I've been using Flight Simulators for over 13 years, and FSX is the best yet.
-I've been using Flight Sims for over 13 years
-I'm a real world student pilot
-I've been using FSX for a year
-My first MS FS was FS 95
Ok, Flight Simulator X is the only solid FS released since 2006, excluding Falcon 4.0 allied force. Flight Sims are not that popular these days due to lack of intrist by gamers who would rather go shoot somebody all day. But thank god for Microsoft for continuing their greatest series, Flight Simulator, and FSX is a worthy sequel to all of them.
First Pros and Cons:
Pros: You can fly anywhere in the world, alot of flyable aircraft to start with, Almost almost real life physics such as gyro drifts, correct turbulence, accurate P-factor and all that aircraft physics lingo (almost like flying in real life), Virtual cockpits are extremely well thought out and are great to use, graphics are the best out of any flight sim yet, Missions such as flying tutorials to difficult IFR 747 aprroaches easy the casual gamer into flying, and are just as fun for a veteran simmer, They also have replicas of real life flying lessons from your first solo flight, to your check ride for your ATP, excellent AI traffic, scenery could be better but you can get addons for that, although the scenery is good enough to please anyone.
Cons: More aircraft such as the 757, 767, 727, DC-10, Airbuses would have been nice, more voice overs wouldve helped the lack of ATC accents, Traffic like at Dallas intl or LAX can get way backed up, but I guess that is sometimes reality, People complain about performence, and they are right but in reality this is a monster program so you really need a descent PC.
Simply put, if you like flying at all go buy a stick and pick up the deluxe version of FSX for $40, it is a great simulator, not the most revolutionary in the series, but a worthy sequel.