Gaming Microsoft Flight Megathread

[astrosammy]

The games is free, yes. But not the additional content... but still lower prices than some of the FSX payware...

If the target audience is casual gamers, they fail, I guess... I've seen gamers trying FSX... the usual mistake is that they make way to strong control inputs... and for me the flight models in Flight still feel like in FSX.

 

[Hielor]

Well, now that the NDA is up and the game is out...yes, I was in the beta for the project.

I found it largely unplayable, since it didn't support elevator trim on an axis or TrackIR.

Here's hoping they fixed those for release (downloading now)...but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[astrosammy]

It's out? Can the download be stopped/restarted? A must have with my 30 kb/s. And yes I, was also in the beta.

 

[Fabri91]

There's no support for TrackIR, as of now, at least. Will look regarding the elevator trim, but apparently there isn't also support for toe brakes.

Just to provide a bit of insight into the "NaturalPoint perspective":

You guys are welcome to post on our forums, but we're just going to point you back to the Flight team. The ball is 100% in their court.

We have been in contact with the Flight team for probably around 14 months. In that time, until very recently, there was never an indication that they might not implement TrackIR. They have our SDK, as well as our full technical support.

Recently I received an update from one of their software developers informing me that support might not make it into the initial release. But he also indicated that they were considering expanding device compatibility in a future update. He didn't specificy when that update will be released, or what its scope would be.

I've been in contact with him since then, and today reminded him that TrackIR is a staple in flight sims, and that MS Flight not including it would, in a sense, make history (in that no major flight title over the past many years hasn't included TrackIR). Just not the good kind of history.

In summary: we're committed to TrackIR implementation in Flight. We've provided all of the tools necessary for it to happen. We're also more than happy to provide any necessary technical support.

If any interested simmers want to influence the outcome, the best approach will be to contact the Flight team directly, and communicate the importance of TrackIR. And if you'll be witholding money until that support happens, be sure to communicate that as well.

- Seth

 

[Hielor]

I didn't need to pause or resume the download, so I don't know, sorry.

Still no TrackIR support. Still no elevator trim axis. Still unplayable.

Also, the way the game forces you into the first couple of missions and doesn't let you skip them (where's the "I'm a real pilot, just let me fly" or "I've already installed the game before" options?) is really annoying. I'll be trying an install on a second computer, hopefully it'll let me skip them the second time around, since it's a GFWL game.

On that note, GFWL is annoying, having to wait around for it to log in every time I start the game. At least with Steam I only need to do it once each time I start the computer...

One good thing so far, the mouse flight controls are very usable (I was too lazy to plug in my joystick), so that's something, at least...

 

[Cras]

No Track IR is a big deal. Once I tried it (with EZDock) I find it very hard to fly FSX without it.

 

[Ragtag]

No Track IR is a big deal. Once I tried it (with EZDock) I find it very hard to fly FSX without it.

I tried it but got a sore neck from having to keep my head in the same position and not even being able to shift in my seat without changing the view.

As for Flight. I'm getting dreadful fps and can only play on low settings. Anything set higher or if I load clouds it stutters badly. Even switching on the cockpit GPS causes a drop in fps.
My specs:
AMD Athlon 64 dual core 5600+ 2.81GHz
64 bit Windows 7
6 gig ram
GeForce 8600 GT with 512meg ram.

I've read of folks with much lesser systems running it at medium or even high settings.

The two start up tutorial missions were a pain and I did think that no axis for trim was a bad choice. I haven't checked for other controls like mixture or prop because I only tried the simple default aircraft.

I also had a problem with my Windows Live login. I've had it for years and I was able to login with a browser but I could not through the game. I was also confused as to why I needed to create an XBox profile to login. I was attempting to get the "free" Stearman download.

I tried a few of the missions and was disappointed with low scores for the landing ones. Quite a few times I greased it right on the center line and still failed to get enough points to get one of the three awards.

Because of it being online I assumed I would see other players similar to the games like Star Trek Online but I guess that is not the case. I was also disappointed that there were no animations I could see. No cars on the roads, no aircraft traffic or even static aircraft at the runways and the windmills didn't turn. I even kick it to everything maxed out to see if stuff would show up but it didn't. But then it was hard to see considering I was getting about 0.5 fps.

I'll try it out again tonight and if I can get better fps out of it I will consider getting the additional island scenery but if I can only run it at low I will have to pass on this one. I already have a third party Hawaii scenery for FSX so I'll just stick with that.

 

[jangofett287]

My thoughts on this are that it is definatly more of a game than a simulator now. There is experience and levels etc... Also, while the mouse control is very efficient and intuitive, I simply could not find a way to roll the plane right over. Finnaly, while you can play the game without LIVE, you can only fly one of the planes, basicaly 1/2th-ing the game. Seriously Micro$oft? All or nothing on the LIVE front please...

 

[Hielor]

With those specs you should be able to run it without many issues...insert generic "check your graphics drivers" comment here.

But yeah, I really feel that I (as a real world pilot and FSX relatively casual player) am not the target audience for this game. I have no idea who the target audience is supposed to be. I'll probably get as many of the achievements as I can quickly and without paying anything, and then forget about it.

---------- Post added at 12:21 ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 ----------

My thoughts on this are that it is definatly more of a game than a simulator now. There is experience and levels etc... Also, while the mouse control is very efficient and intuitive, I simply could not find a way to roll the plane right over. Finnaly, while you can play the game without LIVE, you can only fly one of the planes, basicaly 1/2th-ing the game. Seriously Micro$oft? All or nothing on the LIVE front please...

The mouse control is basically a FBW Airbus-style thing that prevents you from getting yourself into too much trouble, so no you can't do a full roll.

I don't see why you would want to play it without LIVE....

 

[jgrillo2002]

All I can say is that it sucks just by hearing the reviews. M$ just wants more money in their pockets thanks to their marketplace system. :dry: Thank god I still have FSX

 

[Hielor]

All I can say is that it sucks just by hearing the reviews. M$ just wants more money in their pockets thanks to their marketplace system. :dry: Thank god I still have FSX

Which is why they're letting you have the full game, sans some scenery and airplanes, for free, right?

Somehow I doubt that Microsoft will actually make more money on this model than a traditional FSX-like model. With this, people have plenty of opportunity to determine if they like the game before shelling out more money. That means that plenty of people will realize how bad it is and not pay for it.

Compare to a traditional game, where you have to pay up front...

 

[jgrillo2002]

Well thats my opinion anyway

 

[Notebook]

Downloaded it, and can't say I like it. If they had started on the ground and let you fly around a bit, I might have given it more time. Making you run an obstacle course at start is just...daft.

Here's another opinion:

http://asn.aerosoft.com/?page_id=3585

N.

 

[Fabri91]

The first two tutorials are the only unskippable "missions", which are meant to give at least a basic understanding of how to fly to a new user.

After that it's pretty much up to the you on how you want to use the program, wether it be for "normal" simulator use, or for a more game-oriented approach, which is absolutely not mandatory.

What Microsoft also seems to forget, according to their marketing campaing for Flight at least, which indeed depicts it as just a shallow flying game, is that this program also has some features which do qualify it as a simulator. For example, have you seen the Checklists that you call up with the Q key?

 

[Notebook]

Well, I lasted three minutes, then my ears gave up!.

N.

 

[FADEC]

Well, I lasted three minutes, then my ears gave up!.

N.

I didn't even take a look. The info we got for month/years was enough already. Especially the claim that aircraft config files won't be editable, which obviously turned out to be true. That was already the end of MS Flight for me even before there was any beginning.

I really hope that MS will badly fail with Flight. But I have no hope they would learn from it. This is definitely the end of flight simulators from Microsoft which is more than sad. It's a disaster for people like me.

 

[mojoey]

from Gamespy

It figures that the lion's share of the goodies would be locked behind a pay wall -- this is a game about planes, and the airline industry is known for charging extra for everything. How much do I have to pay to unlock my secret spy plane, equipped with supersonic jet engines, air-to-air missiles, and in-flight entertainment system?

 

[C3PO]

I didn't even take a look.

Unfortunately I did.

This guy isn't doing himself any favours either. He's trying to convince us that it IS a real simulator, and @35:20 we get this:

I have been flying sims for over 15 years, and dont quite know how to use VOR or ILS

That's one hardcore simmer, that is.:thumbup:

 

[Cras]

ILS I could understand. Barely. But VOR? Come on. What has he been doing for 15 years? Taking off, flying around, and crashing into the ocean because landing has always been too difficult?

 

[mojoey]

ILS I could understand. Barely. But VOR? Come on. What has he been doing for 15 years? Taking off, flying around, and crashing into the ocean because landing has always been too difficult?

A lot of people (guilty here too) have a very limited understanding, and mostly when I flew in FS9, I never filed a flight plan, unless I wanted to go somewhere where I couldn't eyeball it all the way.