I'm happy to report that the second edition of Eclipse Phase has more or less fixed all of the mechanical problems with the system.

Character creation, once a purely point buy system that more than one of my players described as tedious, is now runs on a streamlined, package buy system, though point buy is available for any purists or min-maxxers that may be interested. For those who are familiar with the first edition, the new system appears to be based on the one presented in Transhuman.

Resleeving - moving your mind to a new body - has also been improved, largely by paring down the number of things your morph affects. While this means that the individual morphs can feel less distinct, it means that it's much more feasible to switch morphs mid-session without the use of a spreadsheet, making it a welcome change, at least in my group.

The four pools are also a great addition, serving both as mechanical advantages that represent a character's enhanced abilities, and as ways to reinforce the fiction of a character.

While a lot has been made of the streamlining done in second edition, Eclipse Phase remains a rules-heavy game, and as such will not be ideal for every group. My group came from d&d, and has not had a lot of trouble picking up the game, though - as with a lot of sci-fi games - the lingo can be a bit of a hurdle.

As was the case with the first edition, the setting is a real treat here - detailed and interesting, with lots of hooks for different sorts of campaigns. A number of my players - even those not traditionally drawn in by setting 'fluff', tore through the material in the core book before moving on to relevant 1st edition books to find out more.

Overall, a great book, and a great improvement over the previous edition.