Microsoft Flight Simulator X (PC)

Reviewed by

Jeff Lackey

on 10/16/2006

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Such attention to detail is why serious aviation buffs and anyone who simply wants to see what it's like to fly are so drawn to the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. If you just want to hop into a Learjet and fly from your local airport to Vegas, you can do that without worrying about 90 percent of the details. You don't have to actually taxi to any particular runway; you can simply push the throttle forward and take off, then keep an eye on various map options to navigate to your desired destination. But if you want to experience what a real-world pilot does on such a flight, you can develop and file a complete flight plan, go through a preflight check for your particular aircraft, check the weather for the flight path you'll be taking, follow ATC's instructions and taxi to the required runway, and hold until released to take off. Once in the air, you can follow the air traffic controller's instructions all the way to your destination, being handed off from one controller to the next as you progress. You can control all of the navigation equipment in your plane, fly with visual flight rules or instrument flight rules, and manage every detail of the plane's operation via switches and knobs in the cockpit, whether you're in a small Cessna or a huge jumbo jet. There are even options to set up planned or random equipment failures.

An aircraft carrier is easy--try landing on a bus!

The aircraft in Flight Simulator X are all well done in terms of external and internal graphics. A major upgrade from Flight Simulator 2004 is the virtual cockpit renditions. These are now good enough that you'll spend the majority of your flying time in virtual cockpit mode. Most major controls in the cockpit can be directly clicked on and used, although you can also use keyboard commands if you prefer. Another welcome addition is the inclusion of the sophisticated Garmin G1000 cockpit in some planes (only in the deluxe edition), which is an integrated electronics panel that replaces most of the conventional controls in standard cockpits.

Microsoft has significantly enhanced the multiplayer options via its "shared skies" concept. Multiplayer has long been a major component of Microsoft's Flight Simulator world, particularly among the hardcore fans--for example, those enthusiasts who would pilot a jumbo jet on an 18-hour flight in real time as a member of a highly organized virtual airline. But as part of its overall push to open Flight Simulator up to the more casual player, Microsoft has made multiplayer simpler to get into, going to a server-based system, adding integrated voice over IP, and incorporating a couple of new features. The first is the ability to have someone fly in the plane with you. This is a great feature for training: An experienced pilot can virtually sit next to you in the cockpit and talk you through, for example, landing in VFR conditions or using advanced navigational controls on a cross-country flight. The other is the previously mentioned ability to join a multiplayer session as the air traffic controller. In this role, you sit in the tower with a visual on the airport and a radar screen in front of you. As in real life, your job is instructing all of the air traffic around you, including takeoff and landing instructions. And as in real life, this is sure to be a high-stress role like at a busy airport.

A simple flight out to an oil rig--or is it?

The power of this software package is mind boggling. But that power comes at a price. On a system with an Athlon XP 3400+, 2GB RAM, and an Nvidia 7800 video card (certainly not cutting edge but also not unreasonable, particularly for the broader market to whom Microsoft is trying to reach out with Flight Simulator X), with performance options all set fairly low, frame rates averaged about 8 to 14 frames per second. This same system runs Flight Simulator 2004 at high settings with frame rates averaging 25-plus fps. In higher-density settings, such as flying over Las Vegas or some detailed airports, frame rates rarely climbed higher than 10fps. When flying fairly high or in low-density areas, rates would range in the high teens. There's a lot of discussion about the sim's performance in the flight sim discussion forums, yielding a variety of config-file tweaks to boost the performance, but be forewarned that it will take some serious high-end hardware to run Flight Simulator X at high frame rates.

Is the poor frame rate a killer issue? That's arguable and depends on how much you require in terms of smooth frame rates in a civilian flight sim. Some people may want to wait until tweaks have been established that boost the performance or until they invest in new hardware. Others may decide to put up with less-than-stellar performance to be able to enjoy the amazing content and plethora of rich experiences that Flight Simulator X offers. What is not arguable is that Flight Simulator X provides a quantity and quality of flight simulation capabilities that would be amazing in a product that costs twice the price.