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• Reviewed on: Windows XP; Pentium 4, 3.06 GHz; 1 GHz RAM; ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
• Also available for: PC only
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• The Good: Nice variety of aircraft. Great graphics and detailed terrain. Mission activities provide more structure to the game. Very accessible to all levels of experience.
• The Bad: 24 aircraft is pretty good, but we're hungry for more. It's best to get a joystick or gamepad for optimum control. Long install and load times.
• The Verdict: Built on IX editions worth of experience. Flight Sim is a great game for all skill levels. Even if you've never tried a flight sim before, you should give it a go.
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For decades — and that's not an exaggeration — Flight Simulator has been the first and last word in flight sims. Not many games can claim a lineage going back to the 70s, as Flight Sim can. During that time, the game has gone from being the nichiest of games for the nerdiest of hardcore gamers, to a user-friendly product that many people can enjoy. The latest edition, Flight Simulator X (FSX), manages the trick of being accessible to a wide range of gaming skill levels and being remarkable detailed enough to impress hardcore fans of the series.

Choose Your Flight

Flight Simulator X comes in two different packages — the Standard, and the Deluxe. The Deluxe edition comes with two DVDs, and it has 24 as opposed to 21 aircraft, more detailed cities and airports, and it also has the "glass cockpits," the high-tech digital instrumentation that's used by a lot of real planes today. The Deluxe edition also allows you to play as the "Tower" and act as traffic controller for your friends in the air during multiplayer sessions. You can even try controlling a plane yourself this way. That's a cool touch, and I can't remember anything like it, except for an ancient and forgotten Microprose title, Kennedy Approach.

Prepare for Take Off

In some ways, FSX is a return to the "classic" Flight Sim formula, and a departure. The previous edition was subtitled A Century of Flight and put an emphasis on flying notable aircraft from across the history of aviation. This edition goes back to aircraft still in service today, or still favoured by flight trainers and enthusiasts. You've got an ultralight: the AirCreation SL-450, a glider: the DG-8085 Competition, prop engines like the Cessna Seahawk, large commercial jet planes like the Boeing 747, and two helicopters--the Robinson R22 Beta 2, and the Bell 206 B JetRanger III.

The aircraft included in FSX provide a good amount of variety, catering to different flying styles. I do wish that the Flight Sim series would build on itself a little more in the aircraft department though. I miss some of the aircraft from Flight Simulator 2004 — I want to fly the Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis again. I realize that it's no easy feat to realistically model an aircraft, but the greedy gamer in me wishes that Microsoft would go out and nail down licenses from every aviation company they can find, just like a lot of driving games offer rosters of real vehicles in the hundreds. There is a fan community and even companies that supply add-ons, but I wish the game would at least keep aircraft from previous editions right from the install.

My Name Is Accessible and I Will Be Your Co-Pilot

I have grim memories of playing games like Spectrum Holobyte's Falcon, and spending at least an hour on the tarmac, manual in hand, trying to get the freakin' plane in the air. As complex and realistic as Flight Sim is, this is never an issue. The game's early missions are tutorials that walk you through the steps, down to a voice telling you what buttons to press. It's very easy for casual gamers to pick up, and just a few button presses get you going.

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

Speaking of missions, they're one of the game's welcome departures from the usual formula. The game puts a greater emphasis on scenarios with specific goals. For those of you who don't like Flight Sim because "you just fly around for no reason," this is your tonic. There are over 50 missions, starting with 10 tutorial missions. But you don't have to do them in any particular order; they're all unlocked from the get-go. Flight Sim veterans can go right to the tougher missions, like "Loopy Larry," which requires you to land a plane on a moving bus, while newbies can stick to the bunny slopes and learn the basics of flight. Each mission's description ranks its difficulty. FSX does an amazing job of catering to both the hardcore and casual crowd. In fact, when the game starts up for the first time, the very first thing it asks you is your level of experience, from beginner to actual pilot.

I Can See My House From Here

For those who play Flight Simulator for the sight-seeing, you're going to be very happy. The game's graphics are gorgeous, and there's a lot more variety to the sights. In addition to the game's extremely impressive geography (Microsoft says that it has rendered the Earth down to 30 metres of resolution, and used data from Streets & Trips 2007), there are vehicles on the roads and in the airports, boats on the water, and animals on land, sea, and the sky. The world is a lot more interesting to look at, and they've added so many details I think it's safe to refer to the developers as obsessive.

There are 24,000 real-word airports in the game (44 detailed ones in the Deluxe Edition of the game, 40 in the standard edition), and detailed cities (28 in standard, 38 in Deluxe). I took off from Toronto's Pearson airport, and it looks very much like the real thing.

Hardware: Your Pre-Flight Checklist

All of this detail may sound like it requires a Dream Machine to run, but the requirements are surprisingly low-key. The minimum requirements are a 1 GHz machine with 256 MB of RAM. However, it does take a long time to install. I have a 3 GHz machine with a gig of RAM and it took me about 20 minutes. Loading a flight session also was a bit on the pokey side.

Something else: while it is possible to control the aircraft with a keyboard and mouse, it's not the optimal way. For that, you'll have to splurge for a joystick, or one of the Xbox 360 gamepads for PCs. I found the keyboard and mouse was over-responsive. I did try the Xbox 360 gamepad though, and that worked out very well. Control response was smooth, without exaggerating my movements.

Coming in For a Landing

The imaginative and challenging missions, along with flying over a virtual Toronto and recognizing our city's landmarks, got me far more into FSX than I ever thought I'd get. If you've been with the series before, by all means pick it up again. And if you're new or unsure, give the demo a try. It doesn't sound like a game for everyone; in fact I was dreading a stuffy, uptight simulation with few thrills. What I got from Flight Simulator X was a friendly and enjoyable ride. And, they let me take bottled water aboard.