Simulation Review: Microsoft’s Flight a Disappointment

Stephen Pope

Thursday, March 01, 2012 at 11:08 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Microsoft's new "Flight" game was released to immediate negative reactions from pilots, who largely found it a significant step backward from the "Flight Simulator" franchise.
Critics, including the author, view "Flight" as a simplified game rather than a realistic simulation, feeling like a marketing promotion for the Icon A5 due to its extremely low default realism settings.
Even with realism settings maximized, the game's physics are criticized for being inaccurate, failing to simulate real-world flight dynamics like crosswind effects or torque.
Despite being a free download and running well on older hardware, the author ultimately concludes it's not a good game and predicts few pilots will be willing to pay for add-on content.

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Microsoft made its highly anticipated, new-generation flight simulation game available for free download a day earlier than originally announced, but that only seemed to ensure the negative reaction to Flight, available for the PC, came early as well.

Pilots generally are giving the game a thumbs down for taking a big step backward from the Flight Simulator franchise, which Microsoft produced for more than 30 years before selling to Lockheed Martin a couple years ago. Microsoft developers promised that Flight would be a more “accessible gaming experience,” providing something for pilots and non-pilots alike.