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Great sim, but can MS offer a more engaging aircraft selection?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: July 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

MS Flight Simulator improves with each new addition with many fans having to purchase new graphics cards and, for the less technical among us, new systems to reap all the visual delights this wonderful sim. The game is, and has always been, beautifully put together, but you will need a powerhouse of a system to enjoy all the benefits of this latest edition "A Century of Flight." While I can appreciate MS looking at "Flight Simulator" as tool to teach us about the significant milestones of aviation history, I only wished that they could have expanded the selection of available aircraft; for example, many of the planes and jets are borrowed from earlier editions despite some interesting additions: the Curtiss Jenny, the Vickers Vilmy, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Robinson Helicopter, to name a few. Why not retain the Concorde from the 2000 edition? Not even a fighter jet? Why not add the new Airbus 380? Seems that MS has become rather complacent with "Flight Simulator" tweaking some minor changes here and there in the graphics department and some navigation feature enhancements like Garmin GPS, but not all of us are die-hard fans who want to purchase expensive and sometimes bug-ridden add-ons to satisfy our need for options to this absorbing sim.

Back to Basics

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: October 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have owned a flight simulation game before but found it to be too advanced for a beginner like me. When I read the description of FS 2004 that offered a Piper Cub as one of the aircraft I was intrigued enough to want to buy the game. After the easy installation and simple start-up, I immediately went for the Piper Cub flight and now I'm hooked. I can easily see how this sim will allow me to progress easily to more advanced planes. In the meantime I am really excited about the outstanding graphics and the sophistication of this sim. Just for fun try flying a helicopter around Paris or Rome to view the beautiful cities. Or try flying a Piper Cub over Los Vegas at night. Be careful though because you will find yourself not paying attention to your flying.

This game is absolutely terrific as are the sights, sounds and realism. If you have not bought this flight sim game yet, shame on you.

Good Sim, But Remember the "Sim" Part!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: December 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have been using flight simulators since MS Flight Simulator 4.0, and have more diverse experience than only Microsoft's offering to call upon. While any simulator can be made quite realistic with the latest hardware and enough money, it is important to note that Microsoft's offering is no different - you cannot, as they say, make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. This means that if you're running an underpowered system, you will not be able to run the simulation optimally.

Published system requirements:
* Pentium 450 or greater processor
* 64 MB RAM for 98/Me, 128 MB RAM for 2000/XP
* 8 MB/3-D with DirectX 7.0 or later videocard
* 1.8 GB hard drive space

My recommendation:
* P4 2.x GHz processor; the faster, the better
* 512MB RAM, with ideally 1GB under the hood
* 128MB / 256MB AGP video card that pushes TONS of pixels - the more, the better
* At least 5GB free hard drive space - You'll want to do a full install, and that comes in just under 3GB (2.88GB, I think)

I run on:
* P4 3.0GHz processor
* 1GB RAM
* Windows XP PRO (SP1)
* 256MB 8xAGP GeForce 5700 series NVidia video card
* Sidewinder joystick (soon to go, thanks to some pedals and a yoke I ordered!)
* On-board surround sound processor

The software itself is practically infinitely extendable, with software and hardware add-ons supported. A quick look around in the flightsim community will support my assertion that the software is CHEAP compared to what can be done to augment it. Add-on packages are available to augment FS2004's admitidedly weak "ground mesh" mapping - flying through Norway's waterways and coasts with the default scenery is nothing next to the real thing, and pales in comparison to some of the add-on packages (both for photo-texturing and mesh-building) out there. But of course, these things cost money (sometimes), as does building and maintaining a system that can fully take advantage of the software.

This is a SIMULATOR, remember - a dozen years ago something like this with a set of pedals and yoke would have been a BIG deal and far out of the reach of the home consumer. Now, as the bar of admission lowers, it is important to realize just how MANY numbers are being crunched every second (most of those in graphics routines), and spec a system appropriately. It might not be a multi-million dollar prospect to own any longer, but to adaquately run the simulator and get something "real" out of it, it is certainly not unheard of to run multi-head (throwing many monitors onto a machine) for a partial panoramic view - but, of course, realism comes at its price.

Need a joystick

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: September 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am thoroughly enjoying Flight Simulator 2004 now that I have a joystick (Logitech Extreme 3D Pro). The simulator ran poorly on my laptop from the keyboard (no numbers pad, sluggish and uneven response). Performance was better but still disappointing using the full keyboard of my desktop PC. In spite of the claim to be keyboard friendly, the flying lessons are far better suited for use of the joystick.
The Logitech joystick installed without any problem whatsoever and all functions work very well.

The best flight sim I have ever played!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: June 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

MS Flight Simulator seems to get better every time they make another one and this edition is no different. There are new aircraft and more controls to learn. Many of the weather concepts they described has changed since 2002. The clouds are more realistic and that is a definite plus!

When you first load up the game. You are introduced by King Schools John and Martha King. They help you get familarized with the controls and the indicators withthe plane. Then you take a flight with instructor Rod Machado who helps you with a introductory flight. He will help you with landing, turning, and taking off. Plus this game has a whole section on flying lessons with him to help control the commercial jets as well. The section that is very cool is the learning center. It helps with understanding what is a GPS, what are taildraggers and more. The videos with John and Martha are a nice touch. There are scenarios where you can recreate everyday flight. In one you can drive an author in a Cessna 172SP around to all of his book signings and pratice ILS stuff. There is also a tour of famous sights you can visit. Like the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and more. The air traffic control is much improved. You can set ILS for your flight, change the runway you want to depart or land at and make changes to your flight in air. Also the traffic is more realistic, for example, a JFK airport there could be a line of aircraft waiting for takeoff, but at private runways, there is no one there. At the big airports if you set the textures at high settings you can see the features at international airports like the jetway at airports, signage on runways and baggage carts. Weather is better since the clouds looks much more realistic.

The only problem is you need a big computer to run it at max features and this game you want to have the sharpest images possible. A video card at around 128 MB should be good to run it at medium textures.

This is the best game yet for the Flight Simulator series and will make any flight simulator junkie happy.

FSX doesn't work on your PC? Buy this one!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: March 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Numerous fans of this game series flooded stores and websites to purchase FSX when it came out in October just to find that for 70% of them, the marvelous new game wouldn't work very well on their computer. Still, Microsoft continues to make a huge profit from these FSX sales today.

Upon the release of FSX, the price of FS9 (this one) dropped like a bomb. So, now is the time to buy into a great game. FS9 is the best simulator out that most computers can still run. It has the most beautiful and realistic graphics and scenery the FS series has had.

Also, the improved weather generator makes it all the more realistic. This game has some of the best default aircraft that we've seen out of the FS series, offering not only the standard FS aircraft we've seen before, but also some of the more historic aircraft that paved the way for modern aviation.

The only downside is that the game's ATC simulator is not very accurate to real world standards, but forget it. Turn that off and fly online with the rest of us! FS9 is the most commonly used simulator amongst sim enthusiasts right now. If you have the latest and greatest computer hardware, spend the money and buy FSX. But if you're like the rest of us, buy FS9!

FS 2004: A Century of F*#@ing Pain!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: December 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have NEVER had a computer game do more mischievous damage to my computer than Flight Simulator 2004 did when I tried to install it! First of all, the game would not operate at all, a complete disaster! Second of all, it reconfigured my sound card settings so badly, that it took me two weeks to straighten them out. Third, in it's ActiveX whirlwind slash session through the cortex of my system, it scrambled the only other two games I had on my system. I say "had", because I had to remove them as a result of FS2004(or the Borg, as I so fondly refer to it!) It seems like any Microsoft game with the Game Studio logo under it's name, isn't worth the package it comes in! I know I'm reviewing FS2004, but Combat Flight Simulator3 is another tragic example of a MS "Game Studio" fiasco!
In summary, I wouldn't suggest Flight Simulator 2004 to anyone, unless they have a spare couple of weeks to reconfigure a bunch of settings on their system! It's pretty bad when I get bent out of shape watching the advertisement for this game on television! Stick with FS2002, a non-"Game Studio" product, and worth every penny!

Item Good Seller NOT

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: February 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I don't have a problem with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. As expected it's good. The store that is selling this particular item is the problem!

I've seen where many customers have had good experiences when they get what they ordered from this company but those of us that didn't get what we ordered have had nothing but problems.

Don't believe the advertised Limited Edition Tin box. It isn't! When trying to contact customer service: The first time the gentleman on the phone was nice and said a manager would reply the next day. The manager didn't. After a week I called, waited on hold for 22 minutes, the lady on the phone argued with me that the manager did reply by e-mail, although my inbox showed nothing from this company other than the original purchase verification. When I asked if it could be re-sent she said no. When I asked to speak to a manager, she said he was in a meeting. Her overall tone was rude and not at all helpful!

When I finally received a return authorization number, I prepared the item for return and then wanted to make sure shipping would be reimbursed also. After e-mailing Gamestop 3 times, I finally got a reply and stated only the price of the item would be refunded. (Wow their e-mail actually reached me this time!)

This company has no customer service as demonstrated by the false advertising, the rude associates, the difficult customer-company communication, and the fact that when they advertised a product and didn't deliver it as advertised, they feel that they are the ones who shouldn't live up to their promises. The $29.99 price is higher than even Amazon because you think they are selling the Limited Edition. Don't be fooled, save $5 and buy somewhere else.

Bottom line: DON'T SUPPORT GAMESTOP OR PURCHASE FROM THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK! I know I'll never buy anything from them ever again!

A Masterpiece!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: July 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Nobody can beat the team at Microsoft at this game. Absolutely nobody. They have, after all, been at work on this software since 1983. When you consider how much development time, modeling, research, testing, filming, recording, and writing have gone into this truly exceptional product, calling it a "game" is a bit silly. What you have here, for a mere $30, is all of general and commercial aviation refined into a neat, fun, and incredibly instructive package. It's so complete that it's hard to imagine how it could possibly be improved. Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is hardly as well done.

Better have a computer with LOTS of horsepower to run it well though. And a BIG monitor is a must.

Another thing. Fans of this sort of game know that it's all about realism and spending a lazy Saturday flying around the world in real time. There's no appeal here for fans of "arcade" style games. ADD sufferers beware.

The Classic Flight Simulator

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: April 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Forget about MSFS-X. A Century of Flight is the only flight sim you'll ever need. As an owner of MS Flight Simulator X, I can honestly tell you that it won't give you any better graphics or performance than 2004 unless you have a $5,000 machine minimum. I deleted MSFS-X from my 2 GHz duo-core machine and re-installed MSFS 2004 and have BETTER performance and graphics. For the full experience, get a CH yoke and rudder - you'll think you're flying the real thing!

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