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BEST game of all time!!! I'm fourteen and greatly interested in flight as a future career. So when I got FS 2004 for Christmas, I was thrilled, and hoped that it would help me study before I began taking courses. It was my first FS game, and the sleek, simple menues gave a very good first impression. The Learning Center provides a ton of information on pretty much everything to do with flight, and the Historical Flights section is very interesting. I couldn't wait to start flying. And here's where Microsoft's old problem turns-up--cool and flashy on the outside, not so good once you get to know it. To make this easier to explain, I've divided the remainder of the review into several sections, each discussing an important aspect of the game: Flight: I've never actually flown a real airplane before, so I can't compare FS flight to flying in real life. I was quite impressed, however, and the cockpits looked reasonably realistic. Take-off, landing and all the other manuevers associated with flying are pretty much the same in the game, and ATC is excellent and makes the entire experience feel realistic. For new-comers who don't yet know how to work with the radio, FS has an 'automated tuning' feature, which enables you to simply choose the desired frequency off a list. Realism: The amount of realism in the game largely depends on what options you set in the Settings menue. However, for the most realistic flying experience, I recommend setting everything to hard, so that the airplane will actually crash if it hits the ground at an inappropriate angle, instead of just bouncing off it. 'Hard' settings will also enable collisions with buildings and other aircraft, although due to the inaccuracy of object boundaries, sometimes a plane will 'crash' even though it hasn't even touched the object--one of the many flaws found in the game. However, novices can choose the 'Easy' settings which will disable all this. Now comes the downside to FS realism. Two things; First, the crashes themselves are utterly stupid and unrealistic. I mean, when an airplane collides with a mountain at 200kph, it doesn't just freeze and remain intact. I expect to see at least some signs of damage--broken windshield, severed wings, charred ground, etc. I know this isn't a combat game, but even so, no damage at all, just the words CRASH on the screen is pretty disappointing. Then there's the second problem--graphics. Graphics: The graphics in Microsoft Flight simulator are totally and utterly terrible! I've got a 2004 model computer, with a RADEON 7000 IGP graphics card which enables me to have the diplay at the 'High' settings option (Ultra-high is the max.). And still, the buildings and water are horrendous. The ocean looks like its been moulded, and houses and trees are blurry and inaccurate, more like a child drew them. The ground itself is just flat and boring, with a smudgy green surface that's supposed to resemble grass. Airport surfaces are ok, with individual cement tiles slightly visible, but still a far stretch from real life. From afar, mountains, valleys and cities look stunning, but the closer you get, the less so. Weather: Ahh, yes, what Microsoft bragged about most in this game--the weather features. Let me start off by saying that the clouds do look good. They're 3D, (as opposed to the 2D clouds present in old FS games)and actually move with time. That's about it. Snow and rain look good within the cockpit, but once you shift to the outside view, rain becomes hardly visible and more like flimsy lines, or in the case of snow, isolated flakes. I've flown through clouds before in real life (in the passengers seat), so I have a good idea of what it's like. In the game, as you move from clear sky to cloud, instead of there being a gradual progression with the cloud becoming more and more dense, the screen just goes from being clear to cloudy in one second. The same goes for fog. And if you're hoping for any of the dramatic 'flying above a sea of clouds', you'll be disappointed--what looks like a completely overcast sky from bellow turns into boring, isolated clumps of cloud the closer you get to cloud level. General: I think I've covered most of the important aspects of the game. The only other thing worth mentioning is the flying lessons. Allthough these are a fun and good way to learn, you're intructer keeps failing you if you don't do exactly as told and ends the lesson. This can get extreamly annoying, especially if you're having trouble with something, and then don't even get the chance to figure out how to correct your mistakes. Overall, though, it's a fun game and a good way to learn flying. But as I said, Microsoft looks good on the cover, but the deeper you dig, the crummier it gets. At times the game can feel totally patched together, and by God, if you don't have a fast computer, the constant freezing will drive you nuts. Buy this game if you want to learn how to fly without pouring over books, but unless you have the best computer on the market, don't expect to get mind-blowing graphics. It's this and all the minor flaws, especially the 'patched-together' feeling of the game that end-up degrading the fun and overall value of this game.