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Microsoft Flight Simulator ("Center of Flight" edition)Jamie Leben, CUGGApril 7, 2006 |
Editor's Note: Microsoft Flight Simulator was generously donated by Microsoft to CUGG in return for a written review by one of our members.
Hardware used for the evaluation:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
RAM: 1 GB DDR RAM
Hard Drive: 120GB 7200RPM with 8MB cache
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
Joystick: Logitech Wingman Extreme
What it is:
Software designed to accurately simulate flying on your PC. As it's a "Century of Flight" edition, it includes many historic planes, including the Wright flyer (which is VERY hard to fly)
First impressions:
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took a while to install from the 4 CDs (nothing unusual)
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settings for controls and video settings were easy to access
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the flight tutorial was easy to access, good for beginners
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nice selection of aircraft
Positives:
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Great detail on maps. The Loveland and Greeley airports are nicely done, DIA has great detail. You can see basic ground detail taken from satellite photos (roads, lakes) in our area, adding to the realism. Major metro areas around the world have good detail.
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Commercial and freeware aircraft and map detail add-ons make for remarkable detail
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I was able to get good frame rates at 1024x768 resolution with medium quality settings. Going hi-res/detail requires a faster CPU and video card
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My boys LOVE flying in this simulator, great for kids!
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The physics of flying are well done and realistic. (I have some experience flying real planes)
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good simulation of tower radio traffic, other air traffic
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great detail of the controls and plane operation
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good weather effects and simulation
Negatives:
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requires decent hardware to run, particularly, most big box PCs with integrated video would not run it well (requires DirectX 9).