X-Plane [even its latest version] is just like the Flight Sim series. It has its good sides and its bad sides.

Let's compare X-Plane to FSX [since FSX is now the latest version from Microsoft].

//X-Plane by Laminar Research//----------------------------------------------------------------

[Good Sides]

Dynamic Realism: This sim has a very good track record for rendering realistic stalls, wind effects, stress effects, and even taking the overall shape of the visual model into account for rendering the proper dynamics.

Updates: X-Plane is well known for its ability to be regularly updated via a direct connection with a central server that has all the fixes for any known bugs.

Frame Rates: Because X-Plane is a stable system, it can easily achieve reasonable frame rates. It even automatically adjusts the horizon and haze in order to maintain the best possible frame rates.

Functionality: Not only does it have many visual options, it also allows for greater control over your video card.

[Bad Sides]

Processing Power: Because of the massive amount of data that the sim has to process, the sim can sometimes lock up and crash to the desktop whenever your computer can't catch up.

Visual Details: When coupled with the Global Terrain Package, the sim still has obviouse visual drawbacks; textures become clearly repetative in city areas, terrain mesh is not that smooth, even the roads are clearly jagged from far away as they pass through mountains and hills. The sim even lacks reflections of any kind.

Controls: The controls can be very jerky at best. The control surfaces on the visual models twitch even when the joystick is just centered without being touched. As a result, take offs and landing can be quite a pain in the rear. Even the water landings [in calm, clear weather with no wind] make a rollercoaster ride seem like a cake walk.

Hard Drive Space: If you wish to install the Global Terrain Package, get ready to invest money on a new 120GB hard drive as the installation will require 60GB of space. However, you can reduce the hard drive space required by simply installing certain regions of the globe rather than the whole globe. Remember, the package has far more visual data than FSX.

Addons and SDK: I don't intend to insult any of the addon developers out there, but the addons that are available out there are severely lacking in visual detail due to the limitations imposed by the SDK. Almost all of the addons don't event have a decent DVC. Only the payware addons can provide the kind of detail that the FS freeware addons can provide.

//FSX by Microsoft//---------------------------------------------------------------------
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[Good Sides]

Visual Detail: Not only does it have light blooms and water reflections that reflect the scenery and aircraft, it also features self shadowing and bump-mapping [all of which are impossible to achieve in previous versions]. Even inverse kenetics [skin and bones function] is supported. Not only that, the sim comes with all the visual details [stock] as opposed to having to buy a separate package for the same thing.

Addons and SDK: Just look at the FS-based addons and see for yourself. Then compare them to the addons for X-Plane. Enough said.

Controls: No jerky control in this case. Even water landings and take offs are smooth as a baby's bottom in this sim.

Hard Drive Space: Only 12GB for this sucker. But of course, less space required means less data for the terrain and textures. However, you should expect a sudden rise in HD space requirements as you install GBs of addons from many FS websites.

Flexibility: You can tweek the living the daylights out of this sim so that you can have the best possible performance with the right balance of visual quality in the sim.

[Bad Sides]

Dynamic Realism: Unlike X-Plane, the FS series is based more on a chart-like system rather than a newtonian system. As a result, certain aspects of the dynamics aren't rendered properly.

Loading Time: Because of the large amount of data processed during loading, the sim takes a long time to even load a flight.

Updates: Only one patch is often posted by Microsoft for every new release they make. Thus, the bugs will still be there.

Registration: You can only install up to two computers with this new sim before you have to call Microsoft so that the server can make sure you have a legitamite copy of FSX. This is no surprise. Most of us saw this coming a long time ago.

Accuracy: The scenery can also be lacking in terms of what is supposed to be where. But at least you won't have to deal with the repetativeness seen in the major cities of X-Plane.

I seen on their website that the software got FAA approval for airline training, so I was just curious as to how good it was. I think I'll just stick to FS2004. I mean it looks nice and stuff, but I feel I'll have more fun with FS2004.