- 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
Product Description
Players will be able to experience what it is like to be a pilot and have real distractions, to shade their eyes from the glare of reflective paint and the glint from glass and chrome…. More >>
Arrived quickly & is sure to provide many hours of fun. Good to get a joystick or flight yoke, although can use arrows for controls.
Rating: 5 / 5
I was surprised to come across this, especially at such a paltry price! I purchased several versions of FS “back in the day,” and was a huge enthusiast – downloading dozens of extra planes, installing air traffic, ground traffic, etc., etc. But having long-since moved on to an infuriating Vista machine, I’d actually abandoned hope of ever having a version of Flight Simulator that would run on this computer.
I presumed that an outlay of less than $10 wasn’t much of a gamble, and it has paid off nicely
I wasn’t at all confident that FS2002 would even install on a Vista machine, let alone run, but: voila, it installed without a glitch!
And yes, it DOES actually run under Vista, as claimed in SOME of the ad copy here on Amazon (the information made this claim when I purchased my copy; now I see it does not).
True, there are still the inherent FS glitches that seemed to reside in every single version of this software that Microsoft ever produced (why oh why didn’t they fix some of these things?), but nevertheless, it DOES work, even with Vista. Can you tell I’m still amazed every time it starts?!
I hadn’t spent time in a FS cockpit in nearly a decade, and it’s nice to be “reunited” with an old buddy.
I’m actually contemplating shelling out $20 for a joystick to make flying these planes a little easier! To be honest, until I “invested” in this software, I never even felt the need to own a stick anymore!
If you’re like me and haven’t “flown” in several years, go ahead and get a copy of FS2002. Mine doesn’t exactly look like the image shown up above at the moment, but the disks are the same, I presume, regardless of the packaging.
The same “bugs” that annoyed you years ago are still there, but the trade-off is worth it just to “take to the air” again on your Vista computer. Go ahead…buy it!
Rating: 4 / 5
You wake up at the controls of a small airplane. You’re engine is already humming, but the plane isn’t moving – must be those parking brakes. You’re parked at the back of a runway of a small airfield with just one runway. Off in the distance, a huge dark tower looms, piercing the sky. What could just be the start of a Steven King novel or an episode of “Twilight Zone” is just the latest and prettiest edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Those who’ve flown older versions of MSFS will know what to expect – better graphics and sound, a database of airports and airspace, more included aircraft, better looking aircraft for those you can add-on (using 3rd party files) and a customizable editor that allows you to choose where, when and how you will go, and what color 747 or F-16 will get you there. FS2002 also continues MS’s tradition of incorporating features of 3rd party add-on software offered on older versions of FS. FS2002 comes with a speaking interactive ATC (though others had “added” ATC years ago) to go along with all of those verbal lessons (FS2002, like FS2000, comes with a speaking flight instructor, though the new one seems as prone to getting hung-up as the old one). The tweaked graphics engine seems to allow for more realistic texturing of airplanes (from the glossy finish of a freshly built Mustang to the flat black of an SR-71), and more acceptable realistic movement of animated flight-control surfaces, flaps and landing gear. In addition to exteriors, panels and flight models, add-on aircraft now have “effects” (contrails, afterburner). Ground texture is also improved over FS2000, making for much more convincing low-level flight. Instead of the stiff blue of the water in older versions of FS, rivers, seas and oceans have waves in FS2002, probably to highlight the inclusion of seaplanes.
While nothing will rock your socks off in FS2002, it’s a solid and enjoyable sim that allows itself to be pretty much what the individual user wants it to – from an entry-level sim to a challenging one. I ran this program smoothly on my P4 HT w/WinXP & a PCI graphics card.
BUT WHAT ABOUT FS2004-ACoF? In these dual-core days, surely everybody must be able to run FS2004 – why would anybody want 2002? Maybe you DON’t have a dual-core machine, or a late-model P4 system with AGP graphics. FS2004 is clearly a superior product, and will run pretty decent on my above system, but only with settings turned down for traffic. While the 2004 weather generator is positively gorgeous on my system, frame-rate remained acceptable only with traffic set to sparse – which gave an experience gloomily reminiscent of some late 1980′s flight sim. The differences between 2002 and 2004 are noticeable, but not so spectacular that owners of 2002 should junk it for 2004, or even that people who never owned either should opt for the newer game. In short, unless you’ve got about 2+ ghz AND AGP graphics, FS2002 remains competitive with FS2004 and a great value.
Rating: 4 / 5