Flight Simulator X - IGN Review (and performance related issues)

IGN posts a negative-in-tone review of “Flight Simulator X,” rating the title a 7-out-of-10 game score. Editor Jim Bean praises the new water effects, “realistic weather” and “enhanced” cloud features. However, his main criticism focuses on the high system requirements of the title. Throughout his review, Bean constantly compares “Flight Simulator X” to its predecessor, “Flight Simulator 9: A Century of Flight,” noting that frame rate issues prevent him from enjoying the planes, graphics, multiplayer mode and missions.

Bean concludes his review by writing, “Perhaps when Windows Vista arrives next year with the software enhancements (e.g. new DirectX) ‘Flight Simulator X’ might be worth picking up at that point. Until then make your flight plans go direct to ‘Flight Simulator 9.’”

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This is one for which I would like to comment.

We always design Flight Simulator to be "future ready". We know our customer base tends to not upgrade every version and we set the application to that it can take advantage of newer hardware over the next few years. That being said, if you do crank everything to the max, performance with current high-end machines may not be up to par and this is not out of laziness but simply by-design.

Although this is a topic/complaint which seems to appear at every release. We are of course taking a look into specific cases and will of course attempt to make improvements for possible upcoming updates and expansion packs.

This being said, if you do experience specific performance issues on your configuration, pleaser let us know as it might have something to do with your specific configuration and may warrant further investigation.