Product Description

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 Standard, Win32, CD DVD Box

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6828 in Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2001-10-23
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 98
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.25" h x 5.25" w x 7.75" l, .35 pounds

Features

• Fly 12 of the most advanced aircraft in the world
• Interactive Air Traffic Control(ATC) simulates real traffic -- get takeoff clearance, request permission to land, and receive instrument vectors
• Auto-generated 3D tools fill in the landscape and add scenery
• Gorgeous 3D rendered cockpits are fully interactive
• Track yourself anywhere in the world with the GPS system

Amazon.com Product Description
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, Standard Edition is the latest version of Microsoft's highly realistic aviation simulation--the top-selling PC flight simulation ever produced. FS 2002 introduces many exciting features, including interactive air traffic control (ATC) and auto-generated scenery, plus challenging new aircraft and stunning visual enhancements that truly make Flight Simulator 2002, Standard Edition "as real as it gets."

Flight Simulator 2002, Standard Edition includes a wide variety of aircraft for you to fly--from a new Cessna 208 Caravan floatplane to the Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet. You can splash down in a lake, hover in the Bell 206B JetRanger III helicopter, practice aerobatics in the Extra 300S, or fly like a famous World War II fighter ace in a Sopwith Camel. FS 2002 Standard includes a total of 12 aircraft.

The most dramatic new features common to both the standard and pro editions are the interactive air traffic control system, crowded skies, and auto-generated scenery.

The interactive air traffic control feature adds a new dimension to Flight Simulator. Now you can ask for takeoff clearance, get vectors for an instrument approach, and hear other traffic as you fly. In fact, the "other traffic" is itself a new feature: a new artificial intelligence system generates air traffic around and between airports.

It'll be hard to pay attention to the air traffic, however, as the scenery in FS 2002 is so attractive. As you fly above cities, towns, farmland, and dramatic landscapes, Flight Simulator adds buildings and vegetation appropriate to the terrain below. Office buildings, factories, homes, farmhouses, and trees smoothly blend in on the horizon and fill the entire area with detail that adds unprecedented depth and reality to the game.

Other features include more than 21,000 airports, multiplayer capability, improved weather effects, a moving map and GPS system, in-depth flight analysis, and more.

Customer Reviews

Incremental Improvement
I have a private pilot cert. I used FS98 to improve my landings, when I was training. It was just good enough. The thing about landing is you have to gradually pull back on the yoke to stay in a certain configuration, relative to the runway. When you fly around with an instructor, you are paying the big bucks to do something lasting 10 seconds. Anyway, you could get better at doing this with the flight sim.

I didn't like FS2000 because I thought the landing sim was sloppier. The one is 2002 is better, and the graphics are good enough that you can judge where the runway is and just fly down. That means you can turn off the power (to the sim aircraft) and pretend you are doing emergency landings...

A lot of flight instructors have griped that their students come in off of MS FS and they don't look out the window. In other words, they fly the instruments because that's how the flight sim works best. As the graphics improve, you have a better shot at seeing how you are, relative to the horizon, and whether things are going the way you want.

You can get a set of pedals for this sim. The problem is one of using rudder and ailerons in turns. When you get down to the runway, you have to cross control to stay on the centerline. This is tough with a twist control for the rudders.

The mother of all flight sims has finally arrived!
What the giants at Microsoft have managed to accomplish with Flight Simulator 2002 is simply astounding! Gone are the resource eating and maddening slide shows offered in FS 2000, which for the record, I loathed (hate is such a strong word isn't it?). What we get in turn is a highly and richly detailed virutal world (from the planes to the terrain) that is guaranteed to make even the hardened heart of the most jaded flightsimer soar!
Straight out the gate FS 2002 pulls away from the pack with an untouchable collection of options and tweaks and it's in these tweaks that we find what truly makes it shine. The system requirements (as stated on the box) are a PII 300mhz machine, with 64mb of RAM and a 8mb video card, now that may get you flying but it's fair to say that to take full advantage of every beautiful pixel FS 2002 has to offer, you'd better be packing a mighty big stick indeed, like say a P4, 1.8 ghz machine with a truck load of ram (256 plus) and a 64mb video card. That said however the endless options FS 2002 offers, makes it quite friendly to middle of the road machines. My PII 450mhz system for instance with 256 Mb of RAM and a 32mb ATI Rage 2000 Xpert Pro video board gets me into the air nicely thank you with an average rate of 14 frames per second on the low end to over 30 on the high end. And although the graphics options for my system need to sit toward the lower end of the spectrum FS 2002 is still nothing short of breathtaking! From it's use of satellite ground imagery (roads and landmarks are accurately rendered), auto generated scenery, textures, shadows, lighting and finely detailed airports, buildings and even trees (which intensify the sensation of speed near the ground) to it's amazing AI and voice commands from airtraffic control calling out directions and commands from any of 20,000 airports, everything stitches tightly together for a simulated flying experience that simply makes you forget your sitting at your desk top. The cabins of the aircraft are now virtual 3D environments, sinking you deeper into the sensation of actually commanding some of the worlds most famous and powerful aircraft. Nice additions to the FS series are a floatplane and the mother of all commercial work horses the 747-400, Microsoft also threw in an F4U-1A Corsair, which is not listed on the box, nice bonus.
If there are in fact down sides to FS 2002, I've missed them (or over looked them) while exploring the heights of this remarkable simulation. No I take that back, it would be even better if I had a more powerful machine!
Now if you've got the system speed and hard drive space (at over 700mb it took nearly 20 minutes to load) prepare yourself for the ride of your life (but be sure to upgrade your drivers first). FS 2002 is a winner, making you wonder if they could manage such amazing visual miracles with this one, what can we look forward to 5 or 10 years down the road, wow!

It's a flying sim - not a game
If you run out and get this program thinking your getting a game your wrong. This is a flight Simulator and that is what you get. If your a pilot or an aspiring pilot and want to get some practice flying or try out what it takes to fly an aircraft this is a good way to find out. I've run this program on my PIII 1.1 GHZ WIN-XP laptop with 512 MB ram and 32 MB graphics card as well as a Celeron 1.2 GHz 256 MB ram and integrated 11 MB graphics and it has performed well on both systems. Have even flown between the two systems over my home lan with great ease. This program is much better with a flight stick and is rather difficult to attempt with a keyboard. I use a MS Sidewinder force feedback 2 stick and it works great. Program is a hard drive hog on full install though using up 1.7 Gig per system. Thankfully Microsoft does not make you have a CD in the computer to run the program so you don't need to have the software handy after install. Overall I think it's the best SIM out there. If your looking for a game look at Combat Flight Simulator 2 or some other shoot-em up game.