Three "I"s: Innovating, Interesting and Intelligent
After the last update (the NGE) the combat has turned to something similar to a third person shoot'em up and an RPG. And Action RPG. In the Star Wars setting.
Besides the combat being really great now, the new quests are really interesting and have very nice storylines, I hope to see more of them. Space to ground interaction has improved and you can now earn ground XP in space too.
Besides from that, the previous 32 professions were condensed into 9. This might sound bad at first but let's face it. From the previous 32 profesions, only 12 or 13 were "usefull" and most of them were just the same profession with a different weapon (riflesman, carbineer, pistoleer...).
Now they removed the useless professions and kept the most interesting ones, such as Bounty Hunter, Jedi, Smuggler, etc. Of course now you can't be as "unique" as before but they said they were implementing ways to make your character's skills different from person to person.
In the end: It's a great game. One of the best MMORPGs and I think everyoen should give it a try with the 10 day trial. You won't be disapointed :)
P.S.: Don't mind those guys rating the game with "1", they are mostly frustrated kids who lost their "uber jedi" with the patch (Jedi used to be an Alpha Class, stronger than most, attainable by most. Now it's balanced against the other iconic professions).