Microsoft Flight available this Spring, for free!

At last!! I told you about it (here) already one year ago while pictures were released by Microsoft about the very mysterious Microsoft Flight. Today we finally get to see not one but two different trailers. I can't wait to share the first one with you right now: 

Free to play ? That's awesome! Other than that the rendering is really close to good old Flight Simulator 2004. Having played online mostly on German-Lloyd Server these last year, even if my last game was a year ago at least, I think I still know by heart most of Hawaii flying area. That's quite bad luck we start from there once again but there are worst part in the world to start from.

The achievement and mission systems from Flight Simulator X seem to be back as well and that is also a very good news! Let's hope the missions will be as rich and fun as they were on FSX. For those who haven't played them, know that some of them were actually pretty catchy. Scripted, a journey to an offshore platform would turn to a rescue mission and a VIP transport in helicopter would involve you in an espionage story where you'd get to land on a secret base in the Ha Long bay.

Flight Simulator fans mostly divides itself in two categories: virtual airline fans and VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flights. I'm happily belonging to the second band but will miss not being able to flight big jets anymore. This makes me wonder about the area covered by Microsoft Flight. Are we going to be stuck on Hawaii for good or will all the DLC announced extend the world? Or will we able from the beginning to fly worldwide with a poor rendering when we miss a DLC as it used to be in FS.

I'm also a little bit concerned about what is said in the trailer regarding the playability. Ok, playing with keyboard and mouse or gamepad is fun but if I play VFR, I do want to play VFR at least as I used to in Flight Sim; in real simulation and not in "arcade mode". The simulation and all the available options are the things that made me a fan of Flight Simulator. At first you play in "arcade" but little by little you get to discover about the instrument, you tune the weather to test your skills, learn to use the radio, ... hey! I even learn to read Weather Forecast TAF and METAR files thanks to Flight Simulator (check here if you doubt the awesomeness of Flight Simulator). How will I ever be able to justify the fact I NEED this brand new Force Dynamics 401CR if I end up with a very classical arcade game?

(yes ... with a few adaptations,  Force Dynamics claims it works perfectly with Flight sims! I do need a much BIGGER flat)

So on one hand I'm really really excited about this new Microsoft Flight now announced for this Spring; on the other hand, not seeing anything really new on the trailers, I can't help but wonder if Flight Simulator 2004 (and its almost twin brother Flight Simulator X) won't stay THE reference with already thousands of DLC available (part of them for free while it's not say here if users will be able to create and propose DLC as well) and several private server available for online playing. The fact Microsoft Flight will be free ensures I think that there will be many people online and even if the game ends not to be as rich as I wish, it will nonetheless be a great ambassador for flight simulators! 

I've already registered for the beta thanks to Rawhide (thanks again for the heads up, mate!). I urge you to do as well from this page.

If you get in, search for "ChevalierBayard" as you can be sure I'll be here! ;)