If all you've played is Assassin's Creed the former, and you're on the fence about whether or not you want more of the same, let me say this: Assassin's Creed II is not only leaps and bounds better than the first, it is also the best game of the series on the whole. They took the original concept and polished it to a mirror finish. This game is utterly fantastic.

If you enjoyed the first game at all, you owe it to yourself to play this one. Even if there were some things about the first that put you off, this one is so drastically improved that I can recommend it with confidence.

It is what it sounds like. If you have the ability and attention span to master the tools presented you can pull of some crazy awesome stuff. Otherwise you'll probably just load up a preset scenario, set the earth's mass to a bunch of 9's and laugh as the solar system collapses inward and ejects the sum of its parts into the infinite beyond. Then you'll quit and forget you own it.

Definitely worth buying if you are in any way, shape, or form interested in the physics side of this stuff. If all you want is a model of the universe and the ability to explore it, I'd go for Celestia, which is free.

I bought this since I had gotten tons of playtime out of it originally but lost my disc. Unfortunately, the game STILL uses punkbuster and I can only imagine all future iterations of it will, as well.

Fun little tidbit: If you don't disable the steam overlay before trying to play this, you will most likely be instantly booted from every server you attempt to join because of Punkbuster.

Getting around that, this is still just as fun and frustrating as I remember. Well worth it.