I picked up the pre-order so I'm going to refrain from making extensive comments about the gameplay but only the flight model, having tried only the single player tutorials.
You definitely shouldn't expect Freelancer-style combat. Ships maneuver very slowly and are pretty much incapable of turning left or right. You're forced to fly as if you're flying an airplane (roll+pitch). In case you're flying with Mouse+KB, you have to constantly make use of the roll keys (highly imprecise compared to a joystick) in order to accomplish any kind of quick turn. Other that this, ships fly very smoothly and predictably.
There's a "flight assist off" mode which is somewhat similar to EK in Freelancer but a bit better because strafing doesn't break it.
4-way strafe is available but don't expect the ridiculous boxing of FL.
Ship management is almost infinitely more sophisticated than Freelancer (where it doesn't exist). You can (have to) control the amount of power to various components of the ship and manage the heat generation.
Aiming itself isn't hard with the fixed beam weapons and there are gimbaled ones, too. Getting the target in front of you is the harder part.
Quote:I heard that they scrapped off the single player stuff a week or two back. Caused quite a stir leading to many KS backers withdrawing.
They scrapped the offline play. It's still possible to play solo (only with NPCs) in the universe, but it requires Internet connection. It also means you can just switch to solo when you have expensive cargo and avoid other players, but that's another matter.
