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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004

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You could say that Flight Simulator 2004 is still a straightforward simulation, but if you have even a passing interest in flying, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth from it.

For more than a century, human beings have used engines to pull, push, or lift themselves into the air, and for the past two decades, Microsoft Flight Simulator has let armchair pilots explore the exciting world of aviation on their PCs. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight commemorates this double anniversary by offering more planes, better graphics, and more options than ever before right out of the box, but the game will likely reach its full potential only if it receives great support from its player community.

Fans of the previous games in the series will be up and running in no time thanks to the new game’s familiar interface, but Flight Simulator 2004 also happens to be the most beginner-friendly game in the series. It’s easier to access game options, and each option is actually explained by the game. There’s also an excellent interactive flight school hosted by aviation veteran Rod Machado that serves as a surprisingly deep training tool.

There is enough written material included about the planes, the history of flight, and flying tips to fill an encyclopedia. As such, Flight Simulator 2004 represents one of the rare instances in which online documentation is wholly superior to a printed manual. The documentation includes articles that are supplemented with Web-page-style hyperlinks, which lead to more detailed information about a particular topic. Some even whisk you directly into the cockpit so you can actually re-create the particular flight (or series of flights) discussed in the article. While the fascinating historical articles by Flying magazine’s Lane Wallace were commissioned by Microsoft, many of the other articles included are reprints from magazines like AOPA Pilot, and it is amazing to see how the real-world tips provided in these stories can be directly applied in the simulator.

And you’ll need all the information you can get, because most of the new planes in Flight Simulator 2004 are cranky old antiques that require your undivided attention. The entire history of civilian flight is represented in the game, from the original Wright Flyer that can’t even struggle its way out of ground effect to a Boeing 747-400 that can haul hundreds of people higher than 40,000 feet at Mach .85. You can retrace Lindbergh’s steps across the Atlantic in a re-creation of the Ryan NYP “Spirit of St. Louis,” see what Amelia Earhart’s trip across that same ocean was like in a Lockheed Vega, and haul freight over the mountains in a Douglas DC-3, among other things. The Sopwith Camel was not brought over from the previous game into the new game–this is strictly a civilian flight simulator, without any military prop planes or jets, but it still offers plenty of different aircraft to fly.