Rating: 
Summary: You need a good graphics accelerator.
Review: I keep reading about people with fairly fast systems (800 mhz) and up running this game and hating the frame rates. I'm also reading that these same people are using 8MB or 16MB graphics accelerators... The truth is, if you have a such a system, flight simulator WILL work reasonably well, IF you get rid of the slow graphics accelerator. This is because 8 MB graphics cards are a joke to this game, and they make the main processor work much harder, slowing things down. An 8MB card is like running a race car on snow tires; the two don't work well together to produce speed. So don't get a new computer, get a 32MB or better yet, a 64MB graphics accelerator for your system. (And if you can afford it, I'd also suggest you get some RAM.) You'll see that you DON'T need a brand new Pentium IV 1.7 GHz or anything that fast that to effectively run the game. One last thing: I suggest running the display at 1024 X 768 at 16 bit. Fiddle around with the display and scenery settings until you get a "decent" frame rate. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Great simulator! But, what about the computer?
Review: The 2k version of MSFS is the best civil flight simulator ever created. It has a lot of improvements over the previous version (98). The enhanced graphics and the new engine sound schema (which has different recorded sound for each engine compression stages) are my favorite improvement. The flight models are well built, as well the new weather generation algorithm (The clouds now looks like REAL clouds...).But... What about the machine? I think there's no computer to run this simulator with rasonable performance. You see, I have a P-III 500 Mhz, 128 Mb RAM, Viper AGP 770 with 32 MB, a lot of disk space and... 18 FPS in Meigs Field with LearJet. I tried everything to improve the performance (the most updated video drivers and DirectX, MSFS 2k Patch, etc.) and....... well, you know. Nothing! Microsoft released a patch #1 for MSFS 2k, trying to solve some problems concerning turn gauges and others issues. I install it and nothing was changed. Microsoft is working to solve others issues (i.e. no shadows under the planes and buildings, no approach lights, etc.) I hope it's working properly...
Rating:
Summary: A Very Average Flight Simulation
Review: This game can be fun to play. Making movies is fun, and trying the various adventures can be amusing as well. However, there really aren't enough adventures to keep you interested if you aren't interested in taking a three hour-flight from New York to Paris (in a Concorde, of course). Personally, I grew tired of the game after I ran out of the adventures. I tried the lessons, and it's fun to try to land at an airport in a storm, at night...but after you beat those things, there's really no reason to try to do them again. You can also try to earn the various liscences that real-world pilots can. For instance, you can try to earn an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) Certificate by flying a 737 around, performing various maneuvers. It is fairly fun, and will keep your interest for a while. Once you get the hang of flying the planes though, the tests become easy, and present little challenge. Until you master them, however, they will keep you busy. The game also gives you the GPS coordinates for most of the famous landmarks, so you don't have to fly around looking for them yourself. I used that tactic on several occasions, just jumping to the area I wanted. As with any flying game, landing is a real challenge. In general, it will take you a little while to master the art of landing, but that's only day time approaches. Night time landings are a whole different story. Just finding the runway is often a challenge, although radar helps a lot. Still, until you learn to use radar to the best of your ability, you'll pretty much rely on your sight to tell you where things are. I think that what I was expecting from this game was something akin to a storytelling game, in which you took the role of a young pilot's live, and completed various tests until you finally get the "Ok" to fly, then flying to various places (as a real-world pilot would) for money, until you retired, and bought more airplanes. Of course, that isn't the way the game is, and it is one of the reasons why, after you master the game, you have no reason to re-play it. You can pretty much fly anywhere you want at the beginning of the game, and so there's no reason to even attempt some of the various license tests, unless you're really desperate for something new to try. Therefore, the gameplay is very average. I think that if this game had more "adventures", and/or had more things to do in multi-player, it would have recieved a five in this area. As it stands, however, it needs a lot more re-play value before it is considered an "excellent" flight sim. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 Pro is a very average game. It's controls are very good, it's graphics are awesome (but the price you pay for that is a lot of slowdown), and the re-play value is minimal. You can also play it on Microsoft's Zone .... but I didn't even try that, simply because of the fact that, if I'm having this much slowdown in the single player game, the multi-player game will probably not even work for me. Not only that, I really don't see how flying commercial aircraft would be really fun with other people. What would you do, race someone from New York to Paris? I think that the real hard-core flight simmers might like the the idea of racing your buddy like that, but for me, it really doesn't have that much potential. However, the game, played in single player, is fairly fun. I enjoyed flying around New York City, seeing the Statue of Liberty, and the various other sites. As far as I know, Microsoft hasn't released a patch to delete the World Trade Towers from the game, so they're still there. The manual is very well designed, and will tell you how to fly your plane with little fuss. Lessons are included in the game as well. However, I found it hard to find some of them...as in, you have to navigate through several of the in-game menus before you actually find anything. However, you really need to read the manual before you go flying, unless you turn the realism settings on low. There are also several of what this game calls "adventures". Basically, what they are, are pre-developed flights with a certian objective. For instance, in one "adventure" your prop plane runs out of fuel out in the middle of the ocean. You get permission to land on an air-craft carrier that just happens to be patrolling the area. You then have to land your plane, with no engine power, on the deck. Very innovative. In another "adventure" you have to fly under the Russians radar in Red Square to try to land your plane. Supposedly, if you don't fly under the radar, they will target you, and shoot you down. However, I have never had that happen to me, no matter where I flew my plane. You can also create your own movies. However, I found this fairly confusing, and really didn't get into it much. It has potential though. Imagine flying over Paris at night in a Concorde...then watching what your plane did. Since you have a cockpit view, you really can't see the outside of your plane...so with a movie, you would get to do that. Movies also have the potential to be cool if you are interested in airplane aerobatics. In case it needs to be said, I would HIGHLY recommend playing this game with a joystick. I can't remember if it actually says that a joystick is required on the back of the game's box, but regardless, If you want this game, you really should buy a joystick. I can't imagine playing this game with a key-board and mouse. Overall, I would recommend this game to hard-core flight simmers who want to absolute most realistic thing they can get their hands on, and don't mind some slowdown. To people that want to fly, but want something to do while they're up there, I would steer them away from this game, and insted direct them toward a combat flight simulation.
Rating: 
Summary: Microsoft has TOTALLY misrepresented this product!
Review: As a seasoned veteran of Flight Simulator 98 and a licensed FAA rated commercial pilot, I am no stranger to Microsoft flight simulations. Initially when I loaded FS2000Pro I was very excited due mostly to the hype surrounding this product... This of course was short lived. I am currently running a AMD-K62 400Mhz CPU, 128Mb RAM and an ATI Expert 2000 32Mb video card. If I turn the overall display quality down to 1 (the lowest setting), I get marginally acceptable framerates at 800X600. (800X600 is the lowest you can go and still have clear, readable rendering of your cockpit intrumentation) Even Microsoft's recomended system requirements are not enough to run this simulation, much less the minimal requirements of a Pendium 166Mhz! I can now see myself returning to FS98 if not totally abandoning the MS platform all together. (I am currently looking into X-Plane which operates on an OpenGL platform) On a more positive note, my two stars are given for the great job in the graphics detail. It would be nice to enjoy them in their full glory (as soon as I spend $500.00+ in system upgrades). In the end the number one quality that will impress real pilots and home users in a flight simulation is INTEGRITY. "Are you listening Microsoft?"
Rating:
Summary: FS2000 Professional Edition
Review: Suitable for PC with slower CPU like PII. It doesn't require a very good video card, 4MB RAM can run very smooth, of course more RAM means better, suggest 8-32MB.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Effort, Great Flight Sim, A few Problems
Review: I'd been looking forward to the 2000 Edition of Flight Simulator for a long time. I dont think it's dissapointed..a whole lot, anyway. Microsoft Flight Sim's got the planes, the graphics, the sounds and the feel, as well as the whole world as your travel destination option. The graphics are beautifull, the scenery is generic, but detailed well, and the renderings of the major cities are perfect. But as far as the System Requirements go...Oh my lord! I run this thing on a 600mhz, 300+ ram, Voodoo3, I still get slowdown and poor framerates at times! It's absolutely obscene! And I cringe at the thought of what this must play like on a system any lower then 500mhz. The game also implements a nifty little feature where you can hook up to the internet and download real-time weather data. Unfortunently, any time I attempt this, the game crashes. Which sucks. But aside from that, the graphics and gameplay are excellent. A 777 handles bulky and heavy, and a Cessna handles like a paper airplane. I'm really impressed how detailed they got the physics. If you've got the system to run it, go for it, it's a great add-on to your flight sim collection, however if you dont allready have Flight Unlimited Three, why the heck are you looking at this game? Flight Unlimited is a game worthy of well over five stars! But if you really want to fly the Concorde from San Francisco to France, this is the only game that's going to let you, and if you've got the system to do it, you wont be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome... AND, on a PII 300mHz machine!
Review: Everyone knows the vast improvement of FS2000 Pro over 98, so by all means get it. NOW, you CAN get good results with a slower machine! I have a P2 300mHz on a 66mHz buss (That's IT!), and it cruises. Here's how: 32mb AGP NVidia card (not even running at 2x or 4x!) with the latest driviers from NVidia.com. You need to get a minimum of 32mb, or forget it. The card was less than 50 bucks! THEN, go to Options --> Display, and click on Enable Hardware Acceleration. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. I run Win2K Pro (runs faster than 98 in my world), DirectX 8.1, and 192mb Ram. I do have the Scenery Complexity cranked all the way up. BUT, TURN OFF the ground shadows, and you'll have a great flight. If you have a faster processor or buss (or both), it'll all be that much better. But the graphics card is the big one. They're cheap right now, so get 32mb minimum. I have a VAIO I use with a 600mHz P3 but only 8mb video ram, and FS2000 runs on that like a truck with square wheels, so don't bank on the processor speed. Happy Flying!
Rating:
Summary: The best alternative to going out and buying an airplane
Review: Microsoft really does make the best stuff. I know this sounds rather corny but it is true, Flight Simulator 2000 Pro is a perfect example of this statement. 1) I will say that this game is a resource hog, make no mistake about it, a Pentium III and 128 MB of RAM are a necessity here. Also, make sure you have a GOOD video card, good video cards make a much bigger difference than people realize. I reccomend the Matrox Millenium G400 Max. 2) If you are trying to decide between the pro version and the standard version, go with the pro version. The pro version gives you use of the Mooney Bravo (a plane that handles like the Cessna, but with a much higher average speed) and the Bell Helicopter. These additions are definately worth the extra money. The graphics in this game are nothing less than superb. Microsoft has gone to great detail, including a massive list of airports from which to land and take off. Another really great feature is the real world weather that is provided courtesy of Jeppeson. There's nothing quite as cool as flying from LAX to Chicago-O'Hare on FS2000 while actually flying from LA to Chicago, I was surprised at how entirely accurate the game was compared to what was actually happening right outside my window.
Rating:
Summary: The highs and very low lows of Flight Sim 2000 Professional
Review: A year and a half ago I bought a Compaq 450mhz, PII with 128mb sdram and a 4mb Rage Lt Pro board (which at the time was like flying at Mach 2). The first title I picked up was Flight Sim 98, and Combat Flight Sim, after experiencing the brilliant graphics of the later, 98 was a visual disappointment, so I took it back. When Flight Sim 2000 came out I thought, "now we're cooking with gas!" read the requirements on the box which assured me I could easily run it, loaded it and... and... turns out our family slide shows were more exciting, 166mhz, HA! The graphics were amazing, even with a 4mb video board but the only time I could get a high frame rate (over 20 per second) was when I was flying straight up into the clear blue sky. Needless to say it quickly found its way back into the box. Recently I upgraded to an ATI 128, 32mb board, everything came to life! My jaw dropped when I saw the stunning images of Midtown Madness, Indiana Jones; Infernal Machine, Need for Speed High Stakes, I could read every sign, and see every crack in the pavement. Even when I've got the screen resolution set to the max and am running at 32 bit colour the performance is flawless! So... I thought I would give 2000 another shot, I picked up a copy of the Professional version this time, thinking lets go for it, took it home, loaded it, and... and... SLIDE SHOW! (about 14-18 fps, if all the planets are in alignment). Even when I'm just sitting on the runway at a very low screen setting and 16 bit colour it runs at about 14 fps, and my system is running nothing in the background, ouch! There are moments when you're landing at O'Hare and the runway lights are flashing and you feel the rush of trying to get your 777 through a severe thunderstorm and on the ground in one piece, but most of the time you just sit scratching your head wondering why Microsoft would produce such a flawed product. When they designed it, they surely knew you'd need to have the Godzilla of all machines to run it (smoothly), and PIII 800mhz machines were still something right out of science fiction. It really begs the question, why can't somebody build a great looking Flight Sim, that runs like WWII Fighters or Combat Flight Sim in a commercial aircraft version, one that runs like a Corvette C5 rather than a Yugo. Bottom line, I love the flight models, controls and the rush of slipping into the cockpit of some great commercial airliners but (and this is a big but) it's hardly worth the hefty price of admission, unless you're a fan of still aerial photography.
Rating:
Summary: PIII 1000& still a slide show!!!
Review: I have a PIII 1000 MHz cpu,512 MB SDRAM,GeForce 1 32 MB Graphics card & Still this sim is a slide show.Which machine do I have to buy because this sim can run perfectly(average 30 FPS)?!!!. Cenk
|
