I haven't played D3 but I have played D2 and based on the screen shots the changes don't look revolutionary. Since many aren't familiar with the series, I'll share my thoughts on what it's like. D is a game for people who like to tinker with complex systems and watch how small changes can snowball into big ones. You start with a country that is saddled with a variety of conditions, such as the state of the economy, the quality of roads, general health and education of the population, as well as policies such as taxes, drug or alcohol prohibition, social welfare or immigration. The number of different components is astounding and all have the potential to affect one another. You also have your population made up of social groups, each with its own preferred agenda. The more you appeal to a groups ideology, the more support you get in elections. Lose an election and lose the game. But your policies can also cause a group to shift in population, so it's possible to make major social transformations over time. D tries to model accepted mainstream political and economic theory so there is a bias that might not appeal to you if you favor a more extreme view; however, D2 was moddable for anybody who wants to invest the time. The interface looks complicated but the mechanics are well streamlined. Once you understand how one "dot" works, you'll find that the all the others aren't so scarey. I like the series but I would wait for a price drop before purchasing.
Those of you who have played Wing Commander 1 or 3 will recall the training simulator that you could run within the game. Interestingly, WC2 didn't have such a feature but basically that's what WC Academy is: a training simulator. There's no story or campaign so you don't have that sense of wanting to complete missions so you can see what happens next. Academy is a little more involved than the "gauntlet" style simulators from the other titles. You have up to four nap points which you can fill with enemies and hazards, including minefields which function similarly to asteroid fields but with more destructing power when you run into one. You can select the placement, number, and type of opposing starcraft. This allows you to create some interesting scenarios where you might have a capital ship on one flank and starfighters on another, leaving you to decide which to focus your early attention on first. You also get to choose your wingman, each with a different AI and set of priorities, though for overall ability Hobbes is the clear choice. Unfortunately the game doesn't allow you to set special mission objectives. Each navpoint you're expected to clear the map of enemies and everybody is an enemy. Even if you add Confed fighters, they'll be hostile to you. There's also no opportunity to set up escort missions. I would only recommend the game to people who love WC2 and want to test their piloting mettle in a variety of custom scenarios.
