Ahhh...
I've been playing Freespace 2 lately, and I have to say, it is one of the best games I have ever played. It's easily the best shoot-em-up/flight sim I ever played. The game has wonderful graphics for it's time (I think O_o) and it's really fun. I've never played Descent Freespace and I have no idea of anyhting about it, or if it's connected to Descent the game by Interplay.
It mixes a certain ammount of Mechwarrior, B-52 Megafortress Bomber and the Star Wars games. This combination gives you the ability to choose your ship and weapon, control your ships systems to make sure you don't die, read about all that happened in the previous games and also about all the ships, weapons and various concepts. It also lets you go onto extensive missions from capturing the enemy flagship to going undercover and stabbing the enemy from the inside.

I think this is a really cool game, but I haven't beaten it quite yet. If any of you have played it, then post here and tell me your opinion. The game can be found and downloaded, legally, here (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=4150) at Underdogs. It doesn't have all the cutscenes, but it does have the endings =/
Have fun, y'all...

I have played both Freespace and Freespace 2, and I must say, they are the best in their class. Amazing games, great story line fantastic battles and great cutscenes.

The controls were easy for me, it takes a little practise to memorize them, but once you got them, it's fairly simple :).