Microsoft Flight 2012 Takes Off

Graphics of the 21st century?
The question mark might have clued you in. No, granted, graphics are not bad, but they could have been so much better! The airplane models are made really well, with great attention to detail, and so are other objects in game, like boats and ships. But what immediately catches your attention are the slightly strange textures used on the ground and the sea.


Graphics of the plane are quite good, yet the rest of the game sometimes looks... not up to par.

Sea texture is the strangest - it instantly reminded me of a blue gel toothpaste, a far cry from a real sea. Reflections are also a bit weird, rendering the whole experience a bit too artificial. We know Microsoft wanted to give the Hawaiian sea a great blue look, but they overdid it.

Ground textures are the ones that stick out the most, because when combined with the 3D objects on them, they look washed out and blurry.

On the other hand, most players will be pleased with the performance they`ll get even on mid-range configurations. On our test machine, consisting of Pentium E6300@ 3.77GHz, 4GB of RAM and GeForce 550Ti, we had a constant frame rate of over 50fps, and that’s great, especially when you recall poor optimization of FSX.

Flying for everyone!
Since Microsoft’s goal with Flight is to attract people who are not flight enthusiasts and don’t have $2000 flight controllers at home, some things had to be sacrificed.


While city textures and 3D objects are quite good, the game missed the mark on water and water reflections...

In terms of physics, they have been simplified to the point where flight characteristics still feel quite real but are also suited for everyone, even if they fly with a mouse (this is a very important feature for Microsoft).
First time you roll off the runway and start flying, you`ll notice it is not exactly an FSX in terms of the simulation, and it is far, far away from any DCS product, but you’ll still have a feeling of flying a plane, and in that capacity Microsoft did a great job; they made a "simulation" playable for everyone, not only enthusiasts.

Conclusion
Even though the tone of this review may be mixed, Microsoft did do a decent job with Flight, though they had a different idea for their new flight game than Flight Simulator fans had in mind.

Flight offers a simple way of flying in a pretty good physical engine with okay graphics for 0 bucks, while, of course, there is plenty of extra content available to buy. That’s presumably why Flight is free, to get you hooked. There are many flyers out there who will gladly spend $8 to try out the P-51D and other cool stuff Microsoft is offering, exactly what Microsoft’s hoping for.

If you expected a new Flight Simulator, sorry, this game is not really for you. But if you want to try flying on the computer for the first time, or you like casual flying, feel free to try out Microsoft Flight. Let us know how it goes.