Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 59
 What a Deal July 31, 2010
Purnell H. Westbrook
When the chance came to order Flight Sim X with all the upgrades at a lower price than the sim alone was selling for at some stores, I jumped on it.
 Typical MS Software July 19, 2010
Jack D. Morris
Those who use lots of MS Software know that upon closer inspection they generally include warts and blemishes that deter from the otherwise intended result. FSX is no different in this regard. Others have commented on how the actual simulation (flight dynamics) is not true to real flight simulators. I found this evident during landing when the simulated aircraft seemed to fly "overcontrolled" compared to its true counterpart. The slightest change in the yoke position would produce a dramatic change in flight attitude. You can learn to land an FSX aircraft, but it doesn't seem to translate to the real aircraft from my experience. (I don't know if other pilots using FSX experience this. Perhaps there are various settings that make FSX behave better in this regard.)
However, because the product contains such an extensive geographic and airport database, FSX is very useful for the majority of flight operations (above 1000ft agl) where these flight dynamic issues are not such an issue. For example, FSX can be used to good advantage for IFR training. Another good application is airport familiarization. If you are going to fly to a new destination, it is good to see what the airport runways and environment look like, before your visit. This can be done easily using FSX.
The positives outweigh the negatives.
Jack
more then expected July 17, 2010
matt hanna
all i have to say is wow. for the student pilots, like me, this is the perfect filler between real world flying. the missions are extremely fun, ranging from guided flights in a ultra light to a low altitude intercept of a UFO in a A/A-18. over all worth it in full, was at my house the next day with the free shipping, all i had to say was damn that was fast. downside is i wasn't use to the game center so it took me a few minutes to find the launch icon, just be prepared for that, and also u almost need a controller a normal xbox 360 controller works fine, it makes the fling easier in some places.
How much PC Hardware do you need? I finally found out! July 7, 2010
John D. Hillmer (Waukesha, WI USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a kid, our family owned one of the first IBM PCs, and MS Flight Simulator version 1! Over the years, I've bought each new version of Flight Simulator and usually I bought a new PC to fly it. When FS-X came out, I don't think there was a PC on the planet that could fly FS-X with all the settings on max. (Well, maybe Microsoft had some, and maybe a few people built their own machines that came close, but I'm still not sure that in Oct 2006 when X first came out, that flying the simulator with all settings maxed out was a good experience for anyone). Almost everyone's review says the same thing, basically, "you will need a very powerful PC and a huge/fast graphics card, lots of memory, etc..."
But the question remained, just how much of a PC do you need if you want a good experience with all the settings maxed out? A few weeks ago, I took delivery of a new PC with:
* Intel Quad Core i7-920 2.66GHz
* ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card (1GB of memory on the video card)
* 12GB tri-channel 1066 memory on the mother board
* Windows 7 Pro (64bit)
* A 7200rpm 1TB Hard drive
And yes, now I can max out all the settings in Flight Sim X and still get 20-30 frames per second, very smooth! In populated cities (with all the settings on Max, and I do mean all) you will see frame rates at times like 15-20 but the planes are still very flyable, and it's not too jerky).
I am not over clocking my CPUs, and even though I know we can get faster CPUs, I do believe the Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz processor is fast enough for most of us to get FS-X running well -- but only if you also get a very large and fast video card. In my case, the manufacturer of my PC (the one in Texas) offered a few graphics cards, and I just got the biggest one they had (some of you know you that you can put 2 video cards - connected, in a PC for a lot of money, but I don't think that's needed for this simulator). I'm guessing that anything smaller or slower than my card would have some impact on some of the settings in FS-X (my card supports DirectX 11, though DirectX 10 might have been enough). I do know that 12Gigs of Ram is overkill for FS-X; you don't need that much to max out the settings in FS-X (I'd recommend at least 4Gigs of ram, more if you want to run other larger programs at the same time.
Win 7 Pro (and Ultimate) let you run older programs in compatibility mode, such as Win XP, or Win 95 mode. I'm running FS-X in native Win 7 mode. My Win 7 is 64 bit, which helps the operating system address (support) more than a few Gigs of memory, among other benefits, but it's possible if you had Win7 32bit with 4Gigs of ram and a very fast video card - you would also be pleased with the Flight Sim X performance.
As always, your mileage may differ, but I finally have a PC that can flight Slight Sim X really nicely!
MSFSX-Gold July 5, 2010
Richard E. Fogle (Warrenton, OR USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although this was a gift to my daughter, I also have MSFSX, Gold from a previous purchase. I fly this sim several times a day with both the default aircraft, as well as, add-on aircraft. Default scenery is much better then MS2004(fs9, although, it requires more computer power to generate without frame jump. A very great product for the "Flight Sim Pilot"!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 59
|
