Wow, flying an airplane. I can’t believe you don’t want to try it... Well, that has been my dream since I was a little kid, and while I haven’t yet completely did it, Flight Simulator 2002 really did made me understand a lot of aspects about flying. While it certainly doesn’t lack in small bugs or annoying things, quite unstable and might get boring if you’re not a flight lover, it has a lot of things to make up for it.

The new game has a lot of new features – some are for gameplay (Air Traffic
Control, other aircraft around, flight analysis and some more) and some are for graphics (improved scenery, land isn’t empty, 3D cockpits, effects, and a lot more). But this
isn’t the place to tell you all about them – if you want to, go to the Game’s official site (http://www.microsoft.com/games/fs2002, duh). I’ll tell you more about what I think about them, and mostly, what I dislike in this game.

In case you’re not exactly familiar with the Flight Simulator series, read this paragraph. Let me tell you that – in FS, all you do is fly. Yes, I know you knew that (the name could be a hint...) – but make sure you understand that – there aren’t any fights, and there even aren’t any competitions or specific objects. Microsoft will put you in a plane, and except you to do exactly what real pilots do (with exceptions, of course). While this could be exactly what you’re looking for, it could be completely boring for you. The game isn’t for anyone – It’s for those who love airplanes.

Where to start? I’ll start the review where most of the pilots begin their way in FS and in the real world – flight lessons. The lessons in the last version, FS2000, were written by a real flight instructor, and a quite funny one too. He’ll teach you every thing, from flying straight-and-level to getting this thing on the ground, even when you can’t see anything out of the window. In case you wondered, no dramatic changes were made in the lessons, but I think there a few changes.

The lessons are almost perfect – in a quite fun way, you’ll get the required knowledge to pass the ratings (tests). Although a lot (and I do mean a lot!) of practice will be required, you can get quite professional with time. So if you’ve worried you won’t be able to manage flying a plane, that won’t be a serious problem – assuming you have time and patience to read a lot of materials.

The main, most annoying thing with the new version, is the handbook. Remember that big handbook in FS2000? Forget about it. All you get is a few “Acrobat Reader” files on your hard disk, containing everything you (might) need. This is outrageous – considering the high price of the product. It could get even more expensive if you print it.

There are tests along the way, to earn ratings. To have a chance passing those ratings, you must have the appropriate charts (Navigation charts, which gives information about landing in a specific runway). But, and this must be some of the most stupid things I’ve ever seen done, Microsoft didn’t supply the charts for the last two rating checks (Commercial and Airline Transport Pilot Certificate) – In the briefing, it just directs you to the last page in the handbook. Which handbook? The handbook of FS2000!!! Microsoft has changed the first two rating tests, and supplied the charts, but forgot doing that on the others! Professional? Certainly not.

Let’s move to the actual flying. First, the scenery is completely outstanding, compared to the last version. It doesn’t have empty areas (thanks to the new AutoGen technology, which supplies buildings and trees along the way), there are some beautiful landmarks, realistic airplanes, who actually reflects the sun, effects like smoke when landing or land getting whirled when hovering with the helicopter (there’s only one type), and more which I can’t think off right now... In addition to the great, new 3D cockpit, which allows you to see the cockpit as it really is thus giving a more realistic feeling and a nicer look, I can say the Graphics are excellent.

That, if you have a 800 Mhz processor and a GeForce II GTS videocard at least – on other case, you’ll have to reduce the slides on the Display menu, thus making the scenery much less beautiful. Make sure you have the right computer.

While not being a real pilot, I can’t tell you if the physics are realistic. However, as many people have told me, it is. If you have a Force Feedback joystick, you’ll surely enjoy – especially on the runway, the Cessna will really vibrate you... (Don’t except that with the heavy Boeing, of course).

The new ATC feature is extremely fun – in FS2000, you had to be satisfied with the few pre-made flights, to flight in an ATC environment. Here, you can simply choose any flight you’d like to make, and with the 21,000 airports all over the world supplied, I really doubt you won’t find the airport near your house in the game. Of course, the ATC has some bugs – it might send you to wrong places, constantly change directions and send you to another controller, but it doesn’t happen often, and won’t reflect much on the gameplay.

Of course, ATC won’t have much to do if the skies are empty – but Microsoft has filled it up! Yes, now you could actually see other aircraft, and hear them contact ATC as if they were real airplanes.

There aren’t much new aircraft supplied – The coolest one, however, is the Cessna Caravan – which can land on water! The effects here were made really good, and it seems quite realistic. For example, if there’s enough wind, you can sail in the sea with the airplane, in the wind’s direction. There’s the big Boeing 747-400, which is very hard to control. The other aircraft don’t really vary, unfortunately.

This is coming to an end, so let me sum up. FS2002 is heavily improved on Graphics. Of course, that is not enough – the ATC and the filled skies are the biggest change. The manual problems are quite irritating, but I’m not sure it’s enough to prevent you buy it. So, think for yourself – do you need the new version? If you never tried the series, and you really like airplanes, go for it. I really can’t find any reason to not do that. If you have FS2000, make your consideration – if you still play it a lot, you should probably upgrade. If you don’t really use it, or flight only to practice specific areas (Navigation with VORs, for example), maybe you shouldn’t.

Hope that helped.


Recommended: Yes