This is the first MS-Flightsimulator I have flown. Thus I am NOT measuring the 2004-version against older versions. The great/superb things about MS-Flightsim. 2004: When one has started the game, one is greeted with several welcome-videos of a flight-school in the U.S. of A. which explain the basic features of MS-Flightsim. 2004 and ‘REAL’ flight-lessons follow thereafter! In these flight-lessons one sits in the airplane together with a flight-teacher (just like in driving-school). The flight-teacher shows and explains, what he wants one to do – not only with text on the screen (text is added additionally), but with his own voice; which appears as real, that one almost does not notice, that his voice had to be recorded (obviously), to use it in this flightsim. The flight-teacher will indeed assist in between all the various flight-exercises, which one gives a real feeling of ‘Listen, Watch & Learn’. {If you use a proper (at best force-feedback) flight-stick, at least proper stereo-speakers (better surround-speakers), far a part for far greater sound-immersion, than it really feels almost like sitting in the real flight-school-airplane.} I have counted 5 learn-chapters in that flight-school, which include seven to eight flight-lessons each, which in turn last all ca. 5 – 15 minutes. (This gives oneself a great flight-lesson-learning-possibility, if one has not much time at hand at once; e.g. 15 minutes every day). If you, for example, want to fly factually (like myself), want to join a Soaring (glide-plane) Club or fly a (factual) motor-air-plane, than you can save yourself loads and loads of money for theoretical AND practical flight-lessons. It is still of course a huge difference between a flight-simulator and the factual airplane, when one experiences the sensation of acceleration, accent/descent, roll/pitch, etc. and the knowledge, that doing a mistake could actually cost your and other peoples lives, but one has than already all necessary knowledge and some experience, which saves oneself easily a minimum of several hundred €uro. MS-Flightsimulator 2004 is as real to factual flying as a flight-simulator at ones own Home-PC can be. The video-graphics can be improved of course further over the coming years, which depends mainly on ones computer hardware-power; where Microsoft has (of course) to draw a line of compromise. The cloud-system, Microsoft has developed for this flightsim., is truly extraordinarily impressive. It ads a true sense of flying below, above or through clouds (not like in older flight-sims. where the clouds were usually just a static image on the ‘sky-plane’. {The weather-system can be, by the way, connected to the real weather-forecasts around the globe; but you can read all these information on the info.-page about MS-Flightsim 2004 (A Century of Flight) here at Gamespot, Microsoft’s website, etc.} ALSO: All instruments can be used with ‘point and click’, which saves oneself from having to learn tens and tens of keyboard-commands (Although it is certainly useful to assign some of the most-used commands, such as gear up/ -down, flaps up/ -down, etc. to some of your flightstick-buttons.). The lighting in your cockpit is factually influenced by the natural light-conditions around you, with respective shadow-casts on cockpit-instruments, etc, which is a very nice feature and also ads further to the realism of this flightsim. The radio-traffic-control-system plays real voices and one can and needs to learn to use this system appropriately to avoid accidents at airports (during landing/ lift-off) and on the air-‘streets’/ -routes. The multi-player-feature is also truly magnificent, as it ads further to the realism of this flight-sim. Also it encourages oneself to fly particularly well, as the other flight-sim.-pilots will obviously not appreciate it, if one has an accident with them at an airport or in the air {e.g. it not a good idea to taxi on a major run-way (unless instructed to do so by the air-port-watch-tower), where flight-sim.-pilots start off and land with Airbuses and Boeings – guess what I did yesterday evening?} This flight-sim. is practically limitless in its capacity of using ANY airplane, designed to be used with this simulation. There are factually at least hundreds of additional airplanes available, to be used with MS-Flightsim. 2004 – even Space Shuttles, if you like. One can also add further, more detailed satellite-photographic scenery to this flightsimulator (e.g. from the area where you live). The things, which are not so good in this flightsim: In the so called ‘Virtual Cockpit View’ one can NOT pan around with ones mouse, as one is used to do so in other flightsimulators, such is IL2-Sturmovik (Forgotten Battles), Comanche 4 and others. The only way is by using either the hat-switch on your flightstick or the numeric-pad on your keyboard. Using the hat-switch is awkward, as – evidently - one can move the cockpit-view only at one predefined speed. This is very un-natural, as one does not move ones own head like a robot! Using the keypad on your keyboard just gives one the usual forward-, side-, back-, etc.-view in only 8 directions. {One could buy a head-tracker to solve this problem, but that is markedly very pricy.} {In Virtual Cockpit View one can also use point and click to press buttons, etc.; the insignias on instrument-buttons are still recognisable, but are, however, somewhat blured.} Microsoft’s programmers managed as well to reduce scrolling of texts in windows within MS-flightsimulator 2004 to snail-speed (on an AMD 3000+ machine!), which is rather unpleasant. Further: Twist-handle-flight-stick’s range (like my own) is to short and hence creates too much rudder-movement per millimetre of handle-twisting (this is not Microsoft’s fault). Thus it is recommendable to buy proper rudder-foot-pedals – if they were only not as expensive as they are ( let me know, if someone sells them to a low price; I live in the UK.). I have seen photos from flight-simulator-pilots, who use two or three monitors with MS-flight-simulator, but I have not found the feature to click-on in MS-flightsim. yet. (How does one do it, does anybody know?) That is it so far from me. Perhaps I will add some further experiences with it, when I have finished the flying-school-lessons of MS-Flightsim. 2004.
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