Flight Simulator X Trial

OSiriS

Microsoft certainly surprised me with this. They released a trial version of their upcoming FSX

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/downloads.html 636MB

Flight Simulator X Trial Version

The Flight Simulator X trial version includes two airports, three missions, and three different aircraft. All of the missions take place at St. Maarten in the Caribbean.

Missions:

Getting Started (Novice)
Plane: de Havilland Beaver DHC2
Details: Geared towards first time flyers, this step-by-step tutorial mission shows you how to get off the ground and up in the air so you can explore the ocean and island of St. Maarten. Of special note is the fact that the Beaver is a float plane so you won't have any runways to worry about. You'll be taking off and landing in the ocean.

Flour Power
Plane: AirCreation Trike Ultralight
Details: This mission has you behind the controls of an ultralight, a very easy to fly glider. The object of the mission is to drop sacks of flour attached to your ultralight onto various objects and targets scattered throughout the area surrounding St. Maarten. You'll be scored on both speed and accuracy. Try not to drop any flour on spectators or dolphins, as you'll be assessed a time penalty.

Caribbean Landing
Plane: Bombardier CRJ700
Details: The most challenging of the three included in the trial version, this mission will essentially be a take-off and landing of a Bombardier CRJ700 in a technically challenging airport. You'll need to manage air traffic chatter and surrounding AI planes efficiently to succeed.

CtrlSource

Has anyone used the full version of FSX yet? I'm thinking of buying it for myself for Christmas!

humanji

It's not too bad, if you're into that sort of thing. Some of the missions they give you can be damn hard (it's remarkably hard taking off in the amazon!) and the Red Bull planes are cool. And it brought a little tear to my eye when I was taking off from Dublin Airport and could see the two red and white chimneys of Dublin Bay in the distance (and then ploughing into them, because a 737 isn't as maneuverable as the redbull planes!)

Executive Steve

i was working on it for a week or two doing localisation type stuff, it's pretty damn good if you're into flight sims...

one of the coolest things is that it syncs up with a global weather server to give you the actual weather conditions in real time updated every 15 minutes...

lots of cool little feaures like that...

CtrlSource

humanji wrote:

It's not too bad, if you're into that sort of thing. Some of the missions they give you can be damn hard (it's remarkably hard taking off in the amazon!) and the Red Bull planes are cool. And it brought a little tear to my eye when I was taking off from Dublin Airport and could see the two red and white chimneys of Dublin Bay in the distance (and then ploughing into them, because a 737 isn't as maneuverable as the redbull planes!)

Yeah, I remember trying to fly between them in FS 2004!

I was once in a REAL Aer Lingus 737 simulator. I knew an engineer out there and he took my Dad, Brother and I on a "flight" from Dublin to Paris. I remember flying low over the Ballymun flats and then out over the port, past the Poolbeg chimneys... ahh the memories :rolleyes:

CtrlSource

[cm]tyranny wrote:

i was working on it for a week or two doing localisation type stuff, it's pretty damn good if you're into flight sims...

one of the coolest things is that it syncs up with a global weather server to give you the actual weather conditions in real time updated every 15 minutes...

lots of cool little feaures like that...

That does sound very cool! It was already a feature in 2004, but I'd say it's a lot fancier in this new release.

TempestSabre

I have 2004 and never use it. I always want to get into flight sim but never do and always end up going for the military sims. Maybe the missions in FSX will make the difference?

humanji

You can also make your own missions (not sure yet, haven't tried it so far) and there's loads of user made add-ons being made all the time.

Another funny little feature is that you can play online, with someone else being your co-pilot, or someone even being an airtraffic controller (although I don't see it being too much fun for that person unless they're really mean b*stards who just want to make people crash! ).