Product Details
 | Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe DVD |
| List Price: | $29.99 |
| Price: | $29.40 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Product Description
Flight Simulator X will awe flight simulator fans and real pilots alike. All-new eye-popping graphics, actual missions to accomplish and a wider range of airports to visit recreate the experience of being a pilot, right down to the smallest detail. Complete point-to-point objectives and skill-based tests, or just fly around the world if you'd prefer that to ferrying passengers or cargo. Whatever you choose to do as a pilot, it's available here in Flight Simulator X Deluxe.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #3233 in Video Games
- Brand: Microsoft
- Released on: 2006-10-17
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- Platform: Windows XP
- Dimensions: 1.20" h x 5.40" w x 7.40" l, .52 pounds
Features
- Fly 24 different airplanes, including Ultralites for when you don't want to deal with all the knobs and dials
- Visit 24,000 of the world's airports, on all 7 continents
- Authentic road layouts - fly over your home town and navigate by the streets below
- Simulates advanced GPS technology
- Deeply immersive world to providing more structured gameplay elements
Customer Reviews
From a pilot
I am a general aviation
pilot, flying single engine fixed wing Cessna type aircraft (4 seater).
Flight Simulator X gives the feeling of actually piloting a plane. The
plane responds to the controls much like "the real thing".
Like
other reviewers, I must agree that you must have a great computer. I
have a dual processor Pentium D 940 running 3.2 Ghz, 4 gb RAM, 512 mb
NVIDIA graphic card. On my system, with maxed out graphics and scenery,
it runs very well, with only an occasional slight bump in frame-rates. I
am somewhat disappointed with the scenery, which is good in major
cities, but still basic in the country-side. The terrain is good
everywhere, but the structures lack detail in other than the cities. The
detail on airport runways and taxiways is terrific! Aircraft list is
extensive. I recommend it.
Most fun I've
had on my PC in as long as I can remember
I got my copy of this edition
a week ago. The last copy of FS I owned was the 2000 version so I was
about ready for an upgrade! I dropped the first DVD in and installed it;
it took a good half an hour to get through all three DVD's. Then I
fired it up. I was immediately prompted for what kind of user was I -
novice, experienced FS user or an actual Pilot. I picked novice as I'd
not played a game like this one in at least four years and needed all
the help I could get. It then talked me though some basics and let me
control a plane already in the air at one point and that was cool - very
easy intro; I was looking at the plane from behind so no confusing
instruments or what-have-you. Felt like an accomplishment!
After
this it suggested I go through the tutorials, and told me where to find
them, and even though I was itching to just take off from a small
airport very close to my home in a Cessna or something and just get
flying, maybe try to find my house - I resisted the urge and dutifully
found the first mission.
It was in a microlite, which is nice and
easy to see out of, which was already flying in the air when the
mission started. I just had to navigate it though some huge green
squares hanging improbably in mid-air, which I just about managed after
the second go. I then wandered about, and found it very cool to see a
small boat whizzing along a coast I seemed to be over; I worked out how
to get down close to it and was racing along just above it! Well,
briefly - I got too low and fell in the drink :-p
I only have a
keyboard and mouse and found it devilishly difficult to control the
thing with the keyboard; it was a little easier with the mouse. I then
undertook several other missions, where I learnt to take off, and land,
and navigate around the ground in an airport. The computer talked me
through the whole thing; it was fairly straightforward and tremendous
fun.
I found after a couple of hours of periodically losing
control of my various aircraft that I really needed a joystick. I rushed
out to my local electrical retailer and bought the Saitek X52 flight
System, which costs a third less here on Amazon btw, and I can't
recommend it highly enough. I didn't even need to restart the game; I
just plugged it in and the whole thing worked immediately. It is so much
easier to control the aircraft with this set-up; made a massive
difference.
The most fun I've had so far was the mission that
introduces you to Jet's. I found myself in the seat of a medium-sized
passenger jet, on a slip-road by a runway. In front of me, through the
windshield, I could see another passenger jet, ahead of me in the line
for the runway. The computer started explaining to me some of the gauges
in front of me, about how it was a glass cockpit and so on. I looked
around using the "Virtual Cockpit" view, which is ever so lifelike. I
found myself pushing the buttons on the display (prompted by the
computer) and it was just so cool. All this while "we" (the computer,
playing the co-pilot, and the plane in front) waited for a 747 to come
in to land, which it duly did. Then the plane in front moved in to
position to take off. The tower came over the speakers, and the computer
answered it for me, and told me that we should move forward. I can't
describe how real it felt to move the thrust forward a little, wheel the
plan around and get in position behind the plane in front; I was as
nervous in that simulation as I was on my first ever driving lesson. I
was worried I was holding people up in the line behind me! That the
tower might get impatient! Anyway the first plane took off, and after
more instruction I got myself on to the runway as the computer, still
playing my copilot, jabbered away about heights, angles, vectors and
some similar stuff I was too nervous to take in. Then we had clearance
from the tower to take off and I was time to crank the engines and get
off the ground! I managed it just fine, mostly by luck rather than
taking in the computers' tuition, and followed the computers directions
and managed to navigate to a nearby airport and *nearly* landed (I
clipped the trees at the front of the airport 
I should preface this review
with a statement:
I've been a fan of the flight sim franchise
since I first played Bruce Artwicks' version on Apple II. And no other
software title has inspired me to spend as much money over the years to
upgrade my pc hardware as much as Flight Simulator. I know this kind of
game demands the latest and greatest, and generally, I have no qualms
about making this kind of investment when a new FS version comes out.
And I really wanted to like this game.
However, I really believe
that Microsoft has over-done it this time. What I mean is, I think it
will be about a year before the hardware that is required to run this
game at acceptable speed and display quality settings will even be
available to the average person. Like I said, I expected to need
high-end hardware to run FS X, I did not expect that the hardware
required would be stuff that isn't even for sale yet. Now, if you're
willing (and can afford) to go out today and buy an
ultra-super-extreme-high-end gaming rig, with the very fastest core 2
duo cpu available and a water-cooled quad-SLI video subsystem, you can
probably get this pig to fly, but if you don't, you won't have much fun
with this "game."
Case in point- my machine has an Athlon 64 X2
4800+ cpu, 2Gig of RAM, and an ATI 1900XT video card with 512M RAM.
While not quite "bleeding edge," I think by all rational standards this
machine is a pretty solid gaming rig. I can play FEAR, QUAKE 4, LOCK-ON,
and a half-dozen other graphics-intensive games with all the settings
turned up to MAX and I still get very fast frame rates. But when I
loaded up this dog, it was like watching a slide show. I am not kidding -
5 or 10fps, tops. Even after turning everything in the graphics and
scenery settings way down, turing autogen OFF, it barely got up to
15-20fps. And often it would still dip below 10. This is not a playable
frame rate for flight simulation- not even close.
Frankly, I
almost think this version is a step backwards- I say this because if you
turn down the display settings so that you get flyable frame-rates, the
view out the window will look considerably worse than FS2004. By
comparision I can fly FS2004, with detail and video settings at or near
max, AND MegaScenery installed, and I consistently get 35-45fps. It
appears that Microsoft is selling this title primarily based on the
improvements in the eye candy, but in order to get that eye candy and
have reasonable frame rates, you need to spend at least $3000 to $4000
on a completely new and very, VERY high-end machine. If you're OK with
that, knock yourself out. Hell, for that amount of money you could
almost get a real pilot's license. But for the vast majority of people
out there, I would say, save your money, because FS2004 looks and flies
MUCH better on today's hardware.
MAYBE, when the Vista version
comes out, AND we give the hardware guys about a year to catch up, then
FS X will be a playable game. Because it's sure not right now. =(
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