Rating: 
Summary: must Have, Great Game!!
Review: I made the upgrade thing with this 2004 and replace the "old" fs2002. It really have more improvements, the quality of sceneries is superior, more density included other international airports, like Aurora in Guatemala City. The graphics are great, and the framerate is working well, I think that is because they are using Directx 9.0. A lot of Traffic is notable, in towered and non towered airports. Its cool the option to use different way to take off and to landing, the communication via pilot-controller is better, with more choices, and you can request and IFR while you are flying vfr and Choose other airport as you flying, and the GPS is really good, with a lot of approaches charts, and so.There are not new modern planes, but there is a lot of internet sites who offer a huge variety of downloadble planes, and if you have software for FS2002 maybe you can use it if not wait to the manufacturer, because all of them are working to make the adjustments in order to make it compatible. I am very happy with this simulator, I personally recommended it, and last but notleast the weather generator is really cool, and the taxiway signs are very functionally. Don`t wait and Buy it. I recommend the strategy and guide book.
Rating: 
Summary: BE WARNED
Review: Unlike previous versions, this one requires you to insert the 4th CD-ROM EVERY TIME YOU USE IT!
Rating: 
Summary: Installation is Louzy
Review: The installation was terrible. The instructions on the screan and in the hand out were terrible. Microsoft should be ashamed to put something like that out. It is a real mess. It looks like it will be a good sim but the installation was dam near impossible.
Rating:
Summary: Bugs A-Plenty & Not Much New
Review: There is not a lot that I can say that hasn't already been stated by other reviewers. I've made the mistake of buying MS software fresh off of new releases and swore I would never do it again, due to glitches, bugs, lock-ups, etc... that were not caught in the 35 minutes of Beta testing done prior to release. I'm really upset with myself that I did it again. While anxious for what was a highly anticipated Flight Simulator, I ended up disappointed by the apparently lacking quality control put into the finished product. I agree with the other reviewers who said to wait for 3 to 6 months before buying; hopefully by then the patches will have corrected some problems. I encountered just too many to list in the space provided. Two stars for trying to emulate historic aircraft experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: An improvement over 2002
Review: This is the third version of MSFS I've owned, after 2000 and 2002. Overall, I enjoy the new version, and I think both first-time users and MSFS veterans will enjoy it as well. I still think it's the best flight sim on the market.
There are a lot of features that have been added that I really like, such as improved air traffic control and weather, being able to vary the weight/balance of the aircraft, the addition of airport runway/taxiway signs, and the addition of new aircraft. With respect to the latter, it was interesting flying the Wright Flyer, although there is not much that you can do with it other than try to beat the Wright Brothers' distance records, since the thing has a service ceiling of about 30 feet. I really enjoy flying the new taildragger aircraft like the Piper Cub and the DC-3. The Cub is especially challenging to take off and land, although it is currently my favorite aircraft. It was also fun flying the Robinson R22 helicopter. The runway/taxiway signs were something that I wish had been included in previous versions, although configuring scenery settings to display them on older, slower computers (like mine--650MHz/192MB RAM) will cause performance to suffer somewhat. The weather graphics have been improved as well; again, if you have a really fast computer, then the graphics should look spectacular with all the settings cranked up. Dynamic weather is much more realistic, and I really like the new weather themes feature--which allows you to quickly select canned weather patters (i.e. fair, stormy, cold front, heavy snow, hot/hazy/stormy)
The air traffic feature has definitely been beefed-up. I've found it much more challenging to fly IFR, as ATC fires off vectors much quicker. It also seems to be smarter than in the previous version--on one flight, it seemed like ATC was vectoring me around a thunderstorm, and they can vector you for landing on more than one runway (you can also request a particular runway for landing). Also, instead of vectors for landing, you can request an instrument procedure (if you have the SIMchart); although I have not used this feature yet. Being able to file a flight plan in flight is also a nice improvement over the previous version, as is being able to change altitudes enroute. All in all, much more realistic than the 2002 version.
Finally, some of the things I didn't like as much. While I really like the new web-style help feature, I found it extremely annoying that when I clicked on some of the topics, I had to connect to the internet to view them. Fortunately, this has only happened on one of the topics (Taildraggers). I like the look of the new GPS, but the windows are huge and a little hard to manage, and they slow my performance down when they are open. Finally, I would have liked to see new modern aircraft, as well as one from previous versions of MSFS--the Concorde. I was able to import Concorde into 2002 without much problem, but I can't figure out why it was excluded from the software after 2000.
Overall, a great improvement over 2002, with a few annoying features which haven't really detracted from my overall enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: It's the best sim of aviation there is
Review: well i really like this game because: The ATC has better IFR flights with full procedure flights not like in 2002 which the ATC just gives you partial instructions
Rating:
Summary: Impressed - but just shy of floored.
Review: Overall I must say that I am impressed- but not quite floored. I orginally got into the Flight Sim thing around FSIM 1998. Back then I found the system enjoyable and relatively fun but limited in nature. I tried the 2000, skipped the 2002 version and waited for the 2004. I must say that it was worth the wait. They added much more ground school info which goes a LOT more in detail that the previous versions. The graphics and sounds are scalable and gameplay is interactive. Most importantly, at least to me, the Simulation is detailed and gets into complex flight planning and radio/VOR/IFR operations. You can do flight planning and the radio chatter is excellent and creates a great realistic effect. Gameplay is a vast improvement. The sole glitch so far is that the system tends to minimize itself virtually everytime you switch from the Ground School info to Flying Lessions or into the game play-I haven't figured out if it was a bug in the system or the programming. Although the min sys requirements tends to suggest this Program could run on a slower system, I don't think I would recommend it on anything lower than a Ghz -- with a mid to high end vid card. I have no personal knowledge of a glitch, but in my experience with gameing and sims over the years (I'm mid thirties) I believe the gameplay would be severely diminished on a slower system. The force feedback on my sidewinder 2 could be a bit more intense, but is otherwise quite enjoyable. Graphics are scalable - but at the usual expense in processing speed. With P4 2.4ghz 64mb vid card, I haven't had any other problems. Graphic renderings have improved both on the ground and in the air; although it isn't stunning they are pleasing. Ground cover is vastly improved as you approach the ground (e.g. trees, buildings, clouds, etc.) The true improvement lies in traffic situations or taxiing at airports. They have added additional "real life" sounds that you might hear in some situations - jackhammers in the background and other planes in patterns. Radio Chatter is the biggest improvement and Overall I'm impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Great Job by Microsoft
Review: I logged a lot of time on MSFS2002, and looking back probably bought too many add on aircraft. With MSFS2004 many of them will not currently work. But the good news is, I don't care. I feel this game is such a major improvement with scenery, ATC and weather I'll gladly give up some of my prior "investments". Most of the new historical aircraft are sensational and fun to fly. Try taking off the in the Spirit of St. Louis and you will get a real appreciation of what Lindberg accomplished. My favorites at the moment are the Tri-motor and Wiley Post's Lockheed Vega.. A week into this new product, I have only one complaint. They needed to do some upgrading on the carryover aircraft from 2002 to bring them up to the same standards of the new aircraft. The cockpits of the GA aircraft like the 172 look cartoonish compared to the the added historical aircraft. I have to give MS pretty high marks on this one.
Rating:
Summary: A pain to install, but the most fun I've had in a while.
Review: This game is great! I never upgraded to 2002, so i was working with 2000 for a few years. It was good, but nothing could ever compare it to FS2004. The only complaint I have is that for three days I counldn't get it to install on my system. If you get this problem too you should download DirectX 9.0b not 9.0a as it has bugs. Works great now though and is super smooth when it comes to graphics.
Rating:
Summary: I take almost all of it back....
Review: After spending the last two years scouring different flightsim sites and spending lots of dough, I finally got Microsoft's FS2002 looking pretty darn good. Took a lot of work, though. Now along comes a new installment that will force us all to upgrade as both freeware and payware developers start producing soley for FS2004. Keeps the money machine rolling, I guess. On the bright side: The ATC is better. You can now switch from VFR to IFR in mid flight and choose which runway to land on. Some of the default planes are a step up with better textures and improved virtual cockpits. Sky and lighting effects are much, much nicer and, with a recent freeware set of modified textures, the wild blue yonder has never looked better. The updated weather engine is probably the best new feature. You can choose from several default weather situations without having to manually key in every cloud, temperature, and visibility layer. Even in these preset conditions, the weather changes dynamically. Otherwise, you can connect to the internet and get real-world weather updated into the sim every 15 minutes. Good stuff! On the "is it really improved?" side: Ground and water textures are supposed to be better but I didn't see much improvement. In fact, when using the default water textures with effects enabled, the ocean looks clearer and bluer than any tropical paradise - almost like a big tub of bleach. The colors are completely off. Fortunately, a freeware add-on called OceanFx is available that actually makes the ocean look pretty darn good. As far as the ground goes, I didn't notice any real improvement. Same generic textures and bgl's worldwide that demand an expenditure of $$$ in terrain mesh, etc.. to look nice. Autogen buildings and trees are a bit better - especially with night lighting - but nothing to make me do cartwheels. As in FS2002, FS2000, etc.., some flight physics are still lacking. Microsoft has yet to capture that "real" feeling of flying that sims like X-Plane and Flight Unlimited have had for some time. On the "bite me" side: These new volumetric clouds look very nice and have depth, unlike the 2D bitmaps in FS2002, but flying through or near one may very well turn FS2004 into a slide show if you don't have the proper hardware. (Namely a 3ghz+ computer) There seems to be no getting around the fact that too many 3d objects kill frame rates. My P4 1.9ghz, 512mb rambus, with Geforce 4 Ti4600 128mb can handle moderate cloud cover, but forget the heavy thunderstorms or overcast conditions. My major gripe, though, and the reason COF only gets 4 stars, is less backward compatibility with previous flightsim aircraft. With FS2002, you could plug practically any FS2000 (or FS98 plane for that matter) right in with no problems. COF is much more finicky, making a sizable number of my FS2002 aircraft useless. Shame on you, Microslop. After dinking with COF for several days, now, I must admit that I can't go back to FS2002. The gorgeous sky, clouds, and planes combined with the ever-growing number of add-ons and enhancements makes COF the next logical step for flightsim enthusiasts - as long as they have the $$$.
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