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Great game, need a joystick

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: April 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game and a fantastic value right now, but you should know that the game is virtually unplayable without a joystick. The game expects you to have a joystick and the controls are extremely difficult without one because keyboards don't have analog input. So definitely get a joystick.

Not just a game!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It is not only fun playing the 'game', I learn the skills to fly a plane - for real and that makes every minute of my time spent on it worthwhile. It has helped me a long way to practice my manuvers (to improve the skills and become more proficient) before and after my actual flight lessons. Without this software, I would have to take extra hours of flying lessons by spending a lot more bucks. Its a game that is really useful and makes your play time to be productive, to all ages alike. Well, I should say its not just a game, its a Flight Simulator!!

Bought when first released

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: December 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've been flight simming since the 1980s and went with MSFS when it finally came out and have had every version since.

Just have to say, even though the new FSX version is on the market now, until available hardware/systems improve enough to run it well, I'll stick with this FS9 (2004)version.

I've talked to many fellow flight simmers who bought the latest version FSX right away and although most can run it to some degree, it must be run with detail sliders way down range. Lots of them report that when set to even minimum details that they will accept, frame rates are too low to fly.

On a powerful PC THIS 2004 version will run with sliders to the max for most people. Of course, systems vary and even this older version might not on yours. Too many variables involved to say for sure though.

I'll guess within 2 years hardware will improve enough to run FSX as well at this one does now. Lots of great features in FSX but just a bit ahead of it's time for now.

Worth every dollar

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: October 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've owned FS2002. Now it is true, that you won't see a whole lot of change in graphics. There are huge improvements however in weather control, tutorials, the new Garmin GPS system, and the programing of flights and weather.

I've just started my Private Pilot Lessons 2 months ago. It's amazing how much of a jump start this program has given me. I purchased the CH flight sim yoke and rudders. Both of these are about $300. They are worth every dime if you are going to take flight lessons.

In all reality, this game and the controls could save your life if you are going to fly a real plane. There are emergency manuevers and taxiing practices that I've done which I can't do for real. Also, since you can control your own weather scenarios, it's the best practice you can get for cross - controlled landings, high wind take offs, and stalls.

There's no better product out there for any price that I'm aware of.

2002 or 2004?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 20
Date: March 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have been using FS since version 1, when it had the crop duster, and have BOUGHT legitimate version of every single one since I remember. I do not take to MS bashing and I was really looking forward to FS9/2004.
I first started FS9 with 1.8 MHz, 640Mb RAM MSI M/B and AGP 4X NVidia. FS9 kindly advised me that I would have to forget about hardware acceleration, and decided for me what display settings I could expect (which turned out to be the absolutely lowest possible configuration Very Very Low)and started crawling along at an average of 3.5 FPS.
I had read the very good review (see below, "Good Sim, But Remember the "Sim" Part!") so I ordered the 256Mb 8X AGP NVidia he uses, and discovered that my mother board was 4X and therefore there was hardly any improvement with the 8X AGP(soared to 5 FPS :( ). So, what the hell, my 3 yrs old box was due for a renewal, and I got me a 3.0 MHz, 1 Gb of RAM together with the already purchased Video card. Net expense: Over $700 (in Nicaragua) thinking my patience and wallet would be soon rewarded -All that trying to hide from my wife and, in the process, having to reinstall twice XP, but what won't we do for our favorite Simulator!). Try again! FS still informed me that I had not enough memory, but did apply the software acceleration. Thanks FS9!, and upgraded me to Low configuration and I now hop along at... what do you think? 6.5 fpm. Shall I say I was somewhat unhappy? FS9 refuses to aknowledge the card in the Hardware Display Settings, and does not offer any screen resolution menu, as FS 2002 does, and does not let me go into the full screen mode. So it is VERY far from being happy with the present muscles and I have no idea how much more would make it more enthusiastic. It is not very communicative in this respect.

Then I had the idea of reinstalling FS 2002. Well, with THAT much muscle, FS 2002 IS a beauty. To start with, you get MAXIMUM Display setting and performance, hardware acceleration enabled and you actually fly at 20 or more FPS.

Go to LFLY (BRON, France) in January at, say, 16:00 local time in your Cessna, heading 120, then go up the snow covered valleys, now partly in the crisp winter mountain shadows of the sunset. You will find hundreds of lighted houses along the way, street lamps, etc. with still enough sunlight to see the sky and the reddish sunset light on top of the surrounding mountains. You can VFR around the light-dotted valleys of Oisans with a feeling of total reality and pure bliss.
I did exactly the same with FS9 and got about 1 lighted house every 10 miles.

Conclusion, if you decide to upgrade your machine for 2004, I suggest using it for 2002 which is superb, although you do loose quite a few improvement and save yourself the $25.
Maybe the FS team will find a way to actually reach a reasonable setting and a 10 FPS in version 9.2-

As for crashing to the desktop, downloading 9.1 helps a little, but not that much, particularly while you are around airports.

Now, would not all that explain the $25 only MS charges for FS9? O maybe MS is using us to do a free world wide testing, to detect all the airports in the world that they have to upgrade to their new configuration (they have changed something in the airport properties which make FS crash to the desktop quite frequently). You decide. But I don't think it is quite fair not to be level with us. The warning SHOULD BE "Do not buy FS9 unless you have 5 GhZ turbocharged 64 bit machine, with 20 GB RAM and a 10Gb Video card".
Yves Chaix

Not what it should be.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: September 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Flight Sim 2004 is well thought out and there are quite a few good features in the package. Rod Machado's flight school is about as good as you can get, and the weather options are great.

There are a couple crippling problems with the flight aspect of the game.

First off, trimming. It may just be me, but it's considerably harder to trim the aircraft in Flight Sim than it is in a real airplane (light GA airgraft, that is). The result of this is holding constant pressure. You can't really fly straight and level hands-off. Getting an auto-trim function would make the game much less frustrating,

The engine just isn't that great by today's standards. Scenery is blocky and generic, so don't expect to fly VFR. Even using an add-on scenery pack specific to my area I couldn't identify any landmarks. The aircraft themselves, however, are rendered wonderfully.

FS2004 really pretty much is at the end of its life cycle since 2006 should probably be rolling around pretty soon, but by today's standards, X-Plane 8 is much better. If you're looking for a flight sim as a supplement to real-world flying, I'd recommend waiting for Flight Sim 10 or picking up X-Plane 8.

More Educational than Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This isn't an adventurous type of game, it's more like educational software. Real flying is methodical and careful, and using this software is a lot the same. You can end up flying an instrument panel if you aren't careful. Very good desktop introduction to flight. If you just want simple fun swooping around blasting things or some such thing, try to find an old version of Airfix Dogfighter somewhere. If you want to compare a possible competitor, check out X-Plane, at the web site of the same name. Real flying lessons are too expensive for mere mortals; if you want more than this game, do what my wife did for me for a Christmas present: see if your local airport has an introduction to flight experience offering a short flight (40 minutes or so) for only thirtysome bucks, where you get to fly once you're up. One annoying thing about this software is the copy protection scheme, which keeps demanding insertion of a disc: Microsoft, I won't be buying more games from you because of that.

Still my favourite FS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have recently reviewed Flight Simulator X. While that simulator has amazing graphics and improved gameplay (..somewhat) I still keep FS2004 as my favourite, everyday-use flight simulator.

There are several reasons to get this:

- Price. The price is almost a steal for this wonderful product. I remember paying $49 for it at Walmart when it first came out.

- Performance and Graphics. It's very beautiful game. It has great landscapes, 3D cockpit. I only wish the water effects were a little bit better. Most importantly, this game will work on almost any decent PC with 512MB of RAM, 128MB video card.

- Gameplay. Amazing. Simply stunning. I absolutely love flying from Chicago to Indianapolis in a Boeing 737.. enjoying beautiful waterscape of Lake Michigan and green corn fields of Indiana.

The aircrafts perform and like they should. I love the older airplanes such as "Dougs" which fly realistically with no problems. The game features a lot of historic aircrafts but you can download THOUSANDS of add-ons.. not only aircrafts but also cockpit panels, landscapes and even ATC.

Overall.. I love this product. I am absolutely in love with it and will continue to use it for long time. It's a lot better in performance terms than FSX.. and a lot better for beginners. It has everything you need and nothing you don't need.

It is VERY playable with a keyboard and mouse, though not recommended. I personally recommend a Logitech FLI kit or something like that.

If you think you can handle having fun and learning geometry, physics and math at the same time then you have no problems with getting this product.

Very recommended!

If you liked the ones in the past, you'll love this

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I basically bought a new computer and joystick for this game! I fly for real, and this is the closest it comes to doing the real thing. The visuals just keep getting better, although you gotta get a good graphics card to handle them now. The weather improvements are dramatic, although they still have some problems. Compared to the last version though, they're awesome. The only downside is that the new planes aren't that cool - I flew all of them once, and then returned to the old ones I flew in the last version. Of course you can always download others off the web (the fighter jets are fun for a while) but the flight rules for those planes are not at all accurate.

If you just want an action shoot them up game, don't get this. This is for people that want to feel like they're flying a real plane. I play this game almost everyday - even if it's a short hop from Midway to Ohare.

Awsomme

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: January 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is simpily the BEST flight sim ever made. The default plane slection is not too good, but there are many exclent freeware and payware models on avsim.net and flightsim.com. I HIGHLY recommend this product, and If you are considering buying X-plane, DON'T!!! (unless you have a mac of course) This is a highly surpeior product to X-plane. The only downside of this product is that it is so powerful that you need a very good computer to run it. Otherwise, BUY IT!!!

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