Flight Simulator is Microsoft flagship of its gaming empire. Flight Simulator 2002 is stated in the usual hype as being the best version of Flight Sim ever, and THE best flight sim. Knowing how popular the simulator market is and how well my preview went down, I bought the game and have been playing non stop to bring you guys the definitive review. Because of the amount of screenshots I have decided it best to split on to two Pages. The link to go to page 2 is at the bottom of this page.
For those of you who have not read the preview here are a list of differences between the Professional and Standard versions apart from the £20:-
Professional Edition
 |
16 Aircraft Flight Simulator 2000 Professional Includes a wide variety of aircraft for you to fly-from a new Cessna 172S single-engine trainer and a Caravan floatplane to the Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet. You can splash down in a lake, hover in the Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter, or practice aerobatics in the Extra 300S. |
New Aircraft In FS 2002 Professional Edition
Cessna 208 Caravan on Amphibious Floats
Cessna 208 Grand Caravan
Boeing 747-400
Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP
Raytheon BE58 Baron
Favorites from Previous Versions
Boeing 777-300
Boeing 737-400
Raytheon/Beech King Air 350
Mooney Bravo
Cessna 182S Skylane
Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter
Learjet 45 business jet
Cessna Skylane RG
Extra 300S-Patty Wagstaff's aerobatic airplane
Sopwith Camel
Schweizer 2-32 sailplane
Other Differences
Various editors which can be used to make your own planes, buildings
and scenery including a 3D modelling tool.
Flight Instructor - Failed Instruments, gusty winds, and engine
failure. An "instructor" can monitor your progress and
test your skills from anywhere in the world.
Standard Edition
 |
12 Aircraft Flight Simulator 2000 Standard Includes a wide variety of aircraft for you to fly-from a new Cessna 172S single-engine trainer and a Caravan floatplane to the Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet. You can splash down in a lake, hover in the Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter, or practice aerobatics in the Extra 300S. |
New Aircraft In FS 2002 Edition
Cessna 208 Caravan on Amphibious Floats
Boeing 747-400
Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP
Favorites from Previous Versions
Boeing 777-300
Boeing 737-400
Cessna 182S Skylane
Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter
Learjet 45 business jet
Cessna Skylane RG
Extra 300S-Patty Wagstaff's aerobatic airplane
Sopwith Camel
Schweizer 2-32 sailplane
I began flight sim as most avid flight sim fans would with a take off from Chicago Meigs field, beginning with full detail and everything turned on. I have a 800 Mhz Athlon with 256mb Ram and a Geforce 2, and frame rates were a tad low, about 15FPS, but I did find the game ran pretty smooth. I would warn you that Microsoft actually think a 1.5Ghz with 512 Mb Ram and a Geforce 3, to be about optimal.
Being very surprised at the amount of detail and number of buildings compared to previous versions I around the airport, I decided to take off and have a look around the area. Key commands were the same as previous versions and the force feedback effects seem to have been spiced up a little. According to Microsoft more advanced feedback from Geforce and wind is in the game, but the rumble down the runway was also a lot more powerful than in Flight sim 2000.
"According to Microsoft more
advanced feedback from
Geforce and wind is in the game"
After having used Proflight 2000 the FS2000 addon that provided full ATC and navigation to make flight sim more realistic, I was keen to see what Microsoft had built in to the new version.
ATC is very important to all flight sim fans that like to take real airline flights to and from destinations all around the world, and I have to say how much easier and realistic the ATC was in FS2002. Items appear on screen in a menu for you to select from. You can request take off, landing, or ask for navigation instructions to specific airports.
"You can create your very own
adventures all with Air Traffic Control"
The radios which in FS2000 had to be fiddled with, can now be done automatically for you. If you create a flight using the built in flight creator, you can set starting airport, destination, weather, time, season, and even the number of possible failures you can get in the flight, which in effect means now you can create your very own adventures all with Air Traffic Control.
The main problem with the ATC is that ATC box gets in the way of your vision a fair amount, and it can be a bit of a pain to start off with. You can turn it off, but as soon as any ATC messages are broadcast it pops back up. It can be moved and resized, so at least they thought of that.
For those wishing to learn to fly a plane for real, Flight Sim 2002 is a real good way to do so, with out the risk and expense. With the full training lessons and help available you can train yourself, albeit in the simulator world, from a trainee pilot to full commercial pilot standard. You get a number of lessons to take, and they are actually harder than those in FS2000. I could easily pass the tests for all in FS2000, but couldn't even get through private pilot stage in FS2002 which is obviously means they have made the lessons harder and more realistic.
"For those wishing to learn to
fly a plane for real, Flight Sim 2002
is a real good way to do so, with out the risk and expense."
Graphics
At first glimpse the graphics appear to be fantastic. If you have a very powerful computer Flight Simulator 2002 looks fantastic. Its textures are sharp, detailed and looks good at all heights, which is more that can be said with the previous version. The newly introduced Autogen feature also adds a touch of realism to those landings and take offs.
The Autogen Feature creates hundreds of trees, and buildings, and although may not be accurate for the area, add a sense of realism, and make the large cities feel like large cities with highly dense population, rather than the odd recognizable buildings scattered about as in previous versions. One disappointment with this was it only really works around major cities and airports. As soon as you get a little way out from the city or airport, autogen stops. Maybe for realism or maybe for speed, but non the less its a welcomed feature.
trees, and buildings, and although may not
be accurate for the area, add a sense of realism"
As usual Microsoft have added more planes than ever before, and the detail of these planes in terms of graphics gets better with each release. We now can see reflections and metallic surfaces, plus the movements of the landing gears and flashing lights are far more realistic and pleasing to the eye.
A lot more airports and scenic areas around the globe have been included. Heathrow especially looks fantastic, from its control tower to its realistic looking gates, and runways. Its just a shame Microsoft don't have the capability of doing all major airports, since Gatwick for one, looks more like a field than an airport.
The Gameplay
The flight dynamics don't seem to have been tweeked that much, not that I noticed any, but Microsoft claim that flight dynamics are much more realistic in FS2002. You do have a great number of option in this game for tweeking the games realism and difficulty, so you can just play for fun, or be serious enough to turn on full realism which really does take the game to the next level. On full realism, you have to make sure you have enough fuel for your trip, be smooth with your control, and landings. I have on a number of occasions landed way too hard and damaged my landing gears.
If your interested in flying, planes, or looking at great graphics, then this game can supply you with endless hours of fun, flying from many of the 21000 airports, all around the globe. Seeing sites you can't afford to get to in real life, and playing pilot with the realistic air traffic control.
really does take the
game to the next level"
Reports by some users of the game have stated that if you turn ATC on full the airport is so realistically populated with aircraft that you can end up waiting ages to taxi to the runway. Myself I have not yet experienced this. If you get lost or can not find your way around the airport taxi ways you can turn on a feature which allows the computer to draw your path to the correct runways on the ground in bright pink arrows, which is really handy.
The panels are just as clear and realistic as FS2000, but in FS2002 you also get full 3D virtual cockpits with allows you to look as though your are in the cockpit of the real plane, and you can look around and see out of the windows.
In this version you can even turn off the panels so that all you can see is the important speed, direction and altitude gauges, whereas in FS2000 the only option was panel on or off, which is a great addition because it means you can spend more time looking at the detail of the airports and get better visibility when landing without missing out on important info.
turn off the panels so that
all you can see is the important
speed, direction and altitude gauges"
The addition of sea landing floatplanes is also fascinating but a bit of a novelty I think. You can see from the screen shots that you can even get splashes from the water as you take off and land.
The Sound
The sound is again where Flight Sim 2002 suffers most. The engines don;t really impress much, although clear, not really sounding as full as it should do. Landing and takeoff noises almost sound the same as in Flight Sim 2000 and some of the smaller planes sound like they use the same sounds as in the large jets rather than being totally different as you would expect.
Obviously there is no music, and not really that much in the way of environmental sounds, but the weather sounds are quite good, especially the rain on the windscreen.
Flight Sim 2002 suffers most"
Overall
Flight Sim 2002 offers much more than in previous versions, but it is obvious that Microsoft have left further openings to third party developers to improve upon. Airports are better looking, detail is fantastic. Trees, buildings like never before are all over the place and blend in a bit better to the textures. Sound is a disappointment, and its only really a good game if your a fan of flying around without shooting anything. The ATC is the best I've heard and easiest to use, and its great that you can now create your own flights with weather, and ATC. Microsoft have even taken the step of showing you the correct way to the runways in case you don't know the way around the airport.With 21000 airports to choose from they is enough in this game to keep you going for years. Well until they release the next version, probably late 2003. You can learn to fly as a pilot would, all the moves, all the training to get you off the ground, and all the way to full commercial airline status if you have the time, or can be bothered. Nice addition to any flight sim fans collection.