Flight Simulator 2004 Review - PC Game Reviews

Flight Simulator 2004 Review

The celebration of flight takes the form of nine historical aircraft that changed the world, including the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Vickers Vinny, the Piper Cub & the Ford Tri-motor. In addition, there are fifteen modern aircraft which include two helicopters. The level of detail of each aircraft is truly outstanding with some aircraft even sporting moving gears! There have also been major visual upgrades to the Simulator engine. Dynamic scenery makes ground clutter look highly realistic from up high; the closer you get to the ground, the worse the details appear. (This is to be expected, because if you want completely realistic ground details, you’ll need a NASA supercomputer to view them.)

The designers have obviously paid a great deal of attention to the weather and sky effects with ultra-realistic volumetric 3-D clouds. Piloting your Cessna in a storm is an experience indeed. Lightning crashes, rain drops blur your vision and menacing black clouds roil around your aircraft. And then, just as the weather clears and dawn’s first light breaks through the wispy white cloud cover, you realise that you’re no longer playing the game…You’re living it! This is easily the most beautiful flight sim ever released. Thankfully, it is a highly scaleable title, which means it can run well on a variety of systems. If you have the fastest hardware on the block, you can turn up everything and experience some sweet visuals indeed. Those of you that are not blessed with the latest Radeon will find that the game still performs marvellously.


Microsoft has also paid special attention to the gameplay, resulting in several improvements. Aircrafts now feature a large number of cockpit switches and levers that can be selected with the mouse. The earlier versions of FS were criticised for having a minimal ATC (Air Traffic Control) environment. In FS 2004, pilots now have the option of requesting a different runway or approach on multiple-runway airports. IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) has also been remapped, with the ability to request change in destination, clearance and altitude. The advanced Garmin GPS 500 and 295 have been included to overlay your position relative to the airport. In a final nod to realism, FS 2004 has over 23,000 airports to choose from!


While there is no real printed manual to speak of, the documented in-game help is the most comprehensive I have ever seen in any title. Budding pilots will find a huge amount of interactive videos, tutorials, articles and tabbed indexes that will take them through every aspect of flying from take-offs, landings & ground school to flying blind using only the instruments. Many of these features were present in prior versions but have an added quality and depth that is impressive indeed.
FS 2004 is a complete but expensive flight sim package. It has everything the serious simaholic has been craving for years. About the only problem with the title are the historical missions. Recreating Charles Lindberg’s monumental 33 hour journey across water is not my idea of fun. Still, the quality of the rest of this title more than makes up for this small quibble. Highly recommended for the budding pilot, fanatic flight simulation enthusiast or gamer who just loves to look at the pretty, pretty clouds.

HIGHS: Superb visuals, Detailed aircraft
LOWS: Long Drawn Historical missions, Expensive
NUTSHELL: A Must-buy