Xbox 360
For years now I have felt relegated to high action, low realism console games when instead I fancied a burn on a flight simulator. I started to play these games in the early 80’s on my beloved BBC micro, but with each new flight sim on the PC it seemed you needed an ever more powerful computer. Flight Simulator X is no exception, looking bigger and better than ever before, but with the price of a high spec PC or laptop falling I find myself for the first time in some while with enough computer juice to run a flight sim.
Flight Simulator X Gold Edition offers 24 aircraft (22 planes and 2 choppers) each with unrivalled realism, be it a short jaunt in a single prop, to a cross Atlantic trek in a 747. Each plane has amazing detail externally and internally including all the dashboard paraphernalia like altimeter, fuel, speed, compass and engine heat gauge, shown in both a normal cockpit and the easier to follow virtual cockpit.
To gain the best experience you really do need a high spec PC as after the initial 15GB install the game plays very jerkily and with full speech and an in game video detailing the games basics, it would stutter and struggle on lesser machines. Thankfully a majority of the game is adjustable in one form or another, giving you plenty of sliding scales to tinker with areas like plane detail and general traffic in the air and land. In the end even my humble laptop managed to make this game look good with an incredible draw distance involving well detailed landscapes and a smooth framerate.
Jumping straight into the game will not do you any favours, this is no one click and you're off job. I initially even failed to find the ignition! There is a helpful Learning Centre mode with interactive instructions from your tutor that will take you through some basics of air flight, from starting the engine to making turns to finally landing (and surviving). The initial plane is a microlight, essentially a kite with an engine, offering a simple flight experience. It all feels a little like you are flying with stabilizers but give it time as it will ultimately offer you much more freedom within the game.
The main game mode is Free Flight which allows you to plan and arrange any journey you can think of in a range of weather conditions. You can take off and land from the hundreds of airports on offer using any of the aircraft and fly over world famous sites like the Niagara Falls and Tower of Pisa. To keep interest in the title Flight Simulator X also has 51 more focused missions to complete. These range in difficulty and offer some great challenges like landing a stunt plane on a moving bus and dropping flour bombs from a microlight, to the more mundane like a passenger run from London to Amsterdam.
The Gold edition of Flight Simulator X also includes the Acceleration pack. This offers 3 more aircraft and 20 new missions to try out. The improved race system allows you to go online and race other pilots in the P-51 Mustang and compete in the Red Bull Nevada National Championship Air Race. The new chopper mode includes a sling hoist with missions including heavy lifting and sea rescues and finally the most exhilarating, the F/A-18 Hornet. This high powered jet comes with its own aircraft carrier for you to master a catapult launch and tail hook landing, pretty hairy stuff when the water is choppy.
Even at a few years old this game still amazes and is well worth grabbing a copy; just make sure you have a high spec PC to play it at its eye-popping best.