Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight

Reviewing a Microsoft flight simulator is always a tricky affair. Not because of the merely reasonable graphics, or the below-par sound effects, but because it isn't a game in the true sense of the word.

Before all the flight sim aficionados start complaining, let's look at the facts. A game needs an objective. In the majority of flight sims, this objective is to blow something up and return to base to collect points or promotion. But FS2004 doesn't have an objective or a challenge. It's flying purely for the sake of flying.

As its title suggests, this latest version commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight from Kitty Hawk airfield. And believe it or not, the Wright Flyer is one of the aircraft available - despite the fact that it only flew for a few seconds - along with other famous classics such as The Spirit of St Louis.

But there are some glaring omissions. No Concorde. No Tri-Star. No De Havilland Comet, the world's first transatlantic jet. In fact, looking at FS2004, you'd think aircraft development stopped in the 1930s and restarted in the 1970s. Cynics might conclude that this is a deliberate ploy to make an add-on pack a necessity. Time will tell.

Graphically, FS2004 is good, but IL-2 Sturmovik has surpassed it. The young pretender is pushing boundaries in the technical department too, and that's not a good thing for Microsoft, which prides itself on Flight Simulator being 'As real as it gets'.

But it's not all doom and gloom. The developers have gone that extra mile to make the various cities round the globe realistic. And there are a lot of cities. In addition to the traditional landmarks, they've added local buildings: London has Battersea Power Station and Canary Wharf; Chicago has the small airfield by Lakeshore Drive. Nice.

What's more, you get spot-on physics and an engine-management system that would scare an aeronautical engineer. Thankfully for us lesser mortals, these are all optional extras that you can switch off if you're so inclined.

Flight Simulator has always been about flying for the sake of flying. That was fine when it was the best-looking and most accurate sim on the market, but that's no longer the case. It's still eminently playable, but Microsoft needs to do some serious work on the graphics for the next release.

Author: Daniel Emery