Platform: PC
Progress: Still doing the tutorial
Enthusiasm: Flying is fun!
My first flight was with an Air Creation Trike Ultralite 582 SL, and I felt I flew OK, considering it was the first time I’d ever played a flight sim. The tutorial mission was to fly through some hoops placed in a straight line. The controls were easy to learn on this aircraft and I only had to worry about throttle and steering. I actually managed to make a decent landing, something I’ve yet to do in GTA San Andreas. The next tutorial mission was to fly through some more hoops, placed a little less linear this time. It went even better than the first flight, where I was a bit wobbly. I got all the bonus rings, and I’m getting used to the very sensitive analogue controls.
I don’t think I could play this with keyboard controls, so thank Joe Pesci my old Saitek P880 worked. The last time I used it, I got so infuriated with a game that I chucked it into the wall. A couple of buttons are pushed in, but they all still work.
I tried a free flight mission with the Ultralight and chose the airport by my home town as location. The scenery was a bit disappointing. They had used the old airport building instead of the new, and the landscape consisted of 99% pine trees (which doesn’t grow naturally here), and 1% road. My home town was missing, and the big suspension bridge further north was grossly misrepresented. But I guess when there are 24,000 airports in the game, some of them are gonna be less detailed.
Next, I started a free flight from Kennedy International in New York, flying the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet. It took off smoothly, but didn’t know how to raise the landing gear. I looked all over the extremely buttonous cockpit and tried several of them — which I guess isn’t the brightest of ideas mid flght — but before I could find the correct button I found myself submerged in water. A $41 million mistake.
New attempt, this time I checked the control menu for the key to raise the gears.
The jet feels very powerful as it reaches speeds of 1500 km/h, and it was extremely easy to do barrel rolls and loops. I flew up to 2000 feet and started fiddling with the controls. None of the buttons seemed to do much of anything that was disscernable to me. I found the gear raise/lower switch and wondered how I had missed it before. Also, the eject handle didn’t work, disappointingly.
I did some more loops and U-turns, then concluded by crashing into the ground at 1000 km/h. An enjoyable flight, except for the gruesome death at the end. I can imagine the inside of that cockpit was akin to a jar of tomato sauce.
