Customer Rating:
Summary: Great with flaws
Comment: A great simulator, but less of a game. This will keep the budding aerospace engineer busy for hours as the software comes with tools to create your own aircraft, scenery, buildings etc. Because of the way it works the software actually simulated the aircraft, most flight 'games' just use preset files to describe flight behaviour, but X-plane actually uses the 3D model of the aircraft, so a new shape means a new flight characteristic.

However the low budget development means that some of the bells and whistles of more polished rivals (FSX) are absent. Mostly this doesn't matter and the gap between FSX and X-Plane is now very narrow in terms of polish and features. Overall I prefer X-Plane to FSX, it is in the end all about flight which is far better modelled in X-plane, and now with version 9 the view out the cockpit rivals FSX.

My only gripe is the lack of wide-screen support in the cockpits supplied with X-Plane, this will no doubt come as wide-screens are increasingly common and add realism (better peripheral vision).

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Much Improved
Comment: This is the third version of X-Plane I have brought. I am an MS Flight Simulator fan, but have always enjoyed the extra challenge that X-Plane gives you. For those who have never played it, X-Plane uses a very realistic physics engine to create flight dynamics that are about the best you can get outside a multi-million-pound simulator. It has in the past however, been let down by having too many bugs and poor graphics. It has (to me at least) been worth buying because it enabled you to land the space shuttle, on aircraft carriers, and many other things MS Flight Simulator couldn't do.

X Plane 9 has massively improved graphics. This includes reflective water, much, much, much better textures and general environments including far more detail on buildings. It also has full virtual-cockpits and 60GB of scenery spanning the world. X Plane has also kept its challenges; you can attempt a re-entry and landing with a space shuttle, land a helicopter on a frigate and many other things. Aircraft 'feel' more realistic and more challenging to fly than in Flight Simulator X, which is great for someone that plays these games often, perhaps not for someone that doesn't.

X Plane really does have its merits, but unfortunately there are also many problems. One of the biggest one is the progress made by its biggest rival; FSX. X Plane 9 has great graphics.. FSX is better. X Plane lets you land on aircraft carriers, etc.. FSX now lets you do many of those things. Whats more, apart from visual improvements there aren't really many improvements from the last version. What compounds this is accessibility; whereas FSX was clearly designed for beginners as well as more experienced players, X Plane obviously wasn't; there is a total lack of clear instructions and the interface is at times very confusing.

I have loved previous versions of X Plane because of the wider variety of aircraft and situations you can fly in compare to MS Flight Simulator. I would love to say I still feel like that, but the problem is while FSX has improved on previous version a lot, X-Plane 9 hasn't. In fact with the new content in FSX, X Plane has lost a lot of what has made it unique and ultimately, worth buying.

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