its customer it will be Great.