Maybe Hawaii will be the only full featured, detailed area in Flight? The rest of the world might be a slightly improved version of what we had in stock FSX? Then MS will start charging for extra full detail areas as time goes on........

If we can get a platform that uses improved code, looks good, flies reasonably well at default, performs better on modern platforms, has a centralized area for purchasing and downloading add-ons (no more gathering up about 30 different license keys and jumping through hoops every time I reinstall!) and broadens the market with an appealing, rewarding training and mission system .... what the heck's not to love! Bring it on.

I agree, assuming that's what it will be, but the point is we don't know that is what it will be, because the PR communication has consisted of little more than some screenshots of Hawaii and the odd bit of fluffy text which is extremely non-commital as far as actual details are concerned, i.e. no comment on what features will and will not be in there apart from some improved cloud rendering. Have they added improved flight modeling from FS? Or dumbed it down? Is there ATC? Is there radar? Are there improvements to damage modeling? Improved air mass? Rain and snow? there are literally hundreds of other questions we could ask, but we've had not one of these matters even broached, and that's after numerous updates and videos. It's kind of hard to get excited about an empty box, and we don't even know if there will be a box either come to think of it. Al

It's possible they just haven't had the time or the manpower to give the PR what it really needs, the fact that they are advertising on the site for someone to fill that very position makes me think that PR has been an afterthought. This months update has a lot of old screenshots, and shots of nothing but sky, they certainly aren't addressing the fundamental questions such as ATC or global coverage but they are also not doing a good job at promoting the gaming aspect ie. the screenshots are not something a casual gamer would get hyped about. This leads me to come to the above presumption of there not being a well formed PR department.

So "the World" doesn't include NYC, London, Hong Kong or the Alps? So when you tried the FSX Demo did you REALLY think that was the only part of the world modeled in FSX?

You really only read what you want to... one thing I've notice about you lately... Never said those words, go a reread my post plz, sir. now, by the time the FSX demo was ready for primetime we already had several videos and many, many pictures as well as an interview or three by very reputable SIM outlets of some of the higher level FSX developers. So we knew that FSX was the next evolution of MSFS, no one at all raised the question if it only being of limited geography such as only Hawaii or only SEATAC area now did they? What many here are expressing concerns over are infact real issues, real issues that folks like you, for reasons passing all logic want to make fun of... Those reasons are simple, for some of us... we are now (supposedly) only a few months (or a few weeks) depending on which retail website release date you believe from seeing Flight. Yet no one has seen any pictures, video or had ANY confirmation from anyone on the design team this sim will include the rest of the world... So, stop claiming you are done with arguing with us, yet continuing to return to do what you said you were done with... and just answer the question thats on everyones mind. Why have we only seen pic and vids of Hawaii, why not the impressive skylines of Hong Kong, London or NYC? Why have we not seen pics of the Alps or the Grand Canyon? I'm sure they must be real eye candy, total gems if you will... if the pics from Hawaii are any representation of the work they've put into the rest of the world. But we haven't seen anything have we? My suspicions are simple and there is a good reason we haven't seen those pics, occams razor and all... They don't exist. If they did, MS would have everything to gain by making them public... secrecy (if that is indeed the case here) from a simple marketing standpoint is dumb on so many levels.

Six, count them, SIX updates of nothing but Hawaii.... Come on Microsoft.

Yup...

Microsoft Flight Hawaii looks good. "Flight is a game that is designed for a wide range of players, not just a typical simulation enthusiast. Anyone interested in flying or aviation at any level will find enjoyment in Flight, whether it is through missions or via an ad-hoc Free Flight mode." AKA - "We've dumbed down FSX, made it into a game only featuring Hawaii, and made the flight dynamics less realistic than they already are in order to get the majority of the gamers to play." At least that's how I read it.

It's possible they just haven't had the time or the manpower to give the PR what it really needs, the fact that they are advertising on the site for someone to fill that very position makes me think that PR has been an afterthought. This months update has a lot of old screenshots, and shots of nothing but sky, they certainly aren't addressing the fundamental questions such as ATC or global coverage but they are also not doing a good job at promoting the gaming aspect ie. the screenshots are not something a casual gamer would get hyped about. This leads me to come to the above presumption of there not being a well formed PR department.

Which goes back to my very first point I raised, many weeks ago... Why is MS neglecting this project so much compared to the hype and media all its other "games" are receiving. Perhaps this one is literally on its final leg, just a few developers working on it, whys it appears to be limited to Hawaii only... perhaps? If Flight was going to be such a success and MS internal financial projections were telling them it was going to be a big money maker, then why would they neglect it so much? Why would you not put a top notch PR guy or gal on this one? Even the Flight website is dinky compared to the sites of other games awaiting launch.

Even the Flight website is dinky compared to the sites of other games awaiting launch.

Just look for yourselves... Flight Official Website: http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/ Age of Empire 2011: http://www.ageofempiresonline.com/ Upcoming Mech Warrior: http://www.piranha-games.com/MechWarrior.html

I agree, assuming that's what it will be, but the point is we don't know that is what it will be, because the PR communication has consisted of little more than some screenshots of Hawaii and the odd bit of fluffy text which is extremely non-commital as far as actual details are concerned, i.e. no comment on what features will and will not be in there apart from some improved cloud rendering. Have they added improved flight modeling from FS? Or dumbed it down? Is there ATC? Is there radar? Are there improvements to damage modeling? Improved air mass? Rain and snow? there are literally hundreds of other questions we could ask, but we've had not one of these matters even broached, and that's after numerous updates and videos. It's kind of hard to get excited about an empty box, and we don't even know if there will be a box either come to think of it. Al

:) Let’s cut them some slack here...It's hard to talk about features before you're ready.Everyone wants to – but it’s a tricky area.The point of the website is to build some interest and enthusiasm.The feature lists will come.

Which goes back to my very first point I raised, many weeks ago...

All valid points Jacoba, your guess is as good as anyone elses at this time, it's possible that Flight was just never given the same budget at bigger titles from the beginning. In other words it's not necessarily on it's last legs, maybe it only had half a leg to begin with. It still wouldn't explain why they have to be so indirect with their info, would it be so hard to just say: Flight will be a Hawaiian based game. I don't think so, this makes me lean towards it being global, but who knows.

It makes me think they're a wary of us this time. I think they copped it in the months leading up to the release of FSX. We really are a ferocious bunch and the PR personnel in this business have to be prepared to cop a ton of it.

There is no good reason for MS to be cagey at all about what Flight will or won't be... infact looking at that pathetic official flight website, all it would take would be an extra 30 seconds out of someones day to put up a simple one or two paragraph statement addressing all the major concerns we have talked about here. But they haven't and all we keep getting are pics of Hawaii and clouds... while impressive they are, it does little to sway the current opinion held by most that Flight may not be what we are wanting. Something has caused a riff in the add on development community regarding the direction Flight is now heading. And there is a needless and almost total clamp down on any information coming out... expect more pics of Hawaii... Good job MS...

It makes me think they're a wary of us this time. I think they copped it in the months leading up to the release of FSX. We really are a ferocious bunch and the PR personnel in this business have to be prepared to cop a ton of it.

Huh?

Do you remember what the FSX forum was like during most of 2006. It was a madhouse, much worse than this forum is. The ACES folk who participated on the FSX forum during 2006 copped a lot of crap from us. No wonder they're a bit cagey now!

People should just stop reading into it too much - accept it and move on.

It's kind of hard to get excited about an empty box, and we don't even know if there will be a box either come to think of it. Al

Yes we do. There will be a DVD version. It is on offer allready in lots of Norwegian stores - I've oredered a copy. Probably a mistake by the Norwegian distributor to make the title available at this time, but nevertheless, it has been done and the shops has it listed: http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=623230http://cdon.no/spill/microsoft_flight-14750627http://www.mobilestore.no/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:4149285http://www.mpx.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=623230http://euronics.no/Produkter/Spill-konsoll/PC/Spill/Microsoft-Microsoft-Flight-PC-PC-Spill

Hello folks,as I am following this forum for some time with a lot of passion, it's the first time fo me to write a posting at all. It's true, there's once more a lot of speculation around the new "information" about upcoming MS Flight released from MS recently. And Yes - all we can do is speculate - me too. But when I read these October news (not the job offer!) first thing that came to my mind was that MS is maybe planning to release a kind of flight simulation game (!) like Flight Unlimited from Looking Glass was in the late 90's (http://en.wikipedia....light_Unlimited - maybe some of you remember that (it's quite a time that I go along with all kind of flight simulation ;-) ). If one remembers, the first release of Flight Unlimited was focused on some rather small but very detailed (compared to other games in that times) areas. Despite this fact, not beeing a whole-world-simulator, it was a commercial success, too. Well, if you look at what Bohemia Interactive is doing now with "Take on Helicopters" you get a similar concept: using a highly detailed but dedicated area to let - once more - a game (!) take place. And if you look at most of the other more or less action oriented games they have a similar attempt. Only a few games still ever tried to do a world simulator out of the box - not only because it's a lot of work to design and programme, but also because there are too few customers that would really pay the price for a convincing out of the box world simulator. And if you look at FSX it's not a world simulator out of the box at all, but it has a SDK for add-on design and programming. To make it short (speculation on again!) ): from a commercial point of few it really makes sense for MS to release Flight with maybe only one dedicated but highly detailed area and only some good designed (!) planes... but to serve a good SDK, too, for all that enthusiastic folks around to add more and more parts of interest - planes, areas, features etc. And one should never forget: building SDKs is one core business for MS success in the software business... Just my 2 cents - thanks and regardsMichael(and sorry for my english - I am from Germany and a little out of training writing in english - improvements welcome!)