"Damien Booth" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I was just browsing this news group and noticed that FS2004 is now
available. Yes I know I'm probably a little the times.
Anyway, I've been using FS2002 for over a year now and I think it's great,
but no doubt FS2004 is going to be better. The question is how much better
and is it worth going out and buying FS2004? Is there much difference
between them?
Yours in anticipation,


I like it a lot and I was really not much of an Microsoft FS fan, preferring
X-plane. I probably have bought every simulator made in the past five years
and generally found them lousy. I had yet to find a flight simulator where
the simulated Cessna-class airplane acted like a real GA airplane. In
general the simulator planes are much harder to fly. I got the impression
they were well-programmed, with the engineers paying close attention to
dynamic stability and P factor, etc. but these dynamic effects always seemd
to be far more pronounced in the sim than in my own airplane and my planes
always veered all over the place, although you could tame them a little by
proper dampening or trimming. FS2004 is about as close to flying a real
airplane as I have found.

Of course the scenery etc is much better.

FS2004 clearly needs a faster computer than my old Pentium III 500Hz. A few
years ago this was state of the art fast. Now FS2004 stutters on this
machine. I recently upgraded my computer to a fast processor and fastest
video board possible just to keep up with the sims.

What really interest me is the future possibilities. Flight simulators are
probaly the best-developed mass produced virtual reality programs. And there
is still a lot of room for further improvement. Scenary is much better in
each version, but still no all that realistic or accurate. Microsoft should
engage its customer base to build the scenery for them. Seems like no better
way to know where a tree or building is supposed to go then to rely on some
dedicated simmer who lives in the neghborhood.

And ATC is still pretty primitive. The problem with the current ATC,
although improved, is that you don't really have to know anything in order
to get it right, just select from a multiple-choice menu. In real life you
have to think about an IFR clearance and write it down to insure correct
understanding and readback. Plus I notice the FS2004 ATC steers you all over
the place, sometimes it makes no sense (although the same could be said for
a lot of ATC guys....).

-Marc