Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition
I got into flight simulation when I got FSX Standard for my birthday in 2009, and so far it has been my campanion since. Fast forward to 2017, my PC has a major crash that wipes my main drive, which my FSX was on. Kinda happy this happened, as I wanted to upgrade to FSX: Steam for a while, and after New Year’s I finally bought it and wow what a difference!
FSX is a great simulator to get into the hobby, ESPECIALLY FSX: Steam Edition. While on Amazon FSX: Gold Edition copies are running at $200 to $400, FSX: Steam Edition is only $24, and about $14 if you buy the boxed version from Amazon. That is a heck of a deal for a great flight sim that offers the whole world, +24,000 airports, 27 different aircraft, including G1000 Cessna 172, Beech Baron, and Mooney Bravo, new and easy Steam Multiplayer, fun different multiplayer modes, a whole variety of different missions, virtual flight lessons with Rod Machado, and a huge learning center where you can learn about different topics and can help you with FSX.
– Real player with 4275.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Flight Open World Games.
This simulator is certainly a trip down memory lane for me. Before I had FSX:SE or just FSX Gold Edition, I flew on Flight Simulator 2004 which was my first experience being at the controls of a virtual aircraft. Of course, I was only five or six years old and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but it really helped ignite my passion for flying. Now, this simulator may be obsolete compared to others like X-Plane 11 and FS 2020 just around the corner, but I’ll always come back to this one for old time’s sake (and because of the communities on multiplayer).
– Real player with 2189.2 hrs in game
X-Plane 11
It is just a brilliant game! I absolutely love it! It has glitches but they are fixable! Add a few mods to your game and know how to fly and learn vatsim you will have a brilliant time like me as an aviation geek!
– Real player with 1025.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Flight Open World Games.
good if you pay a lot of money
like a lot
the game isnt cheap
the addons are less cheap
pain
– Real player with 999.5 hrs in game
X-Plane 10 Global - 64 Bit
Summary
A true sand-box flight-sim, X-Plane 10 offers a huge variety of options for virtual pilots. Be warned that X-Plane 11 now exists, so you may wish to check that first, if you want the latest version. But version 10 is still a solid offering.
Full review
X-Plane 10 is a first rate flight sim. It is not the latest in the series, as X-Pane 11 has now been released. However I’ve really enjoyed using X-Plane 10 and this sim deserves a positive review. X-Plane 10 may also still be preferred for older machines.
– Real player with 2155.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Flight Open World Games.
I love it and am addicted to it.
Recommendation:
Under setting- rendering
Put number of roads to something higher.
(You get more roads where they exist in the real world)
Put number of objects to something higher.
(You will get generic boxes (buildings) at those roads)
Put detail distance to medium.
Unclick compress textures.
Put texture to high.
In the beginning I found the planes cockpits to be fuzzy.
Some really are fuzzy or they are meant to be used with 2d cockpits.
But mostly it was because by default the texture-settings where set low and where compressed
– Real player with 572.9 hrs in game
Endless ATC
This is an amazing little game.
The game starts out very simply, with just a few planes to control. As you guide them successfully to their destinations, the number of planes in your space increases, and so does your mental load.
A simple and effective interface lets you put your air traffic plan into action almost as quickly as you can think it (via any combination of keyboard, mouse, and touch).
Before long, you must be completely focused on managing the traffic to keep everything running smoothly and your score increasing.
– Real player with 512.4 hrs in game
I’m not easily impressed, but this is really good.
It has all the complexities of the real thing:
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Standard Instrument Departures
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Standard Terminal Arrivals
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Parallel approaches
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Airspace restrictions
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Minimum Safe Altitudes
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Separation criteria
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Wake turbulence separation
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Emergencies
And it’s all packed into a UI that is so easy to learn and simple to use, it actually makes the complex task of controlling air traffic look like child’s play.
Designers of RL ATC software, move over! Look at this title and explain to me why “the real thing” always looks so damn complicated, because this simulation here proves what an intuitive UI can look like.
– Real player with 73.2 hrs in game
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad
Where do I start?
I have always played the Il2 Sturmovik series - that is no exaggeration - I picked up my first installment at age 10, which means I have played for half my life.
To talk about the series as a whole would take up so much time that you’d probably die of old age by the time I finished, so I’ll keep it simple. It’s had it’s ups and downs.
This installment though? What a bloody masterpiece. If you’re here then I’m guessing you already have some Idea of what the IL2 series is, and that is a Combat flight simulator with a heavy emphasis on realism, through its flight and damage models. In all of these aspects Il2 Sturmovik Excels, aircraft are painstakingly researched and their flightmodels studied in order to bring them as close to life as possible.
– Real player with 382.9 hrs in game
Must fly in VR. My gunner bailed after our Stuka’s right tank was shot and began to leak over the Kuban. You didn’t trust me, bud? I landed safely at a friendly airfield. Hope the water showed him no mercy. 10/10 would recommend to every flight sim/WW2 enthusiast.
– Real player with 201.7 hrs in game
FREEDOM: Hunt Kill Fly
I was finally able to find fishes near the rocks (4 set of semi submerged rocks) near the edge of the lake.
You must fly low and slow.
Come back in a hurry to nest, but eventually death bar will end process way too early.
By the way, the fishes on that spot are big, and plenty adequate for a meal to eaglettes.
They should not be already starving with such a generous quantities of food.
But that timer from hell does not think so.
Flying through the floating stars benefit no one.
You must collect a number of them, but impossible to do since timer shoots you out of the sky.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
To be clear…I would recommend the game for under a $, like I paid and under the hopes that the Game goes anywhere. I would like to see better controls. Currently the right stick is used for speed and I would rather the triggers. I would also like to be able to look around while flying. The Demo is also incredibly short.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Liftoff: FPV Drone Racing
Liftoff is a Terrific Tool and Game! I became a Liftoff Fan in January 2017 when I puchased my first RealACC x-210 drone kit from Banggood. Liftoff taught me to fly, tune, and adjust my Taranis settings and develope throttle and axis curves. I did so through Liftoff. I was able to obtain a complete and functional understanding of RC Rates, Super Rates, Throttle and Axis Expo as well as PID tuning and I did so before I ever flew my first Quad, ( have since built five additional race quads) I was able to master the necessary control of my quad by using Liftoff. When I flew my first quad in March 2017…..which is, somewhat different from Liftoff (Liftoff was more foregiving) I was able to fly with only minor crashes that occurred until I mastered a real Quad landing.
– Real player with 2704.6 hrs in game
First, I do have some credentials to mention, perhaps to add some validity to the review. I served 6 years in the Air Force and while stationed in Italy in 1976, I joined a group of Italian hang glider pilots I found while driving in nearby mountains. I bought a hang glider, flew 5 times from a 2500 foot peak, and then crashed and broke my arm. The military took care of me, and I’m okay. Years later, I discovered flight simulators on an Apple II computer (SubLogic FS2). I’ve used simulators ever since then to an exhaustive degree. In 2004 I had the means to start flight lessons, and obtained a Private Pilot license in 2006. I put about 80 hours in command of rental planes (Cessna 150, 152, 170, 172M, 172P) and then got training in a Weight-Shift Control sport aircraft.(commonly called a trike) and then I bought one, N502PW. I flew 100 hours in the trike over the next 5 years, then sold the aircraft in 2014. I have a Phantom 3 Standard quadcopter, a Spedix 275 FPV racing drone, a Vortex 250 FPV racing drone, a Blade NanoQX FPV mini, a Blade InductrixFPV, and an FPV Tiny Whoop I made from an Inductrix. My FPV videos are on YouTube at patjoyce7323.
– Real player with 1605.0 hrs in game
Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition
Do not buy this game unless you have an insanely fast internet connection and immense patience
Out of the 180.6 hours I currently have on this game, around 176 of those hours have been spent installing MSFS. To make matters worse, you can’t install the game using Steam- you have to enter an in-game installer that downloads incredibly slowly, if it even downloads at all.
When I first bought this game at release, my installer was bugged and I couldn’t actually complete the download (I always got an error message at random times throughout the download) . I had contacted both Steam and Microsoft support to fix that issue but they both didn’t help at all. A couple months after I’d given up I decided to try and install it again after I saw there was an update and for the first time it actually completed the download. This took several days and effectively commandeered my computer as you can’t close the MSFS launcher without losing all your download progress, and you can’t play other games as the download is very resource intensive. Additionally, despite having internet that’s usually about 20-50mbps down, the download speed for MSFS is more often than not around 3mbps, if not lower.
– Real player with 180.6 hrs in game
I do not recommend this game for two reasons. First, and main reason, is that this game is completely server dependent. Without good quality broadband internet connection, you will not be able to even open the game after a few days. Second, Microsoft and Asobo force what seem like work-in-progress and poorly tested upates/content onto their customers. The sim looks amazing under ideal circumstances, but my overall experience to date has been that of a beta release product. It just comes across as corporate greed, trying to save money by not hiring enough testers, instead getting their customers to do all the testing and bug feedback for them. All the while charging for the game as if it was a finished product. I have wasted countless hours trying to fix whatever bugs they’ve introduced each update cycle, just to have new bugs introduced the next time around, and its beyond frustrating at this point. I do not support this system of development and deployment. All I want is for Microsoft/Asobo to make all updates and additional content optional, even if opting out of updates would disable all online functionality of the game.
– Real player with 166.1 hrs in game
Shuttle Commander
This sim needs a lot of work. I won’t give it a thumbs down because it was fun going through the missions, and the scenery was very enjoyable in VR. A lot of love went into creating this but it falls far short of a real sim. The take off is nice, but you don’t do anything. There should at least be some external views if this is more of a take off demo than an actual sim. Also, they forgot the TWANG! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmLeGBIj6kw - It was a glaring oversight. The landing also falls short because of there being no rudder control. On the plus side though, the landing does have a multi camera replay which is great to have. All together though, it’s a nice experience although a little pricey for what you get. Hopefully there’ll be some improvements to come.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
They should train astronauts with this. Feel the tension and joy from the launch in real time from the Kennedy Space Center and as Space Shuttle Discovery blasts upwards through our atmosphere, you can’t help to grip tighter on the controllers and look worryingly at the controls if an alarm goes off. The launch is what I will be showing the family over Christmas.
When I get to space the work only begins as I have to deploy Hubble and then I’m tasked with all the service missions. I could manoeuvre around outside in a spacesuit and work as an astronaut. My Rift-S controllers feel as if they were booster controls at the end of my arm. Got a great sense of Hubble’s size as I boosted up beside her.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Wood Brothers Flying Colours
Fun little game that is very early in its development. At the time of writing you can only play with your friends on steam as there is no match making so wait out if you don’t have anyone to play with.
I know one of the developers from this 2 man team and I’m looking forward to seeing what the game grows into, if you are expecting a fully fleshed out title then give this a miss and wait till it has more content but if you want to support small dev team on their first steps to making VR games then this is for you.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Simple but effective VR Multiplayer experience to play with friends. Have played this with 8 people and it’s fun to fly in formation or hide at altitude and swoop down on the enemy. Flight model is really good and trying to figure out whether to take a low fuel load for speed or a high fuel load for endurance (which both have penalties) adds a degree of difficulty. The game is in early access so features are still being released but it’s got the beginnings of a great game.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game