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- Reviewed on: 11/26/2007
- Released on: 10/23/2007
- Originally published on GameSpot: Flight Simulator X: Acceleration (PC) Review
While you can compile a laundry list of features that make Flight Simulator X a jaw-dropping piece of software, it's the wide variety of aircraft and goal-oriented missions that create such a compelling experience for even the casual flight-sim fan. Microsoft's new add-on, Flight Simulator X: Acceleration, adds more of what makes the sim great, offering three new aircraft, more than 30 new single-player missions, and 19 multiplayer missions/races. If you're a Flight Simulator X aficionado, this expansion pack is a must-have.
This is not going to be a good landing.
The three new aircraft are very different from one another and provide fascinating new capabilities, introduced via the new missions. The Boeing F/A-18A Hornet is a fighter/attack jet with a breathtaking amount of power. While there are, alas, no useable weapons on this simulated jet, it is fully capable of carrier operations, and most of the included missions involving the Hornet require both a takeoff and landing on a carrier. Taking off is a blast, literally: Gently taxi up to the catapult, lower and attach the launch bar, throttle up, and then fire the catapult and hang on as you're launched off the edge of the carrier. Easy enough, but as any naval flight sim fan can tell you, landing on the deck of a moving carrier is a nerve-racking experience in the best of conditions; throw in bad weather and/or darkness and you'll be wiping the sweat off the keyboard. Acceleration provides a superb re-creation of carrier landings, complete with "calling the ball" and an on-deck flight officer talking you in. For a palpable thrill, set the weather to dark and stormy and clench your teeth as you come in out of the dark clouds in a storm, trying to find your carrier, find the twinkle of the lights emerging as you close in, line up with the carrier, bang your plane onto the moving deck, and then start breathing again as the wires catch and stop your plane.
In most sims, the focus of missions involving an F/A-18 would involve finding bad guys and shooting them down. Since Flight Simulator X doesn't support combat operations, the missions here are more varied and, in some cases, unusual. A couple of the missions are well-done tutorials on carrier takeoffs and landings. The others include everything from flying cover to protect a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral to investigating and tracking an unusual flying vehicle over Area 51. Be sure to experiment with the knobs in your cockpit; we were surprised to find the radar and other electronics (other than weapon systems) were fully functional. Once you've played through the missions, you are, of course, able to set up your own free flights with the Hornet, and if you explore the oceans you'll find other operational carriers. All in all, the power and capabilities of the F/A-18 make it a joy to fly and a superb addition to the simulation.
The next aircraft introduced in Acceleration is as different from the F/A-18 as a Ford pickup truck is from a Ferrari: the AugustaWestland EH101 medium-lift helicopter. This is a tough workhorse of a chopper with sling-load and hoist systems, specializing in picking up people and "things." After the sleek, sexy Hornet, the EH101 may come across as pretty mundane and boring, but it is the focus of some of the most interesting new missions in Acceleration. Missions such as tracking down smugglers in the Florida Keys, trying to rescue geologists stranded at Mt. St. Helens before it erupts, and transporting avalanche-prevention crews provide a very different type of tension and drama than those provided in a supersonic jet. Of course, in the tradition of Flight Simulator X missions, what can start out as a fairly routine assignment may suddenly take a dramatic turn due to unexpected events or as a result of your decisions (for example, do you follow the smugglers in the transport that may contain a large contraband shipment, or the small plane that may be carrying someone important in the criminal world?)
There's a reason they call this zero-gravity test flight the Vomit Comet.
The chopper itself, like most sim helicopters, can be a bear to control if you're a novice to virtual rotary aircraft, but it will also provide a challenge to sim-chopper veterans. Lining up the helicopter so that you are directly above the cargo or personnel that needs to be retrieved or lowered, ensuring that you're not too high or too low, and maintaining a stable hover during the operation requires a light and steady touch. Even when you have retrieved an item to be transported, the swinging motion of that cargo beneath the chopper can overwhelm your control of the aircraft (especially in bad weather). While helicopters have been present in the Flight Simulator series for some time, this hoisting/retrieval capability adds a new, challenging dimension to missions.
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