The best game of all of the Flight Simulators, but still needs lots of work,

    I bought Flight Simulator X about a year ago. I have been playing it since. I have acquired about 300 hours in the game. Having completed all of the missions, and flown every Aircraft (including Helicopters), plus the down-loadable aircrafts I have quite a bit of experience. The game is really good. It has the best graphics out of all of the Flight Simulators that have been created.

Bad things about the game:

    The graphics still need a lot of improvements. There are not many types of sceneries. For example, what is mean is when you are landing you do not see much cars, and stuff going by on the roads, and there are not many tress, plus if there are there are not many types of it. Another example is the traffic at, and around the airport. The in-flight (in airplane) graphics also need some work. If you want to take a peak at the Cabin of the aircraft you are not able to do so. If you could it would enhance the experience even more.

    The airports need a little work also. Such as in my game, when ever I play the Jet ways move very slowly. It takes forever for them to get to the aircraft. Plus the Ground Equipments such as the Luggage Carts do not move automatically. You have to call them. When you but the game the box advertises that "Ground Equipments come alive as soon as you park". This is not true. You have to call them. The biggest hassle in the Parking Spot is to back up. Whenever you are parked at the gate, and is the time back up, and taxi to the runway; when you call the tow/tug truck so it can back you up it can only go straight. It will not turn to the left or right. However in the booklet that has all of the controls it says that you can press certain keys to do that. No matter how many times I press that key it does not work. I always have to make the turns manually when going in reverse. Another thing is that it does not give you the full experience of an airport. Such as the Catering Trucks, and other truck do not exist. It would be nice if they did. It would give a fill Airline Pilot experience. Some of the airports can also use better Terminals. Such as at LAX (Los Angeles Airport) All of the Terminal's gates have Jet Ways. But in FSX not every terminal's gate has Jet Ways at LAX. Berley half of them do.

    The cockpit of the aircraft gives you good level of control of the aircraft. Such as the engine, stearin of the aircraft, Seat Belt and No Smoking sign, the doors, and the lighting, and the flaps and spoilers of the aircraft only. But it does not let you control things such as the Windshield Wipers of the aircraft, and many other things in the aircraft. Such as the pilot's voices, faces, the hydraulics, and many other things. Even though in the game you control the lights, there is sometimes problem with the lighting of the aircraft. In mine, I have to have one of the lights on in order to have the cabin lights on. Then I have to have some other lights on so the tail light can be on. There are frequent problems with lights.

    Another major faulty representation is of the sceneries out side of U.S.A.. A great example is of the buildings, and other stuff that you can see at lower altitudes. I can say that from personal experience. The houses, and buildings look very similar when landing in Paris airport, Bombay airport, Singapore airport, and Taipei airport. The buildings look very similar (minor differences) around all of the airports that I just mentioned.

    The game does not offer a big variety of aircrafts. It only offer 5 different jet aircrafts, but with multiple color schemes. But offers a vide variety of Propeller aircrafts. But some of the Propellers are only for Mission purposes. However none of them are real airline airplanes, and popular airplanes like Boeing 777, or Airbus 380 are not included. Which sucks. However they can be downloaded from various Internet sites.

Good things about the game:

    The game does to a certain extent teach you a lot about aviation, and flying. I know almost as much from the game (if not just as much) as a friend of mine who actually has a License to fly. However I have not really tried flying a real aircraft; so I can not say that just because you can fly perfectly in the Flight Simulator X you can also fly a real airplane of any kind as well, or even as good as you can fly in FSX.

    The best thing about the game is that you can fast forward the simulation. A flight from LAX to San Francisco takes an hour. But in the game you do not have to seat for an hour. You can fast forward it, and just lake off, and land in normal simulation, hence finishing the flight in just like 20 minutes or even less (or more). The game also gives you a Pilot like feeling. It has very nice sound quality. It creates that feeling that you are in a real aircraft, and you are a real pilot. It is a very nice game for the simulation purposes. The game also offers many different views of you aircraft from outside. So you can see you plane land/take off from various different views. The game also has couple of different cockpit views. You can see just the Dashboard, or the right side seat, left side seat (only in some aircrafts), and other views. It offers a nice variety of views.

    You can also repeat how many ever seconds of the flight time you want, and change the view in that. So you can take off/land, and review that with views from out side to see how you did. You can also record videos.

    Autopilot is a great tool in the game. You can take off, and let the plane cruse on Auto Pilot while you get some work done, and come back, disengage Auto Pilot, and land. Plus for those who are new/beginners you can use the Virtual Flight Path (a program in the game that creates a flight path for a airport when you put the runway's ILS frequency. After that you can just follow the path, and land right in the middle of the runway on the white line.) Plus if you are a beginner you there are lessons for you on how to land properly, and transition between airspace, and much more. Plus in the Missions there is also a tutorial section that walks you through each step. Starting with Ultralight Aircrafts to Jets. Then to Helicopters. It teaches you how to turn planes on, taxi, takeoff, land, park, and turn then off. It offers nice tutorials.

    One of the best option in the game is that you can choose things like the weight of the aircraft, and the type of weather you want during your flight. That is a very nice option. Beside being able to choose the origin airport, you can also choose the gate at which you want the game to start. However not all gates will be at the terminal, and even if you gate happen to be at the Terminal, it may or may not have a Jet Way.

    Plus if the airport is IFR you can still take off, and if you service is terminated, you can just re-direct/connect it. However if you fly IFR it is very annoying. The air traffic control will constantly make you go up, and down, and turn certain degrees. It gets annoying. So it is better to fly VFR. You can fly your own way. It really is a "Free Flight". You don't have to follow the ATC's directions much.