Description:
Nearly everyone wants to fly at one point or another, but the costs associated with the hobby are so prohibitive few of us get a chance to really try it. At least PC owners can get a virtual taste of what it's like with general aviation simulations like Fly!2K, which contains the entire world in a single box along with the means to explore it. Fly!2K is a slight makeover of the original Fly! and lets players climb into the cockpits of several planes ranging from a putt-putt Cessna 172 to a sleek Hawker 800XP business jet. If you already have a copy of the original game there's really no need to spring for this version. The extras it comes with, including the best add-on, Sky! Special Edition, which dramatically enhances the realism of clouds and weather effects in the game, are freely available on the Internet. The real changes we had hoped to see, like a damage model, are sadly missing from this release. Crashing a plane doesn't result in little pieces scattered from hell to breakfast. The poorly piloted craft instead tumbles around the landscape like a thrown tin toy with nary a scratch to be seen. We've actually caromed off the tops and sides of skyscrapers, ricocheting our Hawker business jet through downtown Chicago like a runaway bullet, and emerged on the other side of town unscathed. Novices will like this rough-and-tumble approach, but serious pilots will miss out on having to pay for their mistakes. Unfortunate as it is that Fly!2K does not live up to its realistic boasts, it is still a good game. We were awestruck by the attention to detail displayed in the airplane panels--some have more switches and dials than an entire season of Star Trek reruns. There are thousands of airports to fly into and out of, although the majority of the scenery between them is an eyesore. We really liked the fully functioning KLN-89 global positioning system, installed in most of the aircraft, designed to act just like the real-life item. There's a lot of stuff packed on Fly!2K's three CD-ROMs that could benefit nearly any aspiring pilot who doesn't take the designer's claim--"if reality had a patent, we'd own it"--too seriously. --T. Byrl Baker Pros: - Instruments and other systems simulated accurately
- Thousands of airports make global exploration possible
- Sky! enhancement adds dramatic changes to the sky and weather
Cons: - Mediocre, generic graphics
- Impossible to crash
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