Microsoft Flight

[tjh876 31]

Within the last day of this post, Microsoft has announced that a new Flight Simulator inspired program will be coming. When and what it is going to be is questionable, all we know is that the program is called Microsoft Flight. This news comes over a half year after MS layed off employees, including the ACES. They have developed gamess like Halo, Train Simulator 1 and 2 (2 was in the final stages when they were layed off), and Flight Simulator. This brings about some questions regarding who made it, and what is the plot, as it seems like it is not a normal sim. MS says that this program brings a new perspective to the FS series, what perspective that is is still unknown. The teaser video features the voice of a woman, and her dreams to fly. A vintage plane crosses the screen, bringing up the thought that this might be a vintage based game. In my mide this come up because the dreams to fly. Almost anyone can today, but back then, it was more limited. If MS goes back in time to vintage, the perspective that this is a tribute to what flight was is understandable, but I doubt that MS would make a game just to have it based on vintage planes. What also ponders me is what limitations will this game have. Will it be the whole world or just a section that was made by guys who thought it be a great place to fly. One thing that is dominant in this game is the multiplayer experience. This game screams Wondows LIVE to me becuase well... it says it in the news.

The last Flight Simulator by MS was FSX. This game could not be that last of the series. No doubt to that because of one distintive reason. It was the most profitable of all of the versions. How do you make that, and decide to end it. This news has been something that I have hoped to hear, because its been 4 years since FSX, and that might not seem much in the 28 year franchise, but these games came out every 3-4 years, sometimes even less. This game I think is going to be something that is related, but not really inline with the FS series. Well, I can explain it this way. There is no simulator in the title of the game, nor an 11 or year.

Back to the game itself and what it is based on, I still think that the vintage role is huge. MS wants players to experience the magic of flight. Well, the magic of flight again reminds me of early aircraft. That was when this seemed all sureal, and it's not suprising that it might be. This game to me yells vintage, which I usually don't fly too often in FSX, and I hope that there is more then just that. Now I am very excited to hear this, and this is something that I know a few of us here play frequently. More info will come as it goes, and if you want to see if I am telling the truth, visit here www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

If you have any ideas of what the game could be about, then post here.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There are always airport nuts about who will buy stuff like this.  A proper aircraft simulator uses a mock-up cockpit, a bank of super computers, a lot of hydraulics, and a serious attempt to train people to fly a specific aircraft.  You can't do that on a microcomputer anymore than you can predict tomorrow's weather.

MS Flight is a cash cow, and it always will be as long as they choose to churn the market.

[GMT 389]

So since it was released today, I downloaded MS Flight.

Well... it looks pretty much like a repainted FSX, but runs much better than FSX. But that's of course due to much less simulation and more arcade.

Speaking of it, I feel like they found a very good balance between sim and arcade, plus the little thing here and there to adjust (e.g. you can do the checkists manually or automatically).

flying itself feels ok aswell, so far I've flown the Icon A5 and the Stearman. I don't have a real-life reference at hand, but compared to what I've flown so far it feels plausible.

The scenery is very well done altho, just like FSX, autogen all over the place, not keeping what devs promissed. But then again, since it's a download game, I guess it's ok, total download was a little over 1gb for the biggest of Hawaii's islands.

Here comes the big big big big ... letdown and something that probably kills off a lot of playing-intentions: the F2P idea in this game.

While it is a very nice idea and the game itself, so far I can judge it (from what I've played so far and being a real life pilot), is worth the download if you like flying but don't want the complexity (and bad performance on medium power pcs) of it's big brother FSX, but rest assured that you only get a glimpse of the game and everything else costs.

to get more planes, more missions and, most important, more scenery, you gotta give money to Microsoft.

Right now you can get 2 planes with 2 paintjobs (there's actually more paintjobs but only 2 are unlocked, unlock more thru achievements) plus a bunch of missions on Maui for free. Then comes the money into it:

North American P51 Mustang: 640 points

Maule M7 260C: 1200 pts

Hawaiian Adventure Pack (all other islands, Vans RV-6A 20 missions): 1600 pts

personally, buying these is no option for me as I'm against DLC-ing a game to harvest money (while a appreciate the efforts of making real expansion packs with much content I dislike how publishers give you each item on its own and try to create more money this way) and also if I thought different, I don't know if you would buy it either.

  Edited February 29, 2012 by GMT