Chocks Away: MS Flight Flies Feb 29th

Just like Holly Genarro’s plane had to circle the airport at Dulles Airport in the 1990 classic Die Hard 2: Rudder Me This, Microsoft’s free-to-play air-to-plane sim Flight is still up in the air. But fret not, fokkers, for Microsoft will be getting all John McLaine on its crew section, and exploding a planeful of terrorists to create runway lights on the 29th of February. That's when everyone will be touching down on the crunchy snow and into Bruce Willis's comforting embrace. Er, and the game's out.

Also on that day the first paid content lands. You'll get the Big Island of Hawaii for free, but for 1600 points (£13.60 in the real world, or 6.7777 Peggles in the surreal world) you can add all the other Hawaiian airspace with additional missions and challenges, and a new single-engine plane, the Vans RV-6A.

Further wallet troubling beggary includes new aircraft to buy: 1200 MS points (£10.20, or asadaf Peggles) for utility craft the Maule M-7-260C, or a mere 640 points (£5.40, or ERROR: PEGGLE CONVERSION FAIL) for the North American P-51 Mustang. So, all in: £29.20. Erm, that's a lot. Particularly when Flight Sim X gave you the globe, dozens of planes and a platform for modders. I've barely played the free content, so maybe it's generously proportioned, and I'd understand if the only way to make it financially viable was to make it free-to-play, but still: a lot. Count me out of anywhere but the free skies.

Here's the latest developer video. They. Never. Blink. I'm off to Hunt down Hans Gruber's brother.