Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (PC CD)

Product Details

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• ASIN: B00009WAPR
• Item Weight: 200 g
• Release Date: 1 Aug 2003
  

By : Microsoft
Price : £9.99

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Thanks to Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004 you can now experience the real essence of flight. Billed as a retrospective look at a century of flight, it's now possible to take to the air with accurately modelled electronic copies of some of the greatest aircraft in history--from the Wright brothers' Wright Flyer to the gleaming wide-bodied 747s and medium-sized helicopters of the present.
From the word go you know this is a serious piece of kit and while the knack to flying the older aircraft revolves around not stalling it and keeping the engine revs up, the modern planes are packed to the hilt with geeky goodness. For those wishing to engage in the experience of flight there are GPS navigation systems aplenty, dozens of cockpits switches and an air traffic control system which is as lifelike as it bewildering to understand.
Understandably, not everyone is going to get to grips with this beast immediately and full marks to Microsoft for including a wealth of training information within the program in the form of tutorials and reference material--it's essential reading if you're to get a firm grip on this truly huge simulation.
To give some idea of scale, using the various game modes available it's possible to take the controls of any of the 24 planes included then take off from one of the 24,000 mapped airports and fly anywhere around the globe. And for the true aficionado you can do it all in real-time. However, for those of us with a shorter attention span it is possible to speed up time to get through the tedious bits.
Add to this truly realistic in-game weather--updated over the Internet every 10 minutes--and what you have is one of the best flight sims ever to grace a personal computer.
Flight Simulator 2004 isn't without its faults. It's graphically intensive and requires a meaty PC to get top quality visuals onscreen, the sound can become monotonous and arriving on four CDs it takes forever to install. These minor points aside, however, this is a superb piece of software and belongs firmly on the hard drive of anyone who has ever harboured fantasies of flying as a child. --Chris Russell
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight is the next milestone in the award-winning Flight Simulator franchise. Celebrating 20 years of developing and perfecting computer flight simulation, A Century of Flight will allow aviation enthusiasts to experience history at the controls of historic aircraft, such as Charles Lindberghs Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, the Douglas DC-3 and the worlds first successful powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer. New engaging features such as interactive multimedia provide a wealth of historical information on the planes that shaped aviation history and the pilots who flew them. Informed and insightful articles explain all there is to know about Microsofts Flight Simulator and the 24 aircraft included in the software. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight also introduces an updated, dynamic weather system, enhanced automatically generated scenery AutoGen and detailed visual effects, improved Air Traffic Control functions, and 3D interactive cockpits, as well as 15 modern aircraft, including the Beechcraft Baron and the Robinson R22 helicopter.Key Features:Dynamic weather system based on realistic atmospheric physics, with true three-dimensional clouds that form and dissipate, and automatic real-world weather updates when youre connected to the Internet. Weather othemes_ that generate a wide variety of stunningand challengingflying conditions with just a few clicks of a mouse Enhanced interactive air traffic control ATC, including traffic at all airports around the world including non-towered airports, altitude changes en route, pop-up IFR clearances, and precision and non-precision approaches to multiple runways Interactive 3D ovirtual_ cockpitstune radios and operate key aircraft controls and avionics by pointing and clicking in the virtual cockpit view. Scenery improvements, including taxiway and runway signs, enhanced auto-gen 3D objects, more high-detail airports, and improved lighting and sky effects Garmin
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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (PC CD)

 

Technical Details

• Enjoy the history and excitement of a century of flight
• Take the controls of nine historic aircraft
• Dynamic weather system based on realistic atmospheric physics
• Interactive 3-D virtual cockpits
• For 1 player

Customer Reviews

I earned a UK PPL at Stapleford airfield in 1995. Now 'real flight' costs around £100 per hour, to say nothing of the cost of buying and running an aircraft.
Let me say that this piece of software IS 'as real as it gets' and a little cheaper than the 'real thing'.
All the morse code idents are as in 'real life' and you could use the flight logs produced for 'real flight' though of course Microsoft add a disclaimer against doing this.
With realism settings on High your really close to reality...if you can land the simulated plane, you can land the real thing!
As usuall you will need a fairly high spec machine to get the full potential (but we already know that)
ATC is a slight improvement on FS 2002, but the only thing that bugs me here is as before all the ATC controllers speak with an American accent....and that need not be the case.!
Othherwise very similar to FS 2002, I think the new 'Dynamic Weather' is probably the biggest drain on resources (frame rates).
Worth it for the spectacular sunrise/sunset scenarious...don't let it distract you from flying the aircraft
For the aviation enthusiast its a MUST HAVE..!

After a long time debating about it I have taken the plunge and upgraded from my trusty Flight Simulator 2002. I purchased, received Flight Simulator 2004 Century of Flight with excitement and worry that I am leaving my trusty old friend 2002 that runs like a dream on my PC for a more advanced computer resources eating program. My computer being a Ath 1.3, Mem 512Mb, S B Audigy and 128Mb Nvidia Geforce should according to the min, specification for FS2004 be more than adequate. As soon as the package hit my doorstep I started to load it onto my PC all four disks. This took some time loading but after the final disk loaded I finally got to run FS2004. The Main page looking the same as FS2002 but with added links to well produced flight lessons and history with a refreshed colour change was home welcoming making me feal like I had been hear before. I could not wait to get into the cockpit a take a flight so clicking on the menus that seam to have been not altered from FS2002 I found myself sitting in the cockpit in a cesna on a runway. The blue sky with fluffy clouds was a refreshing change and the detail was amazing. I went into virtual cockpit and found I could use the controls as if I was in the real thing. This has put a new perspective into the world of flight simulations with download real wether patterns and a virtual cockpit you can actually use. I can wait to find out what other innovations Microsoft has put into it. Well done to Microsoft but I do believe that to avoid disappointment you ignore the minimum specifications on the box and don't go below what I am using. If you do you will have to set all performance sliders to a minimum distorting the enjoyment of the simulation.
Happy flying,

 

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (PC CD)