I love this game. It's one of the best Maxis sims, in my opinion.
One thing I don't understand is why people say it has a steep learning curve.
The game isn't a hard program to figure out how to play. As for the science aspect of it, the majority of it you learn in sixth grade science class. Everything you do in the game is quite logical - you increase solar input, your planet gets hotter, you increase the cloud albedo, it gets colder.
But anyway, great game!
