I've been playing #1 for eons and still love it due in large part to it's huge and varied single player campaign. The reason I've yet to get #2 is that I've never heard anything good or bad about it's single player campaign. It's tough to get an accurate call because so many people love multiplayer and skirmish so even if the SP is shit they still tell you it's great, but unfortunately for me it's not.

Can anyone give me a good assessment on the SP? I like goal specific missions/story with missions long and varied. I don't mind the occasional time limit but only is small doses. Some games EVERY mission has you racing the clock and that's too aggravating for me. Thanks for any advice. :D

Don't bother dude. There are a lot of gameplay innovations but the game doesn't feel like ee anymore. It is still a good rts game but it simply doesn't capture the enormity of what you were doing in ee1. I was tempted for ages to play the game and eventually gave in and decided to buy it, only to regret it later. Again, it's not bad (on the contrary) - it just lost the vibe of the first one. Go on youtube and search for some gameplay footage - which is perhaps what i should have done. For empire building i would rather play ee1 or civilization (IV -the best; V - surprisingly good )

Thanks. I've got the demo here and it's not bad but the whole game just seems geared toward skirmishes.

Maybe I'll ninja it one day. :D