Downloaded the demo a few nights ago. Its not bad.
No joystick support - which I was surprised by - but the game gets by fine (if not arguably better) without it.
Looks pretty, and it has substance. If you did the Wing Commander/Privateer thing when space flight sims first blew up, you might want to check it out. I was initially uninspired by it - but the more I played, the more I was drawn in.
The makers have devised an interesting way to get around the large distances in space - they created "highways" of sorts which allow you to travel at higher speeds along pre-arranged paths. Im curious as to how the multiplayer aspect will pan out.
PS: Runs perfect on my 1.3 Athlon with a 1st generation GF3 in 32 bit color.
http://www.microsoft.com/games/freelancer/EDIT: Wont let me post screenshots - just follow the link