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Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe DVD | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $24.99
You Save: $15.00 (38%)
New (51) Used (12) from $24.99
Rating:  281 reviews
Sales Rank: 465
Platform: Windows Xp
Genre: Flight Simulation Games
ESRB: Everyone
Media: DVD-ROM
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
nv:Software Type: Games
MPN: 9am-00014
UPC: 882224258043
EAN: 0882224258043
ASIN: B000GCJ6MK
Release Date: October 17, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| | Fly 24 different airplanes, including Ultralites for when you don't want to deal with all the knobs and dials | | | Visit 24,000 of the world's airports, on all 7 continents | | | Authentic road layouts - fly over your home town and navigate by the streets below | | | Simulates advanced GPS technology | | | Deeply immersive world to providing more structured gameplay elements |
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Product Description
Flight Simulator X will awe flight simulator fans and real pilots alike. All-new eye-popping graphics, actual missions to accomplish and a wider range of airports to visit recreate the experience of being a pilot, right down to the smallest detail. Complete point-to-point objectives and skill-based tests, or just fly around the world if you'd prefer that to ferrying passengers or cargo. Whatever you choose to do as a pilot, it's available here in Flight Simulator X Deluxe.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 276 more reviews...
 Most fun I've had on my PC in as long as I can remember November 8, 2006
Adam Hems (Rosenberg, TX USA)
39 out of 42 found this review helpful
I got my copy of this edition a week ago. The last copy of FS I owned was the 2000 version so I was about ready for an upgrade! I dropped the first DVD in and installed it; it took a good half an hour to get through all three DVD's. Then I fired it up. I was immediately prompted for what kind of user was I - novice, experienced FS user or an actual Pilot. I picked novice as I'd not played a game like this one in at least four years and needed all the help I could get. It then talked me though some basics and let me control a plane already in the air at one point and that was cool - very easy intro; I was looking at the plane from behind so no confusing instruments or what-have-you. Felt like an accomplishment!
After this it suggested I go through the tutorials, and told me where to find them, and even though I was itching to just take off from a small airport very close to my home in a Cessna or something and just get flying, maybe try to find my house - I resisted the urge and dutifully found the first mission.
It was in a microlite, which is nice and easy to see out of, which was already flying in the air when the mission started. I just had to navigate it though some huge green squares hanging improbably in mid-air, which I just about managed after the second go. I then wandered about, and found it very cool to see a small boat whizzing along a coast I seemed to be over; I worked out how to get down close to it and was racing along just above it! Well, briefly - I got too low and fell in the drink :-p
I only have a keyboard and mouse and found it devilishly difficult to control the thing with the keyboard; it was a little easier with the mouse. I then undertook several other missions, where I learnt to take off, and land, and navigate around the ground in an airport. The computer talked me through the whole thing; it was fairly straightforward and tremendous fun.
I found after a couple of hours of periodically losing control of my various aircraft that I really needed a joystick. I rushed out to my local electrical retailer and bought the Saitek X52 flight System, which costs a third less here on Amazon btw, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I didn't even need to restart the game; I just plugged it in and the whole thing worked immediately. It is so much easier to control the aircraft with this set-up; made a massive difference.
The most fun I've had so far was the mission that introduces you to Jet's. I found myself in the seat of a medium-sized passenger jet, on a slip-road by a runway. In front of me, through the windshield, I could see another passenger jet, ahead of me in the line for the runway. The computer started explaining to me some of the gauges in front of me, about how it was a glass cockpit and so on. I looked around using the "Virtual Cockpit" view, which is ever so lifelike. I found myself pushing the buttons on the display (prompted by the computer) and it was just so cool. All this while "we" (the computer, playing the co-pilot, and the plane in front) waited for a 747 to come in to land, which it duly did. Then the plane in front moved in to position to take off. The tower came over the speakers, and the computer answered it for me, and told me that we should move forward. I can't describe how real it felt to move the thrust forward a little, wheel the plan around and get in position behind the plane in front; I was as nervous in that simulation as I was on my first ever driving lesson. I was worried I was holding people up in the line behind me! That the tower might get impatient! Anyway the first plane took off, and after more instruction I got myself on to the runway as the computer, still playing my copilot, jabbered away about heights, angles, vectors and some similar stuff I was too nervous to take in. Then we had clearance from the tower to take off and I was time to crank the engines and get off the ground! I managed it just fine, mostly by luck rather than taking in the computers' tuition, and followed the computers directions and managed to navigate to a nearby airport and *nearly* landed (I clipped the trees at the front of the airport ). I did it the second time perfectly; the feeling of achievement was just exhilarating!
There are several helicopter missions - I couldn't do those. I will go back and try them later but I found that guy, even with my whizzy new joystick setup, *HARD* so for now I'll stick to planes!
Later I tried the online thing; I found a game hosted by somebody who was prepared for newbies like myself and joined it. I neglected to ask for permission to take off but made it without incident (or rebuke from the tower), and then pottered about the airport flying very low and making a complete nuisance of myself. Finally the guy in the Tower asked that I get above 2,000 feet, which I duly did; when I didn't answer he must have realized that I didn't know how the radio worked and he attempted to explain it to me. This was all via verbal communication, btw. He had a Scottish accent and he was very good about it. I shall go back when I have more of a clue.
I finally tried taking off from an airport near my house and following the roads - it worked! I picked the microlite as I had got the hang of that one and it's nice and slow so it's good for low-flying and checking out the view. There is a large road bridge near my house and I found that easily enough; of course the houses and other buildings around the roads are made up but I still felt like it was familiar and that was cool.
In summary, I can't remember the last time I was so immersed in a computer game - I found the learning process just utterly exhilarating. I recommend everybody give it a try :-)
As for performance, I initially had my graphics settings cranked to Ultimate and got about one or two frames a second so wound them back to somewhere in the middle and it's fine. No doubt my next computer will make it look better which is something to look forward to :-) BTW I am running Vista which maybe helped I don't know. The specs of my notebook, for the curious who care are below.
- Toshiba Tecra M4 with 2Gb of RAM and a NVIDEA GeForce Go 6600 TE 128Mb
- I ran the game off of an external Maxtore 7200 RPM drive / 16 Mb Cache
Easily the best so far, by far. November 3, 2006
J. L. Albee (Houston, TX USA)
37 out of 42 found this review helpful
Here are some things you need to know before buying:
This software is not a game. It's a real-time simulation.
You'll need a Cray supercomputer to run it.
The graphics are, hands down, the best in the business... any business.
The flight models are realistic. I know, I'm a pilot.
Where else can you learn how to fly around the world in a range of aircraft with no risk whatsoever for about 60 bucks?
If you enjoy this sort of thing (you know who you are), spend the money for one good dinner out on years worth of aviation discovery.
When I was a kid I never dreamt that something so comprehensive, exhilarating and downright beautiful would ever be possible. How spoiled we are!
Terrific!!!! November 3, 2006
Brian K. Unruh (Long Island, NY USA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Flight Sim X Deluxe is an incredible simulation not really a game, although you can have alot of fun with it. If you are the type of
person who needs instant gratification for anything, this won't be
for you at all. Playstation or XBOX is the way to go. FS is something you really have to work at and be interested in to find satisfaction from the program. If you are interested in aviation or becomming a pilot you will spend hours exploring the world from your office or bedroom. No other program lets me drop into the Grand Canyon in my 172, flying slow over the river, turning left then a quick right to keep from hitting the canyon walls. What a rush. The scenery is intense and very realistic.
Most of the reviews initially on a new release of flight simulator will be nasty. For me, a new release of FS means some type of hardware upgrade in the video card or memory. This is because a new release is a true upgrade in graphics, features, and realism. FS has always been ahead of the hardware. There are many features to tweek and play with to
get the Sim to run on your computer nicely. Google FS forums and you will find many sites to help you get the most from this sim.
Excellent, but not exactly plug and play November 7, 2006
R. Oravetz (CA, USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
I was very hesitant about buying and installing FSX after reading all the negative reviews. So I spent some time researching tips and tweeks, and then dove straight in. And I'm glad I did: the visuals are stunning, far better than FS2004. And frame rate: I'm getting 20 fps with occasional very short lived dips into the mid-teens (and that's flying around large cities), using high settings (but not highest) on everything. My specs: Athalon 4200+ X2 (2475 oc), 2G DDR 450, gf7800gt (470 oc). It's not buttery smooth like FS2004, but it's not herky-jerky either. One weird thing about FSX is that beyond a certain point of performance, throwing better graphics cards at it doesn't really boost the FPS much: I've seen first hand that SLI does NOT improve this sim's performance. It's all in the tweeks and there are many...search the web and you will see.
Awesome if you tweak some settings November 2, 2006
S-9 Pilot (Rangiora, New Zealand)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
On a P4 3.0GHz HT 2GB DDR2 RAM GeForce 6600 system I am getting 30 fps reliably outside city areas, and 20 fps in the cities major airports. Turn off 'Light Bloom' to get a big performance increase. Also turn off cars/trucks on the highways to get another big performance increase. I leave Autogen on normal, and put everything else in the 'high' bracket. Hope this is useful to you, I thoroughly recommend the game, and as my PC spec improves over time, this game will look better and better. Oh nearly forgot to mention that the planes seem to fly with much improved characteristics, esp. reaction to turbulence and wind gusts, stalls and spins are superb. Rain effects look amazing, night flying is really seriously impressive.
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