User Reviews (1 - 11 of 29)

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Move over Microsoft

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 16
Date: December 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

You think that Microsoft is the only one to make a flight sim? Think again hotshot! X-Plane is the most impressive flight sim I've flown. The realizm level in the game is simple amazing. The best part is that if it's an airport in the continental US and many places abroad it's in this game. Ever heard of Dixon Municipal Airport or Palwaukee Airport in Illinois? Didn't think so, but they are right by my house and I can flight out of them! Hwo cool is that? some graphics are a bit sketchy but the focus of the game isn't that. Plus you can create ground objects. Now you can fly into your house. Mars, you can fly there to. The game alows you to create airplanes of your design, you want a liquid rocket fuel jet engine on you 747, now you can! You create it and the game tells you how it would fly. I can't express the fun I have with this game in words, where else can you fly the spacce shuttle?

Best flightsim available

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: December 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have owned this sim for over a year now (it is only now available in stores and online, outside the developer's site). It is realistic and constantly being upgraded, free, for owners. Excellent graphics and real flight characteristics make it best the rest, I reccomend to any serious pilot, or anyone interested in a quality sim. Plus you know that you are not supporting a giant conglomerate. Laminar Research's X-Plane it an excellent buy, even at twice the price.

Great Sim, But Flawed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: January 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a terrific flight simulator, but it has some serious flaws. Because the world is modeled as flat, long flights do not function properly. Distant bearings are often not correct, one can't fly over the dateline, and worst of all, the ground shakes violently after significant distances are flown. In addition, though the flight model is vastly better than most sims, there are problems in the flight model that prevent acrobatic manuvers in planes that should should be able to handel them (loops don't work well at all). Finaly, the scenery is bland and although there are tools to improve it, the tools are themselves quite limited. There is hope, though, because Laminar Research is constantly adding to and fixing X-Plane. Perhaps a round world and acrobatics are in X-Plane's future. Only the developer knows for sure.

X-Plane - The Best Feeling Of Civilian Flight

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: January 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After a bit of research I finally got around to purchasing X-Plane. My first impressions? The best civilian flight simulator on the market today. Yep, looks good and even more importantly feels good. I have no excuse why I waited so long to pick up this outstanding flight simulator. Wafting snow drifts blowing across the runway, rain, lightning, it out performs Microsoft's Flight Simulator line in every way. While this baby has sold for $200 and then was at $79 very recently, I picked up my copy for under $40, and now you can too. If you are a civilian flight sim fan and have gotten enjoyment from Microsoft's Flight Simulator Line, Flight Unlimited or Fly!, you owe it to yourself to check out this constantly improved (and you can download the updates for free from the xplane website, not have to pay for Xplane 2000 etc. like all the other major players). Frame rate is fluid, and a variety of user made aircraft and scenery textures are available for download, just like the other guys. So why haven't you heard more about it? Because you have been blitzed by mega ad campaigns from the other sim players.Get Xplane now, you can fly the world with this one too, but in a much more realistic fashion. Highly recommended!

You'll forget where you are!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

With extensive realism and eye poping special effects, this game has made its way up to the top of my most used list! Fly at any airport. Even on Mars! The most realistic weather affects too!

computer bugs

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I recently purchased the latest version of this software. My initial impression of the sim was very favorable. When I tried to exit the program my PC (Dell PIII 933, nvidia TNT2 graphics card)consistently froze. After getting no response from the technical service either by phone or email I finally called the designer. The standard response was the video driver was not correct even though it is the one they recommend. As of now I am still not able to get the program to run well. My advice to any considering this purchase is if the program runs well, great, but if it does not do not expect alot of help from the manufacturer.

Most realistic flightsim you can get

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: February 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This flightsim ist the most realistic I have ever seen. The flightmodel is nearly perfect and the graphics are awesome. If you want to buy a good flightsim take this one.

Good promise, with room for improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: February 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

William Philips's review is pretty accurate. The flight model is absolutely incredible, with the exception of the acrobatics handling (stall modeling is also bit off). I mostly use X-Plane for flying larger jet airliners where acrobatics aren't (usually) an issue. The feeling of mass with the big jets is wonderful.

Another major plus is the ultra-smooth framerates. I usually get around 8-12 FPS with FS2000, whereas I'm in the 30+ range with X-Plane - this is on a p3-850 with a GeForce2. Of course, the terrain model in FS2000 is substantially better than that in X-Plane and accounts for some of the frame rate difference, making it better for low-altitude IFR flight.

The weather modeling is quite good, better than FS2000, although the actual cloud textures aren't as nice. Flying through thunderstorms at night with lightning illuminating the cockpit and surrounding clouds is fantastic.

All in all, a good sim, which is both better and worse than FS2000. It has the potential to be the greatest sim of all time, and is certainly heading in that direction. My MAJOR gripe is the flat-earth model, which severely affects instrument navigation. Given that the other major sims (FS2000, Fly) use a round earth, this is a SERIOUS limitation.

However, this is not enough to make me regret purchasing the sim. In a sense, you're buying the chance to participate in the development of a sim-for-simmers, and this is pretty unique among software developers.

Unfinished product?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: February 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you are tired of paying a lot of money for a software that does not work without a lot of your own help, then buy some other flight simulator. I am trying to give a fair review of this product although I am rather frustrated. Here is my personal experience with this program: I installed the software and found the interface to be rather inept and unprofessional when compared to other games and simulators. The game didn't run at first. It required me to go their website (X-Plane.com) to trouble shoot the problem. I'd say that the low quality of their website is a good representation of their software. I get the impression that some kid has been designing this software during breaks in his computer classes. I then downloaded the updated drivers for my video card. The game partially works now. If there is one highlight, it would be it's flight realism. I must admit that the simulator seems to move much closer to real time. The frame rate seems higher than the Microsoft FS2000. Landing the plane is more challenging and certain aspects of the actual fight appears to be much more like flying a real plane. I like the sounds coming from the radio. Gives the sim a little extra flavor. I guess that this adds to my frustration because I really want to use this simulator. However, I'm unable to use all the features of my flight yoke or new Force Feedback joystick. So now I must fly the friendly skies via my keyboard. How many Cesnas actually have a keyboard in them to operate the rudders and a mouse for the throttle? Eventually I'm sure I'll work this problem out, but should not need to. I then attempted to download the latest version of the simulator from their makeshift website. The only ftp site that worked seems to be the one that someone put up in their Purdue.edu account. After downloading the 68 meg file on my 56k modem I find that it won't work on my computer at all. I'm still waiting for their technical support to reply to my message. I stopped holding my breath as he might be taking his midterm exams right now... I wish X-Plane had a larger staff of programmers. It has a lot of potential but appears to be a work in progress. I'd expect these results if I was beta testing the software, not in the version that is available on the store shelves. It certainly has not been a user friendly simulator. I hope I never fly a plane that has 1/16 of the problems as this sim. The above is just the opinion of a person who is getting rather tired of the poor quality of software being sold. The software companies seem to be the only ones who are not held responsible for the lack of quality in their products. They should be held accountable for the all the wasted time they cause in selling unproven products that do not run properly. -I prefer the MS simulator for it's user interface, better graphics, huge datbase of airports and cities, and control panels. To be fair, FS2000 has bugs in it too. But not nearly the same as X-Plane. -I prefer X-Planes actual flight realism due to it's high frame rate and communication sounds. However, in my opinion it's not worth the price they are charging. They should owe me a little for all my effort in making it work. I hope his midterm exams end soon...

Laminar Reasearch vs. Microsoft

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 31, 2001
Author: Amazon User

X-Plane Is much better that Flight simulator. The Rendering of graphinc and frame rates is so good. I have a 750 MHZ Celoron Proccesser with 64 MB ram + 11MB Graphics Memory. X-plane runs almost perfect. Free Updates too make this a good buy.

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