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Flight Simulator X: Acceleration

User Rating:

ESRB: Mild Violence
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Genre(s): Simulation
Home Page: http://www.microsoft.com/games/fli...

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By: Aaron Barnes Nov 23, 2007

Teaching Flight Simulator Some New Moves

Recommending Acceleration to those who are still playing Flight Simulator X is easy: if you're a flight simulation junkie (and don't already own a copy), then pick up the expansion for the additional missions, aircraft, and scenery enhancements alone. If you enjoyed Flight Simulator X but found the experience a bit too sterile, then the competitive online racing may add enough excitement to bring you back to the game. Finally, if you've never been a fan of flight simulations or never even tried the Flight Simulator X demo, then unfortunately, the expansion pack has little of value to entice you to give the game a shot. The DirectX 10 preview is disappointing, and there's still plenty of room for performance optimization, but the new content is a solid offering. Think of this expansion as you would think of a grade-school wallflower friend who went to the city for the summer, and returned in the fall with a swagger in his step and a leather jacket on his shoulders. Flight Simulator X: Acceleration is fundamentally the same serious simulation, but with a bit of attitude and fun added to the mix.

Hopping from lake to lake is easily one of the most enjoyable flight simulation experiences.

Like this review, off into the sunset...

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

The publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:

Component	Publisher's Minimum	Publisher's Recommended
Processor	2.0GHz Single Core or higher	Not specified
Memory	1GB
Graphics Card	DirectX 9-compliant video card or greater w/ 128MB+ video; Shader Model 1.1 or higher
Graphics Card Example	Not specified
Free Disk Space	15GB (FSX) + 4GB (FSX: Acceleration)
Net Link	Not specified

To learn more about how YouGamers performs its hardware testing, click here. Through our extensive gameplay and hardware testing across the full spectrum of PC configurations, YouGamers suggests that one should use the following guidelines for an appropriate minimum and recommended setup:

Component	YouGamers Minimum	YouGamers Recommended
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 4000+ / Intel Pentium 4 650	AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ / Intel Core 2 Duo E6550
Memory	1 GB	2 GB
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon X800 256MB / NVIDIA GeForce 6800 256MB	ATI Radeon HD 2900 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 512MB
Free Disk Space	15GB (FSX) + 4GB (FSX: A)	15GB (FSX) + 4GB (FSX: A)
Net Link	Broadband for online play	Broadband for online play

Scores

To learn more about our scoring methodology, please click here.

Gameplay	87	New aircraft, missions and scenery enhancements are all enough to make FSX fans drool. But the real treat comes in the form of online competitive multiplayer races, which are fun even when the competition is unforgiving.
Graphics	89	Visually, the simulation has a split personality: aircraft are superb and have no equal, but scenery is hit or miss (don't uninstall your third-party scenery packs). DirectX 10 support is nice, but the graphics are far from the photorealistic DX 10 preview shots seen earlier this year.
Audio	90	Excellent as always. Radio chatter adds realism, and ambient noises, from wildlife to city life, are well-positioned. Aircraft sounds and voice overs are of the usual high Flight Simulator quality, though the music is forgettable (and thankfully can be turned off).
Technology	75	The simulation is still bogged down by high system requirements and a finicky taste for specific hardware, OS and driver combinations. Having to downgrade to a months-old video driver before firing up FSX is unreasonable, and the graphical and performance issues with certain drivers and video cards detract from the experience.

OVERALL

Though Flight Simulator X: Acceleration is unlikely to draw in newcomers, the expanded single-player content and competitive multiplayer component will surely satisfy existing fans. The fundamental simulation aspects haven’t changed, but the action layered on top does much to eschew the series' reputation as a competent but sleepy simulation.

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