Microsoft Flight

[oceanclub]

I'd been toying with a flight sim again (I have a Saitek joystick which spends most time languishing in a drawer) and with all of MS Flight's DLC going for €15 on the Steam sale, I picked it up and am really enjoying it. I know the purists will argue that the addition of incidental music and aerocaches, etc, means it can't really be a sim, but it's no unforgiving arcade flier (at least not to me). That's not to say I won't move onto something else after getting rid of my training wheels, but it's nice to have a fun training wheel simulator. What's others' thoughts?

P.

[johnki]

When I played it, it seemed like it couldn't choose to be either a sim or an arcade game, which was a bit frustrating, and it felt like you stalled way too easily. I had times where I'd tilt the nose up maybe 10-20 degrees and get halfway up the stall meter.

That and the basic plane is horrid. I was so happy for the free Xbox Live plane, haha.

[simast]

MS Flight now has a *very* tarnished reputation among flight simmers. They have been releasing new planes without a cockpit for a while now (6 planes in a row?) and some of the decisions are questionable. Like releasing a A6M Zero plane in a Hawaii environment in a non combat game. And they went full berserk on any negative feedback. Try posting something you don't like about the game on their steam forum and your comment will be gone in no time. Their website has all the commenting disabled as well.

If you like collecting the planes or flying them from third-person view - you may like the game for it's flight and weather modelling. But if you like to click all the buttons in the cockpit - you will be disappointed surely.

By the way, if you are looking for some combat action - try Rise of Flight and get online. The game is free with 2 planes included.

[TillEulenspiegel]

Like releasing a A6M Zero plane in a Hawaii environment

Oh dear.

I had much the same impression as johnki - it's not a good sim, and it's not a good arcade game. It's stuck in the middle and while there are a few clever features like time skipping during missions, it's just not fun. As a free thing to mess around with it's ok, but I wouldn't spend any money on it.

[soldant]

The basic idea isn't too bad and a lot of the "there's no sim element!" was coming from the super hardcore simmers who hadn't even played it, or played the basic free version (which has a plane that does not have a radio (well, a usable one) for tracking VOR stations for example) and presumed that it was all about collecting gold rings or something. As a casual sim, it's very good. Turn off all the assists and it becomes a lot more like a sim. The people who like the 'procedural' aspect of flight sims (taking a 747, flipping every knob and making the autopilot fly the plane for a 7 hour flight across an ocean for example) are never going to like it, but the game was aimed for the casual sim market and bush flying (and usually VFR flights at that, though VOR/DME and NDB stations do exist and are functional).

But with all that said, the future of Flight lies in its DLC. As simast said, Microsoft's decision to continually release aircraft without a cockpit is ridiculous, and personally I can't fly from chase view, it makes judging pitch etc too difficult. The Alaska DLC was the big one to watch, and unfortunately they didn't really deliver; I know a lot of Alaska consists of... well, nothing really, but it seems that the level of detail is particularly low, and the scenery just isn't very interesting. Also they went and included a cockpit-less aircraft, which was an absolutely ridiculous decision. Unless MS start delivering cockpit aircraft, Flight's future seems pretty bleak. They shouldn't be making "basic" aircraft at all, really. It's a shame, because the cockpits for the other aircraft are very well done.

If MS release another Alaska pack, Flight will die. It was an awful long wait for an awful lot of empty terrain and no aircraft with a cockpit. Also they need to add in AI air traffic with ATC. The missions are a step in the right direction for providing structure for gameplay, but without those extra elements Flight will stagnate and it'll lose even more players. I'm a fan of the concept of Flight and had high hopes (and attracted a LOT of flak from Avsim for calling out the uberSimmers on their 'rage' that Microsoft 'didn't support/betrayed them' when it was clear Flight was going to be a casual sim), but Alaska offers much less than Hawaii. I' was worried about this in the beta... and so far they're on track for self-destruction.


That said nobody else has managed a casual flight sim; either the sim elements are missing altogether, or they're still too high/don't actually teach you anything. X-Plane 10 is the more modern flight sim (FSX is good, but its engine is terrible, from an era of single-core dominance and is too CPU heavy as it is) but its scenery is abysmal, its flight model is a bit weird (blade element theory isn't all it's cracked up to be based on talking to real pilots), and its interface is atrocious. It's a shame, because using OpenStreetMap data for the game world is an awesome idea (I could follow the streets and find a little house where my house should be!) but they're generating entire cities consisting of low-set housing with an occasional random skyscraper, and nothing else.

[johnki]

-snip-

I just mostly found it hysterical that the "casual sim", as you put it, is the only one I've had issues with stalling in. I flew better in X-Plane than I did in Flight, and in general, it's the one that's just missing that certain fun factor.

[Inverselaw]

I bought all of the planes with a cockpit and none of the cockpit-less planes and I intend to do this for a long time.

Thankfully Microsoft has seen fit to save me money. Alaska was the one to watch, I had assumed they would include a cockpit equipped plane for the expansion but apparently it feels like they already gave up on this game.

It could work so well as a small bush-plane simulator with nice high detail locations. But nope, instead where getting freeware grade stuff.

[Leopig]

To be honest I had more fun flying around in Just cause 2 and HAWX than MSFS.

[djbriandamage]

I've had almost 20 hours of fun in MS Flight. I've enjoyed flight sims for 25 years but am not a hardcore player, and I find this game just the right fit. If I just want to piddle around I can do that, or if I need more structure I can do a mission or a job. I think there's real potential for a commercial flight sim with a story. I hope Microsoft or someone else goes even farther with this.

I'm not a fan of the pricing model though. I already own FSX and see no reason to buy the world piece by piece when I've got it all already. I was just about to make my first purchase when I learned that the plane had no cockpit view. Nuts to that.

[soldant]

I've had almost 20 hours of fun in MS Flight. I've enjoyed flight sims for 25 years but am not a hardcore player, and I find this game just the right fit. If I just want to piddle around I can do that, or if I need more structure I can do a mission or a job.

This is the intended target audience, not the big-iron procedural simmers.

I'm not a fan of the pricing model though. I already own FSX and see no reason to buy the world piece by piece when I've got it all already. I was just about to make my first purchase when I learned that the plane had no cockpit view. Nuts to that.

To be somewhat fair, the scenery in Flight is at least more realistic than in vanilla FSX. In vanilla FSX autogen gets a lot of things wrong. My home city of Brisbane for example in FSX consists of a 20km circle of dense urban sprawl bordered by desert and azure-blue waters (and nobody would accuse the BNE River of being that clean). I'm happy to pay for the scenery provided it stays at a fairly accurate level of quality (for a flight sim), though Alaska was a big step back.

[banhboardman]

I had assumed they would include a cockpit equipped plane for the expansion but apparently it feels like they already gave up on this game.

[Tink]

The lack of cockpit models is a total jip, especially when there are so few aircraft in game at the moment. That's why I just picked up the extra Hawaii Islands during the steam sale and I have to say the scenery is great. Having spent a bit of time in Hawaii flying around above the Diamond Head was great fun.

I find Flight fits quite a nice niche, there are plenty of hardcore flight sims out there and Flight feels more like a gateway for people who get a little bit overwhelmed by these sims.

[barnwellloq]

Their website has all the commenting disabled as well.

[simast]

Apparently, all the cockpitless DLC stuff could not save Microsoft Flight:

Microsoft Studios has decided to end development on Microsoft Flight and Project Columbia," a company spokesperson confirmed to GameSpot. "As a result of this action, some positions within the development teams have been eliminated. Microsoft human resources is working with the affected individuals to find new roles within the company.

[TillEulenspiegel]

Ouch. Didn't expect that. I thought MS might have tried to address some of their mistakes, as they did with AoE Online, rather than pulling the plug after a few months.

[Smashbox]

That was quick. I'm actually surprised they didn't ... you know ... try a few things before pressing the eject button.

Seems like a weird decision. Presumably it wasn't that cheap to make.

Also, this is probably the end of Microsoft spending money on "quality" (read: non-Zynga-style games with actual substance and potential and pricy art assets) F2P titles, right?