never flown a plane in real life so I can’t decide how realistic it is. This review will treat it as a game. DESIGN AND GAMEPLAY The first thing after the installation and updates is a clear and simple to use menu with several options, such as a world map, training, and challenges If you choose “world map” you’re shown a menu that looks like Google Earth, where you can select any airport or airfield in the world. Here you can also choose your airplane, everything from a Cessna to a Boeing 747. The simulator lets the player choose the weather or have it set as live weather which reflects the current actual weather at the chosen airfield. You can also set a destination airport so the navigation system will automatically set up a flight route for you. When you are done, selecting “fly ” will take you to the loading screen When the loading is done you are met with a top view of the airport you chose. Once you’re ready to fly, you press the button, and you are in the cockpit at the runway. You can set it so you have to start up the plane and taxi it to the runway. Then, you just rev up the engine, release the brakes, and off you go. When you are in the cockpit you can look around and every button that you can see is functional. When you are up in the sky you will see just what everyone has been talking about: the world! The whole planet is represented in a 1:1 scale. Every tree on the planet is there. The world map is created by Microsoft’s Bing Maps and Blackshark.ai and is streamed to you, as there are several terabytes of data. When everything comes together, it is amazing, but sometimes in cities things can be a bit wrong because of old maps. For example, in my home city, several buildings are missing that were built two years ago. You can also set how realistic the game should be, with damage and g-forces and things like that. I played with a Joystick with a throttle grip for more control and to make it more fun. I can’t say anything bad about the controls and physics. Everything feels like I imagine it would.
7
