I have purchased a copy of Condor and have been completely immersed in
it for a week. I am not generally a 'gamer'. Real life flying is more
my thing and the PC gaming environment just does not 'do it' for me.
This game is different however.

The flight model is excellent. Support for hardware is excellent.
Demands on the PC are fair but a good graphics card is a fair
requirement. The game will drive an Ipaq with SeeYou, Winpilot or other
software running so you can practice with your other 'toys'.

The terrain modelling is vector based not photo realistic but the feel
is excellent when screaming along a ridge a 50 feet. In photo realistic
scenery things look odd at low heights the 'feeling' in Condor when
scraping over a low ridge or tucking in close to the rocks is almost as
tense a real life. Out over the plains thermal flying is realistic, I
haven't managed to simulate a 5 or 6 8ths 'UK' type day. But I'm sure
the developers will ge that sorted shortly.

The interactive multiplay is good. I've been in a race or two with
midairs, chased others along ridgelines and last night, landed 3km
short on a long final glide. ( Some of you will know that thats about
where I usually start up the Turbo so the game is really true-to-life
:-) ) The weather modelling is good with wave developing in the lee of
the mountains, good ridge and thermals too. Aerotows are as challenging
as the real thing and a fully laden open class ship can be a real
handful in a cross wind takeoff.

There are one or two minor bugs - cables break too frequently but that
will be fixed in the next day or so. There is a LOT of sink around the
rim of thermals again this will be addressed in the patch expected in
the next few days.

Support is good, the developer team is involved with the discussion
forum. Updates are frequent, the user community is very active and the
user base is growing fast.

I highly reccommend Condor for simulation enthusiasts and novices
alike. The best =A334 pounds I have spent in a long while!

I have no commercial involvement with the product at all.

nimbusgb - Ian Molesworth