Flight Unlimited III Details

Looking Glass Friday unveiled new details about its upcoming flight simulation Flight Unlimited III at the MicroWINGS Flight Simulation Conference in Orlando, Florida.

This time around Flight Unlimited III will be centered in the Seattle region, featuring all photo-realistic terrain based on satellite data, and will include all of the famous scenery of the area, including the Space Needle, Mt. Rainier, and downtown Seattle. The graphics engine will also show smaller features like vehicles and boats as well.

Another change is a new weather modeling system, based on real weather conditions and dynamic weather simulations. Five new aircraft will also be available, including a corporate jet.

"Flight Unlimited III represents a significant step forward in the Flight Unlimited series," said Paul Neurath, managing director of Looking Glass Studios. "Looking Glass' proprietary Flight Sim engine has been enhanced to create graphics and physics models which are more realistic than ever before."

GameSpot News spoke to Looking Glass spokesperson, Mike Malizola, who said that Looking Glass and its copublisher, Electronic Arts, will only say that FUIII will be released sometime in 1998. Malizola said that the FUII registered user database has filled to over 10,000 users, and the last patch offered for FUII caused the company's servers to crash on the first day (probably because of the added plane, not because the title was buggy). If you're one of the die-hard FUII players who use the Adventure Editor, you'll be happy to know that FUII adventures will work in FUIII as well.

FUIII will use four meters per pixel rendering for highly realistic scenery. When we asked if Mount St. Helens would be included in the scenery, Malizola said, "Since it's a considerable distance from Seattle (St. Helens is technically in Oregon), it won't be included in the game."

We also asked if Looking Glass had any plans in the future to make an FU title based on flying in Looking Glass' home territory in Boston? Malizola replied, "No, Boston is just too flat."