wodmarach: hmm endless space is one of those that keeps me looking at it wondering if to buy anyone played it?
Steam had a free weekend for this game about a month ago. I downloaded and while I did enjoy it, there were parts of it that bugged me enough to not want to buy it then. I will however get it when it goes around 75% off or so. Amazon had it for around $8 last week but I'm hoping for just a bit lower within the next week or two. If Steam had it for 75% off today, I would've thought harder about it.
As for what I didn't like the most were the battles. Basically, part of the research trees is offenseive/defensive/sabotage/engineering cards or some such. During battle, there's 3 rounds where you get to play your cards and the outcome is dictated by your choices. It was basically repetitive. Not sure what I just said gives you the true feel behind it but I guess you gotta experience it for yourself. Other than that, its a typical 4x type game.
Edit: I did not run into any bugs while playing it either so those updates probably helped.