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Rating: 
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I would pass on this simulator. it takes up way too much room and is not that fun.
Rating: 
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Make no mistake, this is a real Simulation of flight.
4 hours is a long time for an install, and unneeded. The extra DVD's (disks 2 through 6) contain, as they are labeled, nothing more than the Hi-res imagery for the planet outside of the United States. Installing the first disk is all you need to do to get going, and Northern California is all you get to see if you've downloaded the Demo.
X-Plane is not a "Toy Video Game with Airplanes", it's a true Flight Physics Simulator. It doesn't have fancy looking interface designs, no happy guidance on how to fly. X-Plane is for the people who want a highly realistic simulation of actual aircraft physics. For this reason, many pilots prefer it over the competition's product. It's accurate, it feels like flying a real plane, and it doesn't fudge any numbers for the sake of simplicity.
If you take a design from X-plane, build it in real life, with the correct power engines, correct wing designs, and correct fuselage design, your plane will fly exactly the same in real life. (Cirrus' "The Jet" and the Carter Copter were actually designed using X-plane). If you know how to use autopilot systems in real life, they will all work here. If not, you've got a learning curve to tackle.
Can you load up the game and start flying immediately? Almost. You'll have to program your joystick. Tell the sim what sliders should do what, what buttons should do what. After that, yes, you can "just go". X-Plane isn't going to give you an intro on how to take off, you need to either know how, or figure it out. (Throttle + Flaps = Flight)
You can even design your own aircraft, design your own airports, and update world maps. (I don't actually know how to change the world, but I've made a few aircraft designs in my years, none all that impressive, mind you, but still)
The community website (www.x-plane.org) is full of new designs, (admittedly since V9 is only a month or so old, the pickings are fairly slim), and many v8 designs still work nicely, or so I've heard. This sim is the best value for the money, and the most serious item around. If you've got a motion control platform, you can configure it to move with the sim. You can run multiple copies on a network for multiple screens, multiple aircraft, and instructor stations, if you've got a pile of money to buy it all.
The new high-res graphics are killer nice, and flying over NYC brings my computer to it's knees, but NYC isn't exactly a village now, is it?
If you want a video game, look elsewhere. If you want to know how to fly, you've got but one choice. X-Plane.
-CameronB
Gayla's Husband
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After a week of playing the downloaded demo, I bought the 6 DVD set. The install took 4 hours, and what did I get? Only the ability to continue to play after 10 minutes without quitting and reopening. No more airplanes than those that came with the demo...no more airports that had scenery than those that came with the demo. And not a shred of documentation. Questions posted at the XPlane Forum were met by terse, one sentence answers from users who apparently find any "newbees" a nuisance and not worthy of helping. Buy this at your own risk...
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The level of realism of this game is incredible. The new version significantly improves graphics with detailed scenery and very smooth motion. On a Macbook Pro 2.6GHz with 4 GB RAM and 256 MB graphics memory, the game performed really well even with graphic details and game reality levels set to high.
This increased level of realism comes at a price however. And I mean not just the monetary aspect. There is a steep learning to this game. Especially, the flight controls need to be calibrated for your joystick. I cannot imagine playing this game without a good joystick.
There are lots of settings windows to calibrate the flight simulator. And the menus are confusing.
Overall is is a great game for the mac. Its far better than Microsoft Flight Simulator for the PC, this game almost makes MFS look half a century old.
Must buy for Mac gamers.
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Beware of this game. I can't even get it to load on my Mac Pro. Time and effort are being expended with X-Plane Tech Support to no avail. At this point in time, Monopoly is more fun. Good luck if you've purchased this version ... you will need the patience of Job.
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