Description:
Flight Simulator 98 may not be the newest entry in this venerable civilian flight simulation series, but you sure get a lot for your money. Never mind that thousands of airports scattered around the entire earth are available for your exploration, or that you can use several prop planes, jets, or even a helicopter (oh, and don't forget the sailplane) to get there. Forget about the detailed avionics, online play, and smooth 3-D accelerated graphics. The real draw of this simulation is its open-ended design and phenomenal gaming community that has designed thousands of new planes, cockpits, graphics packs, and scenery enhancements that are all available for free on the Internet. Take air-traffic control, for example, which is completely missing from the initial release of Flight Simulator 98 (unless you are flying one of the canned adventures included with the game). Last time we looked, there were nearly a dozen add-on packages that tack an air-traffic control model onto the game, either for free or for a small shareware fee. There are programs that let players plan flights, import real-time weather conditions that change realistically as you fly from place to place, and do just about every other thing you can think of to this simulation. If you never explore the add-ons available online, Flight Simulator 98 is still a fantastic civilian flight simulator that can provides months of high-flying enjoyment. Venture online, however, and this game reaches heights that competing products can't touch. --T. Byrl Baker Pros: - Plenty of planes to fly
- Thousands of add-ons and enhancements available for download on the Internet
- Convincing flight models
Cons: - Many new products compatible with Flight Simulator 2000 won't work with this product
- The lack of built-in air-traffic control makes for lonely skies
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