Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Dynamic weather system based on realistic atmospheric physics, with true three-dimensional clouds that form and dissipate
• Worldwide scenery with accurate 3D terrain and auto-gen objects that fill in the world with appropriate buildings and vegetation
• Enhanced interactive air traffic control (ATC), including traffic at all airports around the world
• Improved support for 3D graphics hardware acceleration in multiple windows and across multiple monitors
• For 1 or more players over LAN or Internet

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000096KDT
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.2 inches ; 10.4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: July 29, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,156 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight is the next milestone in the award-winning Flight Simulator franchise. Celebrating 20 years of developing and perfecting computer flight simulation, A Century of Flight will allow aviation enthusiasts to experience history at the controls of historic aircraft, such as Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, the Douglas DC-3 and the world's first successful powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome flight simulator  Highly Recommended..., December 6, 2003

By 

Oyvind - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (CD-ROM)

I've owned every version of MS Flight Simulator, since years before Microsoft bought Sublogic's Flight Simulator and made it the basis for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

I've spend many entertaining hours playing Microsoft Flight Simulator, and for the most part, they've added new and very, appealing and worth-while features in each new release. This is also the case in Flight Simulator 2004. I upgraded the day FS 2004 was released, and I've never looked back.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 is a highly entertaining, very realistic looking, and quite realistic acting flight simulator. Overall, I consider it the best Flight Simulator out there. Some people will argue that X-Plane has more realistic flight models and they're probably right. MS FS however, is a close second, and when it comes to the overall gaming experience and look and feel of everything - the MS FS is a clear winner!

IF YOU'RE UPGRADING FROM FS 2002:
* Greatly improved dynamic weather system - You can now have the system automatically update itself in the background with real weather conditions as often as every 15 minutes. The clouds look a lot more realistic than in FS 2002.
* New weather themes - Gives you both static and dynamic weather themes such as a brewing thunderstorm etc.
* Enhanced ATC (Air Traffic Control) - Altitude changes in flight, ATC at all airports, request new flight plan en-route (especially useful if your current one gets cancelled).
* Better 3D virtual cockpits
* Some scenery enhancements, such as signs on taxiways. Most scenery changes are quite subtle.
* Old GPS system has finally been scrapped, and instead replaced by two real life looking Garmin GPS's (slightly stripped down versions, but quite impressive still - Color and all).
* The rain has been improved - Looks more realistic.
* New planes of course - all of them are historic aircraft such as Douglas DC-3, the "Kitty Hawk", the "Spirit of St. Louis", Piper Cub etc.

IF YOU'RE NEW TO MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR, OR YOU HAVEN'T UPGRADED IN A WHILE:
* Real-World weather - with dynamic updates and dynamic weather changes. Multiple cloud layers. Plain and simple, the clouds look fantastic!!! The rain and snow need some improvement, but is still very good.
* Worldwide scenery with accurate 3D terrain.
* Scenery Auto-Generation - Buildings are generated on the fly based on what type of area you're flying over.
* More than 24000 worldwide airports - a lot of them very realistic looking.

* 2D and 3D cockpits.
* Various types of planes - Boeing 737, 747, 777, Learjet, Cessna 172 and 182, Extra 300, a couple of more propeller planes, a sailplane, a helicopter, and of course all the historic planes that are new to this version.
* Jeppeson NavData database - ILS, VORs, NDB data etc.
* Landmarks all over the world - Eiffel tower, Statue of Liberty, Alcatraz, Empire State Building, USS Nimitz, the Red Square/Kremlin in Moscow etc.
* Multiplayer capability - Can play over network or internet (MSN Zone).

I still miss the World Trade Center Towers, and the Concorde, but realistically enough, they're both gone from this version. *sniff*

Conclusion: I highly recommend this game, both as an upgrade or if you're buying MS FS for the first time... FIVE STARS!!!

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Big Improvement from FS2002. Excellent., May 1, 2004

By 

Narut Ujnat "Exchanger1" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (CD-ROM)

I am in love with avaiation, and therefore FS has become a part of my computing experience. I purchased FS 1998, and though it was a tolerable product, I in no way felt that it was a great simulation of flight. It just didn't have the look and feel of flight. However, I was blown away by the progress made in FS 2002. Though the clouds were not always realistic (modeling gave them a two-dimension look that was disconcerting to say the least), I thought that the overall experience was pretty good.

I saw FS 2004, and I thought it was probably mot much of an improvement based on reviews I had read. Let me just say that the first reviews I read were wrong. FS 2004 is a major improvement over FS 2002, and it stands as a all-time gret product for aviation buffs like me.

Improvements:

1. Weather: for the first time, flying on FS2004 simulates almost perfectly the experience of actually flying. Clouds have the mist look when you fly through them. The weather systems seem to generate randomly, just as in the non-virtual world. Also, I like the weather themes that can generate snow conditions, thunderstorms, and fair weather with high altitude stratocumulus clouds. In short, the weather is a fantastic approximation of reality. FS 2004 truly represents a quantum leap in simulations. (although IL-2 still has the best clouds).

2. ATC: FS2002 had the feel of real ATC but with some stupid problems. For example, if you fly using IFR (insturment flight rules), and you failed to reach your assigned altitude, the ATC would terminate their services (what the heck is that about?). If you wanted to fly at a different altitude you couldn't. Also, you couldn't change you IFR route, or change from VFR (visual) to IFR in flight. FS2004 makes those changes. For the first time you can change your altitude, you can change your route, and you can switch between IFR and VFR. Yea!.
Another big improvement is the ATC feel itself. For the first time, I actually feel as though I am flying in a populated world. Lots of traffic at big airports, just like in reality. Fly into San Francisco International, and you may just see airplanes lined up to land. This is a big improvement.

3. GPS: In FS2002, the GPS was very basic and frustratingly difficult to use. It was based on a second generation handheld, and consequently, there were few features. The GPS in FS2004 ahs lots of features, is far easier to use because of a new interface window that you can access in flight (see above), and you can switch to terrain features and in-flight messages. It is a more realistic approximation of a GPS device you would use in flight.

4. The World: FS2004 adds signs at airport runways so you can see where your going! It lso adds more features to the world around you, such as construction cranes, and different buildings not seen in previous models of FS. Although I have noticed a new "Chick-fil-a" looking restaurant, I can state definitively that no such place exists in San Diego, CA next to the Lindbergh field runway. However, the scenery looks a lot better than FS2002. Little details really add up and make flying in FS2004 much better. The airports really look great. Denver Int'l looks very realistic now, as does Seattle-Tacoma. ( I would rate more but I just havent had the chance to fly all over to world yet!)

5. Computer: For some reason, FS2004 sees to run better on my machine than did FS2002. No "slide shows" (bad framerate) that I have found yet, and the computer seems to run better with FS2002. I like this very much. I haven't added to many third-party add-ons with FS2004 yet, but it just seems to function better than does FS2002, so perhaps FS2002 had some unresolved framerate problems.

6. Open architecture: In general, MSFS has open architecture which allows aviation geeks like me to ad-on scenery, and hundreds of planes, general, military and specific airlines as well. Most of the products and downloads I have found are excellent and work well with FS2004.

Complaints:
Given how I feel about this product, I have very few complaints.
I wish the ground textures were better. However, you can either download or purchase products that have photo-realistic scenery, so you can really fly though England of Souhern California and really recognize the ground.
Also, I wish the aiports had more realistic aircraft in them. Sometimes flying through LAX, I realize that Cessna would probably not be at that airport.
However, these are minor probelems, and overall Microsoft FS2004 is an excellent product and is well worth a purchase.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truely "As Real As It Gets", August 20, 2005

By 

Jesse L. Reid "tracker357" (New Bedford, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight (CD-ROM)

I am a private pilot and granted no simulator (under a million dollars) will truly simulate flying, Microsoft at least gives good practice on various skills on REAL WORLD airports. I truly enjoy what Microsoft has done with their Flight Simulator series.

I am impressed on the details at even the smallest airports, generally speaking, even the hangars are in close proximity to where they truly are. Rivers are in the right place, and most highways are running the right way as well! The scenery is close enough that I can manage to use pilotage and dead reckoning to find places and airports without the use of a map or GPS. In my mind that is impressive for software that costs under $50!!!

Although nothing can replace the experience you get in a real aircraft, flying on MSFS can certainly help you with familiarizing with various approaches. With weather settings you can easily bring visibility down to 0 until 10 feet off the runway! I prefer the true to life clouds as opposed to just a white or gray screen that some professional simulators use.

The variety of aircraft is impressive, from GA aircraft all the way up to Airliners and everything in-between, whatever your pleasure is, you can be quite sure that you'll find it. I also have been able to download many of the aircraft I have flown as a pilot. Although they do handle differently on a simulator (as should be expected) I still enjoy the detail that has been put into each and every one of them to make me feel as if I am right in the cockpit, without paying the fuel prices!!!