The con presentations looked pretty positive, really. A step further than what we've seen before.
The map is good for its purpose but I prefer ED's Galmap. In comparison the SC map looks a touch "gameish", but I mean that as a description, not a criticism. The overall flight and "space" part of the game leaves me slightly unexcited. Maybe it's the 3rd person view. It also tends to make everything look gameish. FD made a smart decision to restrict us to a cockpit view, apart from the debug camera (which preserves a sense of weight and authority because the ship is static and the camera pans around very slowly). When ships can be moved whilst viewing from a twitchy 3rd person perspective they instantly look "light" and cartoonish to my eyes.
The motion capture works well, apart from some sync issues that he drew attention to. Gary Oldman was just on autopilot, however. Even the best actor can't overcome a dreadful script and misguided direction.
Separately, having looked around the social module a bit now, it reminds me strongly of SWTOR, but with a more "realistic" design ethos.
More and more with everything I see, I'm convinced of my original impressions of SC formed a couple of years ago: Freelancer on steroids. Wing Commander is often cited, but I think the gameplay in SC will be far more like Freelancer, which is fine by me. Looking forward to it.