Microsoft Flight, lets get to it. First thing is that it is available via download which gets a thumbs up from me because it is green and environmentally safe. I'm just buying or leasing a series of 0's and 1's so no need to pollute the planet with left over cardboard and plastic. Downloadable continent or (DLC) does have a downside to the economy though as it removes the shop owner and their employees from the mix. To speak about the DLC of MSF, this is something I have been wanting for a long time as a FS user. A core platform where pieces could be added and upgraded over time without having to start all over with a new platform every two or three years. Nothing more annoying and costly than having to start over with re-buying addons and waiting on patches to make those addons work in the new platform. Also the DLC should allow for instant bug fixes and updates instead of having to wait for a service pack to fix things. The only negative so far about this is that all addons are from MS and there is no third party developers addons. So in a way I feel like I am just buying default as I dont see Microsoft Game Studio or MGS as addon developers but rather the core developer.One thing that I was not willing to give MSF as any space on my SSD hard drive. My sim computer is for flight simming and not games. I fought for the longest time to not install adobe reader on it just to give an idea of how much I dont care to bloat my computer with anything that is not absolutely needed in order to make FSX and my FSX addons work. So I first tried by downloading and installing MSF onto my Western Digital external Harddrive connected to my netbook and then taking that HD and connecting it to my sim computer. This did not work for two reasons. One the drive on my netbook is seen as D and on my sim computer its E. Also MSF puts a few added files into your computer like mfc100u.dll as just one example. So I re-downloaded it to my external drive this time connected to my sim computer through my USB 3.0 port.Getting MSF downloaded and installed. The download went easy but the install to get the Stearman took effort. I had to obtain a product ID number that I never really found and although I had already signed up for a Games Live ID account still had more things I needed to sign up for to get the Product ID. In the end, I feel the use of this windows Live is worth the effort if you use the software often and plan on enjoying online play but I was a bit annoyed in feeling like I have to sign up and sign in to what seemed to be more than one thing just to advance this stage.I was then presented with the main menu and the different tabs to select the different options I have. I have nothing negative to say about this main menu. Easy to navigate, simple to use, effective and not confusing in any way. I went to the graphics and set everything on the highest settings I could. Everything was already set on High so I felt I was off to a good start with my rig and getting max settings. So I just bumped everything up one notch except two items that were already set at the highest setting.I was then ready to start flying to burn through the two mandatory flights I had to do in the Icon so that I could get to free flight mode with the Stearman. This was not easy because I could not control the plane with my yoke or joystick. The plane wanting to go nose up. I switched to mouse control and saw a window show that the mouse was consistently struggling with one of my controllers to read which input I was trying to use. This was not a good start nor was it making me any bit happier giving this game a chance.I made it through the two flights surprisingly but was completely disappointed in MSF so far. I spent hours trying to configure the controls and no matter what, there was something that kept reading an input that made flying or walking impossible and uncontrollable. Most of the time was waiting for the game to load after I made a settings change. Another aspect was how I could not unassign an axis. It took some time but I found by first assigning it a button command I could then clear the button command thus removing the pre-assigned axises settings.I went through every controller and removed all the assignments leaving just one joystick assigned. My set up I have a Joystick, a yoke, a throttle quad and pedals. All listed in the MSF controllers however, it did not list my USB key starter which turned out to be the issue. It assigned trim up to the position the key was in thus giving me this headache. With the limited options of not being able to disable joysticks altogether, no way to set sensitivities and no way to add or remove controllers, there is nothing good to say about this aspect of MSF.Now after I dont know how many attempts at getting my first flight in and who knows how many hours...(3?) at setting up the controllers I was finally ready to check out MSF. First off is the aircraft viewing screen. Brilliant. This is such an improvement to looking at the plane, having the option to change repaints and load the plane with fuel all in one screen. I could only imagine how nice an A2A plane would look in this view as the camera scrolls around the plane.The game options was the next thing I looked at. Nicely done again. I noticed you can use Bing to look at the maps..wonder if the map provider I prefer to use, Google maps, will be allowed? So now that is two items MS is trying to capture from users weaved into MSF, a hotmail account for your emails with the Live login and the choice of map & search engine provider...the suites must be happy about this. When I clicked on the option to learn more using Bing, I got an Internet Explorer web browser even though I have Firefox set as my web browser so now add IE to the mix and now MSF offers 3 outlets for cross platforms of marketing and shares grab...Hotmail, Bing and IE. Someone is getting a bonus this year.So Im not interested in the aerocaching as a user but the missions and job board games are interesting..except this is a game and I need to unlock them. If I unlock them by chance I will try them out but I have no care to play flying in this way. With all that said, I feel the game aspect of these options are nicely done and should be well received by the true target market for these features. I especially like the job board feature. I can easily see it as a gateway to recruit new members to FSEconomy.com since this is very similar.Multiplayer looks great. The ease of use and design to this is top notch and you are going to want to use MP since the sim has no other interactions with any type of AI or ATC at the moment. I read that as MP users you can switch planes by just getting out of yours and walking to another users plane who has gotten out of his and both users can switch planes. Very cool. How great would it be able to do that in FSX with all the different AI planes parked at an airport.? Maybe this will be what becomes of this feature in MSF.The Map and Airport info is also nicely done with ease of use. Not sure exactly how easy it will be once bigger areas are added to MSF but for now it is a nice touch.Weather, I like real weather and am not a fan of preloaded weather but this is a game so the weather themes are nice and have a good amount of different types to choose from except any winter themes. Hawaii doesnt get snow so no need now but if MSF is going to do any places that do get snow, we have yet to see how the snow will be in the air and on the ground.Pilot stats are a nice touch. With not TC enabled and crash detection on all the time, the stats seems to be a level playing field. How this info can later be used is to be seen but I know many addons in FS9 and X that could use this kind of feed. Live market place..oh yes the whole heart and soul of how to determine the success of MSF and the new DLC. Honestly, if third party developers were on board with MS they would really benefit from the exposure to this ease of use, no worry of getting a computer virus, easy transaction new store front. However, right now they are not and so I have really no care to visit this market place because all I want from MSF is free hand outs. Its a game and I am a simmer so my money is not needed here.Which brings me to my first flight. I want to say, that when I first heard about MSF I was a strong backer that MSF would be a lot smoother, offer more eye candy and make more use of todays hardware without needing top of the line hardware or of the future to run it well. I was right. MGS got it right and the graphics and smoothness are awesome. Remember I'm running this from an external harddrive via a USB 3.0 connection at max settings and it is a dream. In addition the lighting is what I had hoped for and the weather, sounds and head effects.. all tie into make a great first impression.Then theres the plane modeling. Not impressed. If I cant have addon planes in MSF from third party developers then MGS better deliver on the planes and while the details of the texturing are nice and it looks great, I'm not seeing no needles that vibrate, The compass is not on 3 point axis, the Stearman does not idle rough at low manifold pressure or do I worry about fouling the spark plugs. Temp heat means nothing so while the plane looks nice, if this is the best we can expect with the lack of addon developers like A2A then I have no care to buy any plane from MGS.The air files of the plane however are nice as to how the plane interacts with the weather and environment. Take in consideration this is the Stearman and I have no idea about the Icon since I was having control issues when I had to fly it and now that I dont have to fly it, wont probably ever know.Scenery. Its great for default but the thing is there is no such thing as addon scenery since what you can buy is more default and with no other scenery developers out there to provide additional addon scenery to it, what you see is the best you might get. That said, the scenery is nothing more than nice default. I only have the big island to look at so I have little knowledge to what the other islands offer but also have no care to buy it to find out based on the scenery it comes with. For a game its great, love the extra autogen, the moving trees, the water and better airport details but there is no way it compares to what a scenery developer like Orbx, FSDreamTeam or FlyTampa could offer.Crashing. This is a huge let down from a game perspective. If I was a gamer who was use to seeing damage, let it be in car racing games or shooter games, I would certainly expect to see damage to a plane when it hits the ground or an object. Instead you see an indestructible plane tumble and tumble and tumble until it comes to a resting stop and you see a window saying you crashed yet your plane is fully intact. Not cool for a game. Understandable for a sim that is about flying but this is a game and gamers are the target market so its lame. HUD. Its nice and adds a touch of game style look to the mix. I turned it off but how it works and the info it shows is nice.The lack of life and the surrounding environment is something that will make the novelty of MSF wear off quick in free flight I feel. Its a good thing there are missions, aerocaching and challenges to keep one busy in Flight but the world is dead and a ghost town without AI and ATC among other things.In Flight we now have the ability to not be the plane and explore around as a person. This is something I have longed for in flight sims. Especially with all the great scenery addons to explore in. This is a great feature.Keyboard commands are a bit foreign to me. I know you an reprogram the key commands but I keep trying to push the P key to pause the game as just one go to example. Since none of my Go-Flight modules work I am using the keyboard way more than normal. Which brings me to my next point about hardware. Ok I get MGS wants to try and hold the marketplace on addons but couldnt they have least worked with HeadTracker and Go-Flight to allow more hardware to work with MSF upon its release?So to start wrapping up my review and impressions of MSF, must give a huge Kudos to the MSG developers who made MSF. I know its not FS11 which I was baited and switched into believing it was going to be but they really did develop a very smooth running and nicely featured game around flying.As for the marketing department behind MSF, well MS is a business and they are there to try and capture as much of a market place as they can. I do feel betrayed into believing it was going to be equally geared towards simming as game play and with the feeling the hardcore simmers and addon developers were going to be part of it but it seems not to be the case. We can only see what will become of MSF but without third party developers in the mix, I really see no use of MSF to me. However, it does give me hope that FSX and P3D still have plenty of room to grow since MSF is based off of the FSX engine in many parts.So in closing what do I think of MSF now that I've tried it? Well let me just say I really really wanted to hate it. I still do because of the fact that MS has closed out third party developers, feel they have used MSF as a marketing tool for bing, ie and hotmail in a way to grab more users and because they are wasting a great engine on a game but in the end, thats all it is, is just a game so in that fact its got a lot of promise and runs goods for what it is.

Nice review!

Nice review but please try the six RV-6 landing challenges and tell me it is a Game !The last 2 of those challenges would put even the best of GA pilots under pressure.Fred.

Nice and fair review. Liked some things, didnt like others. Its good that you gave it a try, and honestly, you stuck with it a lot longer then I would if I had some of your problems! It seems to me that, if you have anything beyond the standard single stick controller, Flight will FREAK OUT. It try's to configure things for you, but does not know how properly. This means it puts more advanced users at a disadvantage. Its what it is right now. A fun distraction to burn a few hours. I hope MS supports it further, and I hope MS opens it up to more 3rd party's.

HelloFlight is my first flight sim. Prior to this I knew of the existance of flight sims (I've seen the box for Flight Simulator X on the shelves at Best Buy) but the genre never really called to me. I was going through the 'Preview' section at IGN.com that highlights games coming up for release in the future and saw Microsoft Flight (I'm an RPG gamer usually). I don't know why but I decided to visit the Flight website to get more information about what Flight was. The site didn't exactly offer much information (and was rather spartan looking) but I did notice that they were accepting applications for Beta testing. I decided to apply and was surprised to see I was accepted. I downloaded the Beta when it was time and gave it a try. I thought the keyboard would be the primary means of control, but the response from the keyboard was so sluggish I crashed the Icon into the first balloon and down I went. I restarted and tried the mouse instead and was amazed how easy it was to fly. The verbal instructions were clear and after flying the intro missions I had a good idea of how to get a plane off the ground, fly and "land" (I'm sure in reality I would have broke the suspension on some of the many hard landings I attempted). Since then I continued playing during the Beta, was granted access to the rest of the island chain and the other aircraft. After flight was released I downloaded it and bought the island expansion. After all of this I can definitely give Flight a thumbs up in terms of attracting new people to the genre. Flying around is surprisingly engaging, even if it's just hauling cargo from Hilo to Ford Island in a Muale. Watching the world drift by 3,000 ft in the air is quite zen. Do I think that Flight Simulator X or X-Plane has the same ability to attract new players into the genre? Well, it's kind of like giving the keys for a vehicle a Formula 1 race car to a 16 year old kid who just obtained his learner's permit and telling them good luck. There's some things they can figure out on their own by luck or experience (i.e. wheel makes it turn, one pedal makes it go, one pedal makes it stop), but it's too much in terms of power and in terms of things that one has to learn that one cannot figure out on your own (frustration breeds contempt). Flight is kind of like a 4 cylinder Honda Accord. It's not the most exciting thing on the planet but it will get you from A to B and teach you how to do it in a safe environment without being overwhelmed (plus I suppose a professional driver can drive the crap out of it and have some fun). The one issue I have is that where an Accord in my example can help you step up to the next level I'm not sure Flight can do the same. On some of the planes (i.e. Muale) there sure are a lot of dials and buttons. Some of them are easy to figure out (altimeter, speedometer, rate of climb indicator), some I have no idea what they do (i.e. the dials to the left and right of the rate of climb indicator on the Muale; the knob on the altimeter that has a number and in/Hg). Flight does not provide any abiity to explain what they do or how they work. I'm sure I don't need them to fly around to complete the missions, but they must be there for a reason (something seems to be happening when I turn dials)? I'm sure the proper sim programs utilize these instruments, but I have no idea if they have any sort of tutorial to explain them either. So it's a bit of a Catch 22 for Microsoft. They can either ramp it up and put in all the features I've been reading about on this forum that many have been asking (BTW I found this forum as I was searching to find some resource to help me figure out all the other instruments), but I sure hope that Microsoft plans to open a virtual flight school in that case for us clueless types. Or they can choose to just release new planes and new scenery while still employing the KISS model. I have to admit I'm torn as to which direction I hope they take. On the one hand I just like the ability to just pick a plane and get it in the air with little hassle (the scenery sure is pretty). In other words many people like driving their 4 cylinder accord. On the other hand I always have this nagging feeling I'm missing out on something. Plus the Flight world sure is lonely. Multi-player seems to be pointless as it's more a bunch of people occupying the same airspace as opposed to any sort of interaction, which most multi-player games are all about (unless you count people trying to chase you out of boredom interaction). At least it populates the world with something other than trees and empty buildings. Anyway that's my $0.02. Thanks for reading.

They can either ramp it up and put in all the features I've been reading about on this forum that many have been asking (BTW I found this forum as I was searching to find some resource to help me figure out all the other instruments), but I sure hope that Microsoft plans to open a virtual flight school in that case for us clueless types.

Thank you very much for providing a "fresh insight" from a unique perspective here. Several new folks have joined AVSIM in just the last few hours it seems, who have somehow found us because of an interest in "finding out more."I would like to point out that there is a "Flight School Forum*" here as well, which although has been limited to FS9 and FSX thus far, would provide a wonderful resource for you and others who're interested in learning about those "other dials and stuff..." :drinks:* http://forum.avsim.net/forum/189-the-avsim-flight-school/