Microsoft Flight is out

[ScottishMartialArts]

The new free to play flight simulator apparently came out last night. Downloading now, will post impressions later. The Bluesnews folks are saying that there is no TrackIR support though.

 

[Astral Rag]

"There's no airliners. There's no time compression. I don't see any sign of flight paths, air-traffic control, other aircraft. It covers only the big Hawaiian island, with the rest of Hawaii for sale for 1600MS, or about £14, and additional small aircraft for about 600MS, £5."

 

[Syril]

SMA your love for flight sims is unending like mine. When can we meet in a cockpit to gently caress the handle of a plane?

 

[pipka]

Will it involve shitting on the control panel?

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

• The lack of TrackIR support is criminal, but otherwise this looks like a fairly decent flight sim.
• Like FSX there are missions/challenges which give some structure to the gameplay beyond just free flight.
• Flight model seems a little stripped down, but FM has never been a strong suit of the Flight Simulator series.
• Terrain engine is pretty, and I'm getting superb framerates at max settings, unlike FSX.
• There's a nice interactive checklist component for each of the two aircraft.
• I had fun.

I'm not buying anything for this sim until they add TrackIR support, but I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

What flight joystick do you use, SMA?

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Just a Saitek AV8R. Probably the best under $40 joystick. In a couple months I'm probably going to upgrade to a Warthog HOTAS, for DCS A-10C.

 

[Micmu]

Can you crash into big, tall buildings?

 

[The man who wasn't there]

In a couple months I'm probably going to upgrade to a Warthog HOTAS, for DCS A-10C.

On topic: Not interested at all, just read this statement from PMDG (http://forum.avsim.net/topic/358874-some-thoughts-on-flight)

...
Let's just get something right out on the table: If you are reading this, then you are not likely to be the target audience for FLIGHT- and this is why the reaction by this community has ranged from tepid acceptance to outright bewilderment at the unveiling of MS's newest game.

You see, FLIGHT has gone through a number of changes during the course of it's development. I was initially "briefed in" on the project that would eventually become FLIGHT all the way back in August of 2009. At that time, it seemed to me that a good faith effort was being made to get MS back in the genre, and that a significant amount of effort was going to be put into creating the simulation that FSX should have been when it was prematurely released in 2006.

Since that time, I have watched (at times in dismay) the project transitioned from "modest proposal" to "green-lit console-style game" to "resurgent FSX replacement" and back to the console-ish game that the product seems to have become in it's final format. Love the idea, or hate it, it appears to me that the marketing people have once again won the battle of demands and the end result is a fast-action point-and-score type game that is envisioned to ring in unit sales by appealing to those who are interested in action, leveling-up and point scoring rather than true simulation as it is known to all of us in this community.
...
Eventually we were presented with a picture of how our lives would have to change in order to support FLIGHT:

• All commercial products would be marketed exclusively by MS and we would not be allowed to sell our own products from our own sites.
• No freeware, not even free expansions to our own products. (Think: liveries)
• Unclear controls regarding pricing.
• The inability to market our own products in the brick and mortar retail market without purchasing licenses to our own products in advance of production. (This would increase our costs dramatically, making it impossible to support a retail operation...)
• All developers would be required to pay a sizable per-unit license fee on all FLIGHT products.

...

 

[Gord]

Hm, a pity, from what I had read before it seemed as if the "bare-bone" game would adhere to the tastes of the casual crowd, while the simulation people would be served through expansions (official and community alike).
However now it more looks as if they focus heavily on the former and might try to turn it into a money sink for the latter (if those will be satisfied at all).

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The only thing I was interested in doing was flying around the UK and maybe Europe. If it is just Hawaii, then lol, bye bye.

 

[Menckenstein]

Al Qaeda's next target? Hawaii!

 

[Cassidy]

I thought flight sims were immune.

What's next? A MAJESTIC, IMMERSIVE, CASUAL-FRIENDLY AND EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING submarine simulator where avoiding depth charges is a quick-time event?

Ubishit could definitively pull that with Silent Hunter VI if they wanted.

 

[Fens]

What's next? A MAJESTIC, IMMERSIVE, CASUAL-FRIENDLY AND EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING submarine simulator where avoiding depth charges is a quick-time event?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/sub-culture ...yes, it's ubisoft

...and it wasn't actually that bad... apart from the crappy characters, the silly story and the less than stellar controls

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Been playing this for a lot of today -- hey, I'm terribly ill and don't have anything better to do. The four big things that its missing are: 1. TrackIR support 2. ATC simulation 3. a flight planner 4. documentation. Once it gets those, however, I'll have no problem calling this a simulation. As it is the game is very stripped down, but there's nothing foundationally wrong with what is there. I also like the multiplayer component. I've spent most of the day connected to multi servers, flying my missions and jobs, talking with other simmers over the "radio".

If any of you would like to join me...

 

[Burning Bridges]

I have at least a half dozen real flight sims that I still need to play, I don't think I am going to spent time with this one soon.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Eh, I wouldn't call this a fake flight sim. I mean I just spent the last 90 minutes navigating via VOR beacons and then doing an ILS approach and landing.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

So I broke down and sprung for the Hawaii adventure pack. It includes a a pretty decent chunk of new content, but most importantly a new plane: the Vans RV-6A. The Vans is a bit more complex of an aircraft to fly than the WWII-era Stearman or the streamlined, ultra-modern Icon. The Vans has a full suite of functioning radio navigation equipment so I was able to do the VOR navigation and ILS landing that I mentioned earlier with it. I just wish there was a flight planner so I could plan out my navigation route, because as it is I have to eyeball which radial to fly from a VOR station. ATC would be nice too, although the multiplayer community seems to be getting around that by announcing your own traffic over the radio.

 

[Data4]

I guess I'm a bit of a grognard. I go to Flight Aware and find a real life revenue route, then fire up an appropriate third party aircraft for the route (usually a PMDG bird or the Level-D 767), spend a little time programming the flight management computer, and then fly the route. I'll pick to/from airports on a whim, or inspired by something on TV, or if there's a particularly tricky approach ( :shedtear: for the old Kai Tak airport). Granted, I'm on autopilot for a bulk of the cruise, doing other stuff while the plane flies, but I stick fly take-offs and landing. I'm using the Saitek X52 throttle and stick, and will eventually get a Track IR.

Anyway, all this to say that as the PMDG statement says, I'm not FLIGHT!'s target audience. It looks pretty, and I suppose it's Good For What It Is(TM), but overall, it's garbage and not worth paying for DLC to expand.

EDIT-- Though sometimes, I do enjoy fucking off a bit.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Anyway, all this to say that as the PMDG statement says, I'm not FLIGHT!'s target audience. It looks pretty, and I suppose it's Good For What It Is(TM), but overall, it's garbage and not worth paying for DLC to expand.

I wouldn't say that it's garbage at all. The flight model is very good, particularly at simulating the effect of wind. I challenge anyone who says this game is dumbed down to do a crosswind landing with the Stearman on a dirt strip. And while the included aircraft don't have much in the way of avionics, the pay for aircraft that do have avionics simulate them fully.

This is a game of different scope than the Flight Simulator franchise, but for General Aviation over a small area, i.e. a flight sim like Flight Unlimited, this is really quite good. Like I said above, it's missing a few things but I wouldn't be logging the flight hours that I am into this sim were it just some Pilot Wings clone.

 

[Data4]

Anyway, all this to say that as the PMDG statement says, I'm not FLIGHT!'s target audience. It looks pretty, and I suppose it's Good For What It Is(TM), but overall, it's garbage and not worth paying for DLC to expand.

I wouldn't say that it's garbage at all. The flight model is very good, particularly at simulating the effect of wind. I challenge anyone who says this game is dumbed down to do a crosswind landing with the Stearman on a dirt strip. And while the included aircraft don't have much in the way of avionics, the pay for aircraft that do have avionics simulate them fully.

I somehow doubt that MS will ever release anything as deep, complex, and complete as the PMDG 737NGX as DLC. I know PMDG aren't on board, but I don't know about Level D. They're the only other third party aircraft developer that works on that level of fidelity, and AFAIK, they haven't released a statement saying one way or another whether they'd produce content for Flight. That's the only way I can see MS featuring that kind of detail in an airliner. But then again, it's not worth buying one unless they release some pretty massive areas as DLC.

If someone likes Flight, that's their prerogative of course. It's just not something that would interest me. I avoided Flight Unlimited for the same reason. I guess what makes me bitter is the backwards direction they took Flight Simulator's legacy. Pretty much on the same level as any other developer that we wished would expand, rather than compact their games. Ideally, a Flight Simulator 11 would have upgraded the game engine to take advantage of multiple cores, and offload graphics processing to the graphics card, perhaps improve the AI and weather processing engine, and provide more "under the hood" hooks for third party developers to take advantage of. This is how the series progressed from FS98. Now, all you get is Hawaii-- a very dense and nice looking Hawaii to be fair-- but that's it. Toss in a WW1 era biplane and a winged jet ski and call it a demo. Free, sure, but to get the same experience one could reasonably expect from a true sequel, much more would have to be spent, far beyond the price of FSX + the money I spent on third party addons.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

I can certainly understand where you're coming from. Although I've played the Flight Simulator franchise, I'm not especially wedded to it. Instead I like flight sims, of all sorts and scopes, as long as they are proper sims and not arcade games. Although one could be forgiven for mistaking Flight as an arcade game at first glance -- the opening tutorial has you flying through floating rings with an external camera view of your aircraft -- there's plenty of sim to be had once you dig into it. As such, I enjoy Flight a great deal and have actually bought all the available content for it. It's not FS11 though; it's Microsoft presents Flight Unlimited IV - DLC Edition. I can certainly understand how that would alienate a lot of fans. Still, I think there's a pretty good sim to be had here and that's why I've put 20 hours into it so far.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

From the AvSim boards:

• “Microsoft Flight” (Microsoft Studios) – Available to download for free at www.MicrosoftFlight.com, “Microsoft Flight” is a new Windows PC game that lets players jump into the thrill of flight with no special hardware or past experience. This Spring, fans will be able to purchase the Journey to Alaska Pack, the second in a series of expansion packs for the game with over 1.2 million square miles of captivating scenery, additional missions and new aircraft.

 

[Gord]

Hm, as a extended demo it's at least good enough to find out whether you might like it or not.
I'd advice to use/get a (free) LIVE login to unlock the Stearman, as the experience is already much better than with just the ICON, it feels more like flying a plane as opposed to a flying car.

I'm not really a flight-sim guy though, so I doubt I'm ever going to spend money on it, but it amused me for a while to hunt aerocaches, just fly around, or try the different challenges.

 

[Data4]

Well, I figured I'd at least be fair and download it to see what the fuss is about. Can't even install it. I get an error and, based on my Bing and Google searches, I seem to be the only one on the net to have that problem. Ah well... back to cropdusting Switzerland in a 747...