Professional Edition (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 (PC))

Member Name: Bazza1603

Product:	Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 (PC)
Date:	13/01/02 (1678 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellany playable game, It will take you ages to get bored!

Disadvantages: Very pricey...Microsoft add ons should be free at this price

In September this year I upgrade my computer and bought a super fast 1400 DDR RAID Athlon model from Multivision (see My opinion of the company I still recommend them!). One of the reasons for this, is that I was running a super slow Packard Bell model with a 8MB Graphic card which would not run flight simulators (Not very well anyway).

So out this year in Middle November came Flight Simulator 2002, which had two versions: -

Flight Simulator Standard at £49.99

Or Flight Simulator Professional at £69.99.

For the Extra 20 notes you get Extra Aircraft, gMax and Flight Instructor

Beech Baron 58
Beech King Air 350
Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Mooney Bravo
And The Mighty Boeing 747-400 Series.

You also get the gMax editor which allows you to modify and create 3D objects including building, roads, airport and even planes.

Flight Instructor Station - which allows a two-player option. One Person flies the plane while the other acts like an instructor to monitor progress, cause system failures and controls the environment. This is real handy if you know an instructor!

I went for the Professional version, as I wanted the 747 aircraft as I have flow mostly on these beasts and could relate to them. I bought it from Amazon and ended up with Official guide from Sybex and Microsoft free of charge (Normally £14.99). As yet I have had no need for this book as I don’t understand it and have not came to the point where I need to use it. In the future when I start looking at Navigation, it will no doubt become useful, so don’t waste your money and buy it later on after you have tested the game and tried out its inbuild lessons.If you want it you can allways buy it later.

Computer Spec
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You will need at least the following spec. But if you want it to run well you should be looking at a much bigger and better spec.

Windows 98/ME 64MB

Windows XP 128MB

Processor 300Mhz

Hard drive 750 MB

Video Crd 8MB/3D

Soundcard with speakers or headphones .
Joystick or flight yoke.

I use a 1400 althon model with 512Mb / ME and a 64MB GEForce 2 400 MMX and it runs well, but only in less detailed mode!. Once you see the game you will understand why!


Training to fly
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This was the first time since the days of my Acorn Electron over 15 years ago that I have bought any type of aircraft game. This was my first simulator, so I cannot compare it with other previous version from FS98 and FS2000.

The game does take a long time to load with over three discs full of information needed to be copied to your hard disk. Now you can fly a plane…Wrong…. I could not get it to move! I then discovered a lovely feature called Rod Machados Ground School, which has to be the best introduction to any game I have found. Its is interesting enough to keep your attention by offering tasks to complete. It’s a very basic course within FS2002 that teaches you the basics of flying. First you have to do your homework and read your instruction manuals which is in an Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Then you get to watch a video of the happy Aussie couple in Windows Media player format while they show you what you have learnt.

This is Rod comes in and talks you though flying in a straight line to start with. Turning, landings and take offs are also cover, but you need to read you PDF files to get the most out of it.

Add on
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Microsoft have always sold add on to previous flight simulators at around £25 which included about four aircraft from a particular airline. There is however an extensive network of websites which specialise in creating different aircraft for FS. These add on are made to fly and handle just like the real aircraft which are often designed by pilots or aircraft design
ers. Some range from basic and have problems like undercarriage that does not retract, to others that offer the smallest detail possible to be realistic.

Most add ons are free and range from Aircraft, scenery, airports, adventures and even different gauges inside your aircraft. I have even found a star wars craft that looks at home sitting on the tarmac at Newcastle Airport!. Add ons do not automatically install and you will need to extract them into certain folders using the Winzip tool. As long as you follow the instructions exactly in the read me file you will be okay.

The best websites I have found so far are: -

www.avsim.com
www.flightsim.com


Next problem I had was the need for a better joystick. I needed force feedback to really enjoy myself…that’s another £50 !!. This has turned out to be very expensive for a game, but so far I have really enjoyed myself fly around in a lovely 1943 Dakota.

If you’re thinking about buying this game…DO.. I would really recommend it and I have seen the standard version available now for only £35. Please refer to the above website for a better in-depth review that this.

Thanks for Reading

Bazza

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