User Reviews (1 - 11 of 16)

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Unbelievably Bad

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 29
Date: April 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this program for my new MacPro, and couldn't wait to get it installed. I am a licensed pilot and have spent many hours flying many different flight sims, including an older version of XPlane for the PC. It took over an hour to install, and the installer kept going backwards in time remaining.

I bought my product in a box, but it's not a finished product, it's some sort of a beta version, filled with more bugs and glitches than you can shake a stick at. Trim goes crazy constantly, the throttle goes crazy (on three different sticks/yokes) and cockpit functionality is generally hit or miss on nearly everything. Flaps will work on one aircraft while only in a certain view mode, while other planes require a different view mode to operate flaps, speedbrakes or trim. Some aircraft seem to have no flap or airbrake functionality. The cockpits seem to be crappy ports from another version, and for something touted at oh so real, flight dynamics are all over the map with each plane.

The interface itself is quite silly, having to push buttons above and below numbers instead of simply inputting them. The Autopilot in most aircraft is the stupidest thing I have ever seen, mostly not working in one or more ways.

In general, this thing is a mess. Again, it's not a product, it's some sort of betaware. Updates look nightmarish, new aircraft and scenery seem to require programming skills and the forums make this all very clear. Unless you want to spend a significant portion of your life making this thing run right, stay away.

XPlane 9 just got uninstalled from my machine - back to the PC.

Lots of Bugs and a Hog on Disk Space

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: May 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have to agree with the other reviewer. X-Plane 9 is not what I expected. I will stick with MSFS 2004. I also thought my PFC controls that work with MSFS would be compatable with X-Plane and it was not the case.

Don't waste you money!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 23
Date: May 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is the worst game ever for Mac.

I'm not a pilot but enjoy playing flight simulation games.

It's full of bugs. As another reviewer mentioned, it's kind of an alpha version or worse.

Warning! X-Plane 9.0 for Mac doesn't work at all. Full of graphics bug, maintaining any plane's control is almost impossible, my $[...] Saitek joystick doesn't work... I'm very frustrated and dissapointed.

In resume, make yourself a big favor and don't waste your precious money on this crap. Stay away from this game and you'll not regret it as I did.

X-Plane 9 failure to load

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: May 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Beware of this game. I can't even get it to load on my Mac Pro. Time and effort are being expended with X-Plane Tech Support to no avail. At this point in time, Monopoly is more fun. Good luck if you've purchased this version ... you will need the patience of Job.

Could Never Get the Game to Install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After receiving the first game, the 1st disc wouldn't read. Customer support said they would send out a new disc. We never received it. Amazon exchanged the game for a 2nd game. Still, the first disc wouldn't read. After attempting to load it onto more than one MAC (thinking the problem may be the MAC), the disc wouldn't load. We are very disappointed in the fact that customer support is not available for help and that they lied about sending out a replacement disc. We are in the process of returning the 2nd game at this time. BEWARE...OUR EXPERIENCE WAS HORRIBLE! One star is too high of a rating.

Improved from X-Plane 8, but still not excellent

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been growing up with the Flight SIMs since SoloFlight back in the '80s on a Commodore 64, so I can honestly say, as many would agree that the flights SIMs have come a very, VERY long way. But I must contest those who state that this is the most realistic flight SIM in the world---not that it isn't, but it certainly isn't REAL. I'm sure Austin would agree that there's quite a bit of evolution still in store before this can possibly match the real world. But with that said, I can offer my hopefully un-biased approach to FlightSim X and X-Plane 9.

Graphics - Smoother in X-Plane, and flows better with most video cards, seamless in nature, and quite attractive, especially without having to download add-ons to see tire marks on a runway. Runways, for that matter actually imitate real runways in that they are allowed to have a "grade", or slight slopes. FlightSim X still has flat runways, and limited graphics on them. Weather is also something to be happy with in X-Plane, though, especially the fog, rain, thick clouds, etc. Flying above the clouds is very cool, indeed. Now where the graphics of FlightSim X outdoes the graphics in X-Plane 9 is by way of natural sunlight. X-Plane has a much colder (more blue) cast to it's sunlight, along with low contrast on landscapes which give the appearance that a cloud is always hovering over the area you're flying in or taxi-ing across. Flight Sim X has the opposite effect, where an overcast sky might still allow the ground to look like it's baking in the sun. So, ups and downs, we're not there yet in either SIM, but getting closer.

Controls - X-Plane's got tons of them, which is an improvement (or curse in some people's eyes) over the last few SIMs. I still think there's more to offer down the road, though, but I can deal with what we have now. Joystick detection in X-Plane is not very reliable, but once detected, X-Plane knows you again.

Flight Characteristics - Won't go into the details of how each work, as there's tons of other sites with that info, but I must lean toward FlightSim X as being more realistic in how the planes fly. X-Plane has a unique approach, which many tout as being the best possible, but when an airline pilot tells me that a C-5B Galaxy in X-Plane flies like an empty beer can, I have to agree that X-Plane seems to lack weight or momentum characteristics. I don't know if that's been addressed in the latest version of X-Plane, but all the Heavy Metal and MegaPlanes planes I have installed don't seem to fly like they would in Flight Sim X. In Flight Sim X, all of these attributes are considered, and you can even edit them to make the plane so heavy that it can't even take off. Plus, in X-Plane, if you simply jerk the yoke to the right or left, even the biggest planes react violently, where their real-world counterparts I doubt seriously would do the same. A C-5 is not agile, and because of that, C-5 pilots have procedures they use when taking off or landing in adverse conditions. However, in X-Plane, the B-52 and the C-5 I bought and installed are quite forgiving and don't seem to have much trouble performing some minor aerobatic maneuvers.
One redeeming feature of "blade-technology" is that you're more likely to succeed when trying to execute an Auto-Rotate emergency landing in a helicopter.

Detail - This is where X-Plane rules over Flight Sim X. If you want all your controls (well, for the most part), and the ability to control the environment, you can do more in X-Plane 9. Although, again I still think the sunlight effects need work, the weather, wind-sheer, updrafts, turbulence, etc. are better defined in X-Plane 9. If you fly along too slowly for a landing with a tail wind, and the lift gets low, you'll see the effects of your wing dropping, or something else happening.

Overall - I'm fairly happy with X-Plane 9, bugs aside (yes there are quite a few), and when compared to Flight SIM X I can honestly say Microsoft will have more work to do in their next release, hopefully sometime before 2010. I can't wait! But for now, I will enjoy both X-Plane 9 and Flight Sim X as much as I can.

Pass

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: June 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I would pass on this simulator. it takes up way too much room and is not that fun.

x-plane 9

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: June 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

boring, prepare for a very long install process -it had 6 disks-- most macs cant run this program on full graphics ---it also takes over 60 gigs of hard drive space !!

only very serious mac flight sim gamers should pay for this game

X-plane 9

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: June 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Scenery not as good as Microsoft Flight Simulator X.Mecanics are counter-intuitive;not very easy.Harder to program the Logitech Force joystick than FSX. Flight dynamics OK. Not worth the price.

Fun but frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: May 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After a week of playing the downloaded demo, I bought the 6 DVD set. The install took 4 hours, and what did I get? Only the ability to continue to play after 10 minutes without quitting and reopening. No more airplanes than those that came with the demo...no more airports that had scenery than those that came with the demo. And not a shred of documentation. Questions posted at the XPlane Forum were met by terse, one sentence answers from users who apparently find any "newbees" a nuisance and not worthy of helping. Buy this at your own risk...

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