Anyone interested in the new Microsoft Flight? http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

I love flight simulators myself. Back in the day I played Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 (?) for hundreds of hours, flying random little "missions" all over the world. I remember it had a pretty big modding community; meaning you could download a ton of different planes and helicopters. I even participated in the ATC servers which really had an authentic flight experience. For those of you not familiar with MFSers, the ATC (Air Traffic Control) servers were set up by folks who would run the air traffic control towers on a couple different airports over a voice program like Ventrilo, and you would have to get clearance for your flight plan, takeoff, landing, ect.

This new Microsoft Flight is based around a free-to-play model, with Microsoft sponsored content packs bringing you the planes and locations this time around. You start off with the main island of Hawaii, but you can purchase the entirety of Hawaii and two additional planes right from launch. I am more than a little concerned about the potential prices of the content packs though. For example, one of the additional planes is 1200 microsoft points all on its own. That is steep. I'm not sure how many planes come with the original game.

It is set to come out on February 29th. If anyone wants to get together and fly let me know.

looks like my computer cannot stomach this kind of graphics.

It's supposed to be a big departure from the older Flight Simulator games (i.e. right now there aren't any jets announced), and seems to be more organized for basic flights. As of right now, there are maybe two or three planes for the free download, but the rest will have to be downloaded.

I'm likely going to pass on it, but who knows. It looks like it'll be amusing to fly around with a few friends, but I don't enjoy flying the smaller planes as much as I enjoy flying the big stuff.

I agree, I'm going to need to see a larger array of planes before I dive into it. Helicopters are also a must have.

I get bored flying the big jets. I much prefer the little planes, so this seems like a good step to me. My favourite missions in FSX were the float planes. I did enjoy the missions, though, so I hope they retain that. To be honest, Microsoft always did a god-awful job of recreating the jets anyway, and you had to rely on third parties, like Wilco/JustFlight to bring out something approaching realistic (the PIC-rated ones, such as the 737 and A320 series addons, in particular). I always felt MS did a much better job of detailing the smaller planes. Just compare the realism of the default C172 cockpit with the default A320 cockpit in FSX - it's night and day! So perhaps this is the right move, allowing them to concentrate on what they're good at, while leaving the 3rd party developers to create the stuff they're not quite so accurate with.

word? little planes are the best!

Jumbo jets are what's boring...

In order of BA-ness

1) Fighter Jets
2) Small personal prop planes
3) Small passenger jets
4) Jumbo passenger/cargo jets


Helos are different... if added to the above list...
1) Military attack & scout helos
2) Passenger/news helos
3) military passenger (Blackhawk)
4) Massive cargo helos

EDIT: Imma check this out... doubt I can run it

oh... beta sign up...

well, I'm signed up and have done beta for them before... so we'll see

I'm a svcker for flight sims. I've done a few private pilot lessons, and am lucky enough to have a friend that owns an airstrip and about ten planes (I hate that bastard), so I've had a bit of IRL flight experience, and the MS flight sims are the closest thing to it. In fact, with a decent flight stick, FSX is pretty much identical to flying a real plane. Well, for the smaller craft anyway - I've never flown anything larger than a two seater Cessna IRL.

I play FSX a couple of hours a week - I'm definately interested in this new offering. Basically, I just want a photorealistic world to fly around in.

What? Hell no. I love the big aircraft with all the little buttons (or not so many like with the DC-3) and even the smaller (military) jets and to feel the POWEEEERRRR.

If I can get it in a real world shop with all content and if it has big aircraft, I'll want to purchase this. Just a bunch of micro DLC that'll cost me a ton in the end? No thanks.

With micro trans games you only buy what you want...... not everything.

So you'd just buy yourself a Jet or 2 and a helo for a grand whopping total of $10-15 and ur done. No point wasting money on things you don't want.

I just want my Cessna 172.

It looks pretty cool, but with graphics like that my computer doesn't have a chance of being able to handle it.

Buy new computer.

That's what I shall do.

Waste of money? For twice that amount I bought the gold edition of MSFSX and got ALL stuff, including a whopping number of 27 flyable aircraft and any place in the world to fly to. What you state there is a terrible waste of money. I'll gladly pass.

I do enjoy airport hopping or even landing in remote areas with the little planes. Good times.

They are definitely going to have to come down on prices though, otherwise I won't be purchasing much. I think they are going to have a store with a wide array of stuff. This is just launch stuff; they'll be launching new stuff constantly.

lower settings?

That's what I'm hopin for

The minimum specs are really low.