[PC] Microsoft Flight - development ended

[CeeKay]

MS is getting back to flight sims!  here's the main site, with a teaser for it.

[heloder]

God, they're "heralding new ages" and "bringing new perspectives".

You just know it's gonna suck.

[CeeKay]

God, they're "heralding new ages" and "bringing new perspectives".

You just know it's gonna suck.

I'm wondering how far towards 'casual gaming' it's going to go.

[Razgon]

Earlier MS flight were pretty damn good actually. But yeah, now you can probably take off by pressing a button, control the plane with WASD and land by pressing another button. YAY flightsim!

[Clanwolfer]

Don't care how much casual is in there as long as they still have the realistic options as well.

To be honest, it would be kind of fun to have a 'mission structure' that gives you interesting casual flights and then slowly works in real concepts, instead of boring old flight school.

[Booner]

The thing that worries me is that they've dropped the 'simulator' from the title...but, I find that MS having some of the high-end third party developers from the series already under NDA interesting.

I'm hoping that MS keeps spirit of the series alive for the 'hardcore' simheads as well as still allowing the 3rd party add-ons that took it to the next level. I wouldn't blame them for making it even more scalable than before, but I'd be really disappointed if they completely dumb it down.

[Caine]

The real MS flight sim died when they laid off most of the team 3 years ago. If this is anything like the old games, I'll be shocked.

[Rumpy]

Oh, that's poor of them. Design a website that looks like a flash-based video, but it launches Windows Media Player. For a longer higher-res video, I could understand, but for such a short video, it's poor design. Pooh on them.

[The Grue]

With my new gaming laptop, I was thinking about playing Flight Simulator X because I used to love those sims, but I haven't had a good machine to play X on for quite some time.  Interesting that they announced this, as it might make me hold off on trying to get a hold of a copy of X.  The teaser tells me nothing about it, though.

[kronovan]

Damn, I really wish it wasn't going to be a Windows exclusive - I'd love to play a slightly more casual Flight Simulator on the 360. IMO, Birds of Prey and my Saitek stick proved that a more than decent flightsim experience can be served up on that platform. MS promised a 360 FS eons ago - time to deliver.

[CeeKay]

beta application survey.

[Punisher]

beta application survey.

looks like you need an invite?

[kronovan]

beta application survey.

looks like you need an invite?

With the amount of FSX 3rd party businesses and community modders that are still active, I can't imagine MS would have any problems coming up with a healthy list of beta testers with little effort. I'll be surprised if this ever becomes a completly open beta.

[CeeKay]

it's going to be free!!! (with microtransactions)

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#press-takes_to_skies

Start Exploring For Free

After downloading Microsoft Flight for free, players can jump into hours of exciting gameplay on the Big Island of Hawaii.

In addition, players who sign in to their Games for Windows – LIVE account automatically receive additional free content, including the legendary Boeing Stearman plane, supplementary missions, and access to Achievements and an Online Pilot Profile. Those looking to deepen their experience can purchase and download additional content that adds new aircraft, regions and customization options. The frequently released new content for Microsoft Flight includes daily aerocache challenges and updates that make every flight unique and fun.

[The Grue]

I may or may not have gotten a beta invite today.

[heloder]

[kronovan]

Lol It'll probably be more like "bribe Tower with a microtransaction to land or take off"

I don't mind a microtransaction model, but I'll be worried if 3rd party modders are excluded from it. As well, this could potentially kill some nice online FS 3rd party storefronts like simMarket and Aerosoft. If they do something for the 3rd parties like the indie game pages on XBLive arcade, I could be very happy about this.

[El-Producto]

I heard a rumor that I may or may not have been invited to test this.

I like the free to play model, but I suppose it depends on the scope of the game.  it seems to me like they are almost going for a flight ulimited style of gameplay where you do short hop missions, etc.  I just really hope this is a sim, not pure arcade.

I really try to support any flight sims, as it is a bit of a dying genre.

[CeeKay]

Lol It'll probably be more like "bribe Tower with a microtransaction to land or take off"

you're about to land and find out you need 200 MS Points for landing gear 

[kronovan]

Lol It'll probably be more like "bribe Tower with a microtransaction to land or take off"

you're about to land and find out you need 200 MS Points for landing gear 

...and an additional 50x2 points for wheel brakes. 

[El-Producto]

It may be free, but you'll need a lot of MS Points to make it good.

"Terrible"

[Clanwolfer]

It may be free, but you'll need a lot of MS Points to make it good.

"Terrible"

"A lot" like full retail price for a game, which is just an amount most folks aren't used to spending in points, or "a lot" like a hundred-plus dollars to be able to do flights of any length in a small variety of planes?

[Arclight]

Thought about starting a new thread................but then again, why?  

Anyway, I downloaded MS-Flight from Steam. I played the trial and enjoyed it. So I jumped right in and bought the Hawaii Adventure Pak, the newly released Alaska Adventure, and a couple of planes.
I used to be a very die-hard simmer back in the day. Spent most of my browsing time on AVSIM forums.
I quit "flying" shortly after FSX was released. I was just burnt out on the twiddling, fiddling, messing with,up-grading for, flight sims just to get them to run smoothly.

I'm glad I saw this very lite MS flight sim. You can dumb it down to almost total arcadiness or switch off the helps and have a fun, Flight Sim lite, game.
I run it on full with a middle of the road system. And for the most part, the visuals are good. I felt the familiar feeling of peace and calmness while flying around exploring Alaska.

There is enough of a the game in the trial to get a feel for it to see how it fits for you. Easily flyable with mouse\Keyboard. But much nicer with a stick and throttle.
Its very casual, but still unusually fun and relaxing. Hey, we could all use more fun and relaxing in our lives, right?


http://store.steampowered.com/app/203850/

[CeeKay]

I played it for awhile when it came out, and even the base part was fairly fun with just the mouse and keyboard.  I plan on going back eventually, especially if I ever get around to getting a serious flight control set up.

[jztemple2]

I played it for awhile when it came out, and even the base part was fairly fun with just the mouse and keyboard.  I plan on going back eventually, especially if I ever get around to getting a serious flight control set up.

It works nicely with a 360 controller attached to the PC.

I haven't gotten Alaska yet; frankly I'm a bit turned off by MS's succession of non-cockpit planes. I recently installed MS Flight Simulator X on my new computer. Even though it has a bare bones video card MSX runs great. Sure, the graphics are a bit ugly, but it comes with a lot of aircraft and the whole simulated world. And marvelous in-cockpit views with zillions of switches and gauges to play with. If the new Flight sim adds some more interesting planes I might get back into it, but right now I'm not really interested.

[kronovan]

I recently installed MS Flight Simulator X on my new computer. Even though it has a bare bones video card MSX runs great. Sure, the graphics are a bit ugly, but it comes with a lot of aircraft and the whole simulated world. And marvelous in-cockpit views with zillions of switches and gauges to play with. If the new Flight sim adds some more interesting planes I might get back into it, but right now I'm not really interested.

Heck, I'm still running FS2004. I'm not much interested in Microsoft Flight, but I'd like to upgrade to FSX as the better multithreading support would likely translate into better performance on my gaming rig. The problem is I have so much terrain and add ons for FS2004 that it would be costly, if not impossible to find replacements now. Beside FS2004 looks damn good on my rig with everything cranked to max, and gives me a challenging enough flightsim experience.

[Arclight]

What I think is MS-Flights greatest attribute is its accesability to new comers to flight-simming. There are a lot of options to make the flight model easier or more realistic, so to be able to grow with the "newbie" pilots.
Is there any way MS-Flight is a viable flight sim like the old true and trusted ones? No, but I don't believe thats its purpose. If I let go of my simming-expectations and accept the flight model and limited cockpits as it is...I think there is a lot of fun and learning to be had with it.

I'm hoping the Flight Simming developers out there catch the fire once again and start thinking about jumping back into the breech. I understand how hard it can be to keep up with a detailed intricate sim. But there are thousands who loved that style of simming. And as far as hobbies go, its a great way to relax, learn, and play with very cool toys.

I'm keeping MS-Flight on my hard-drive and will support any quality work they release for it. Who know's where it will lead. But jumping back in might be a bit too much to ask from experienced simmers.
I get that.

[The Rocketman]

I'm hoping the Flight Simming developers out there catch the fire once again and start thinking about jumping back into the breech. I understand how hard it can be to keep up with a detailed intricate sim. But there are thousands who loved that style of simming. And as far as hobbies go, its a great way to relax, learn, and play with very cool toys.

Agreed. I liked flight sims back in the 90's, and by modern standards their flight model was not very detailed. But modern flight sims are too daunting for me. But it's a fine line, because it shouldn't become too arcadey (like the recent Wings of Prey).

[Purge]

CeeKay, you've got a title edit to make.

[CeeKay]

kinda kicking myself that I didn't grab the bundle Steam was offering for this, as suddenly I have the urge to play again and the thought of flying through Alaska is appealing.  have you had a chance to try Alaska yet JZ?

[Laner]

Easy come, easy go...

Microsoft Flight is no more

[CeeKay]

hopefully they keep the game available and just patch out any online requirements.

[Caine]

don't worry, in three years, they'll try it again with a new time and a different payment model, this time featuring a "pay-as-you-fly" model, where you'll need MS points to buy in game gas. 

I think I installed this once and tried to run it.  It failed and was then uninstalled.  the end.