Saturday, March 3, 2012

Microsoft Flight - It's Free and it Will Cost You a Fortune

Microsoft Flight was released this week. I knew beforehand that I would not like it, so for me it was destined to be a big "meh!". Yeah, no complains, no rants, not even a comment of what Flight is or is not. Installed it, flew a bit, uninstalled and forgot about it within hours.

But I don't want to leave you with just my apathy for Microsoft Flight. As pathetic as it is, let's review the reviews. :p

There is a great commentary about it at SimHQ. Favorite quote on flight modelling "crashing actually takes some work".

Another review at the Flying magazine calls it a big disappointment. Favorite quote about the pricing model  "Microsoft expects users to pay for add-on content, and maybe some would. My guess is few pilots will." (bold is mine)

The guys at Rock Paper Shotgun have a great article on it too. With their usual awesome style they wrote a piece that is both gobs of fun and informative if you can read between the lines. When they post a picture of an Icon A5 landed in impossible places, you laugh ... And if you were expecting a flight simulator, then you cry a bit afterwards. 

AVSIM has its review too. Long. As an apology to an angry wife. AVSIM loves Flight with a passion and that's OK. But if you go through their forums, it feels like if AVSIM has adopted a sort of policy about Flight, and that is you like it or you are out. These guys have completely lost credibility with me. It is just plainly embarrassing to browse their Flight forums and see staff and other assorted honchos criticizing negative reviews of Flight like the two first above. It is not kosher to criticize other reviews on petty flaws. Sorry AVSIM guys but I will stay away from your webpage for a long while. But thank you anyway for the big advertisement banner that forwarded me to Flight's webpage ... 

Cheers, 

at

3 comments:

  1. DDIMarch 4, 2012 at 4:58 PM

    Some of the negative reviews from Sim grognards are terrible, they read like undetailed rants where someone hadn't played the game for more than 20 minutes. None of the negative reviews go into any details about why they feel things are inaccurate. Some of them I wonder if they've flown a real airplane. Or they are comparing the modelling of a $40 1000 HP warbird payware add-on to that of general aviation aircraft.

    They just don't like the game-ification of flying. They want the boring travel from point a to point b, or the crazy switchology of a 747. They complain about purchasing aircraft and scenery yet they are willing to shell out oodles of dollars to 3rd party add-on makers for FSX or X-Plane.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JCMarch 4, 2012 at 5:13 PM

    Hi DDI,
    I don't like Flight as you can guess from the blog entry. Doesn't fit my needs and I didn't need more than 19 minutes to figure that out.

    I agree that the anti-Flight vitriol has gone overboard and that some reviews are vague in details. But still I am leaning towards the quiet, "missed opportunity" crowd.

    P/S: MS Flight Google add at the bottom. Meh! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Storm RiderMarch 8, 2012 at 9:10 AM

    Now well all herd towards X-Flight X!

    ReplyDelete