Would you compare a Lambourghini to a Ferrari while reviewing one of them?

I would hope that the person doing the review had a thorough knowledge of many different cars before being considered a professional reviewer of automobiles! Although you're right that he wouldn't compare one car to another, the reviewer would draw on his good and bad experiences with the myriad other vehicles he's driven in order to determine what is good and bad about the Lamborghini. If all the reviewer has ever driven is Lamborghini's, could we consider it to be a professional review with independence and balance? ~~You're right to say that the review itself probably shouldn't compare one simulation to another, especially if they are generationally separated. It's my assumption that this person has only experienced the X-Plane family of sims (*on a Mac, no less), and this limits his knowledge about what the "state-of-the-art" is within the simulation community these days.Let's just take a step back from calling it a "professional" review, because we have very little knowledge or understanding of his simming background and experience - only that he's used XP9 in the past. When the major sim sites start issuing their verdicts, then we can use the term professionally reviewed./soapbox. :)

Objective at times but certainly not all the way through. A lot of subjective information scattered through it, especially when he compares it to FSX. Quotes like.. 'With the addition of the new flagship aircraft – the Boeing 747-400, X-Plane 10 remains ahead of Flight Simulator X, and likely Microsoft Flight – an upcoming simulator replacing the Flight Simulator franchise.' Hang on, some people were cut down when comparing the xplane demo but here we are now saying it is ahead of the competition that has not released anything more than screenshots - which look supurb. Not objective, or subjective. Just speculative. (thats the 'ives covered I think ) For a lot of things he does point out the bad which is credit to the reviewer to point out both sides, the good and the bad but I think his view of plausible is not in line with mine. I fly over auckland it it looks like it's the year 1900 and most areas look like I am flying around a golf resort. So I do think all in all it was a fair review except the comparisons to fsx were taken straight from xplanes marketing.

What I want to know is how many real flying hours he has.

What I want to know is how many real flying hours he has.

Why don't you ask him? I doubt he reads your comments, I think he may have you on ignore.

Because you know you have to be a professional pilot with XXX amount of hours to have a valid opinion.

Because you know you have to be a professional pilot with XXX amount of hours to have a valid opinion.

Not that you've taken Goran's comments out of context or anything.If someone declares that X-Plane 10 has poor flight physics, or that the planes don't fly realistically -- or if they claim the opposite -- then, yes, it actually is relevant to ask how many hours they've spent flying real planes. If they're just making general comments about the quality of a software product then flight time is irrelevant.

What I want to know is how many real flying hours he has.

and how many other reviews has he conducted :(

In fairness - and as others have pointed out - I think the review is fine to the extent that it compares XP 10 with previous versions. It's only when the reviewer compares XP 10 to FSX that he shows he's not too familiar with the latter... and starts falling into an XP vs. FS party line. No need for his review to compare the two but the comparisons weaken his piece in this particular case.

Hey. here's an idea for those that think it's rubbish...(Jim)Don't like it? Don't buy it.How 'bout THAT?

A fine suggestion, because I won't.

Too bad it starts down the familiar path of "game" versus a "knowledgeable" sim. That's where my ears start aching. At that point, it just becomes the usual marketing hype, I've heard for the last fifteen years or so. Makes me think I'm reading the uncontested X-Plane org, or something. I'm glad I have some experience along the way, which helps to make qualified decisions of what sim does best.............for the particular situation. All I see is a re-write of the usual blanket statements, regarding the suppose able (always) superior flight dynamic qualities of X-Plane. IMO...... there is nothing "professional" about this review.Take my views for what there worth. While X-Plane programmers have been modifying/improving the X-Plane method of simulated flight dynamics,.... those that produce for MSFS were not just sitting around programming some "game" or arcade mode. To imply that, with written words, just proves that the writer has very limited knowledge of what takes place, in the flight simulator world. L.Adamson

In fairness, why are we so compelled to compare XPX to FSX??? FSX was released, how many years ago??? This isn't a fair comparison, even though they are both the 10th versions, as XPX SHOULD have better qualities. With that said, just the fact that FSX does compare in some ways, shows that it still has legs. The REAL comparison will be when Flight is release, so let's just stop the madness of the XPX and FSX comparisons, please. XPX is a pretty nice sim though, although I don't think it will match Flight, I think it is an ULTRA SMOOTH experience.

FSX had 283 developers working on it. The fact X-Plane is compared to it AT ALL is astounding. Considering X Plane was developed by only about half a dozen people.Let's wait until Flight is actually out before we start putting X Plane and Flight in the same sentence.

It is remarkable what the xplane guys have developed so much with a much smaller group of people.On the other hand, if I am going shopping for an airplane with 80k in hand, and am comparing a Piper to a Beechcraft-do I really care how many people assembled it, or am I comparing feature to feature and personal utility/value in the aircraft itself-and yes comparing both aircraft?

If I was spending 80K on an aircraft, I'd be very careful and critical of the choices offered me. In this case, I'll spend 80 bucks on XPX and probably the same on Flight if it's not a subscription-based simulator a-la iracing...