apehater: i still don't get what this games is, what do you do there and whats so interesting in it?
It's a big box of rocket-shaped legos. You build a rocket/ship/rover/plane/station/probe from them, and then you get to pilot them in a semi realistic physical environment, to explore a whole solar system.
So you have to learn about building efficient rockets, fuel consumption, aerodynamics, orbital mecanics, all that stuff. Sounds boring, right? Wrong, since you learn by experimenting, looking at your ships exploding, and then trying different stuff to see what works. Reaching space, achieving orbit, landing on the moon : Each step is difficult, but immensely rewarding.
So you'll build more and more complex stuff, build a space infrastructure with refuel and resupply stations, create networks of satellites...
Note that it's an "all the fun is in the travel, not the destination" kind of experience. The fun part is building a ship, assambling stations, reaching faraway places, then coming back home. There's not a lot to do once you're on Mars apart from grabbing some science points, for example, but you'll feel like the king of the world nonetheless when that probe launched 2 years ago will touch the martian ground (and then promptly fall over since the landing struts you installed were not surdy enough, and your antena was slightly off-center. Ooops! But you'll still take 847 screenshots of that Mars sunrise over your prone lander)
Note that if you prefer a more "guided" gaming experience than a pure sandbox (I do), there are 2 campaign modes ("career" and "science") that give you some goals : you start with a very limited selection of rocket parts, and have to acquire scientific data and/or do missions to unlock new parts, that will allow you to do more ambitious missions.
Personally, I think that "science mode" is a good beginner campaign : you get a structured gameplay with some goals to keep you going (explore new places to get "science points"), you discover new parts as you play (instead of having several hundred different parts available at once), and you don't have to struggle with your budgect or with your astronaut's training.
Kardwill: Graphics are not KSP's forte, it's true. It can actually be pretty ugly at times.
tinyE: I don't know. First time I achieved orbit, heard the music, and saw the blue sheen of the atmosphere coming up over the horizon, I shit myself. That for me was beautiful beyond words.
Oh yeah, no argument here, the planets are somewhate bare, but some space panoramas are reaaaaal cool, especially when you just "earned" them by getting up there.
It's just that when you land in a "forest", you remember abruptly that KSP is a SPACE simulator, not a planet one ^^.
