How long has it been now that the Microsoft Flight Simulator has been synonymous with flight simulation? Well, there's some competition looming on the horizon, as Looking Glass has come out with what seems to be THE flight simulator for the 90s. Flight Unlimited boasts graphics and a level of interactivity never experienced before in hard core PC flight simulations. It looks and feels just like being there. I'm not talking about simulated "being there", I mean photographic quality terrain that you simply won't believe. Couple that with a great sense of humor, on-line flight lessons ranging from the extreme basics to advanced aerobatics, performance courses and more, Flight Unlimited looks to be the program to bring flight simulation to a new level.
When you first start up Flight Unlimited, you're placed in your Fixed Base of Operations, FBO for short. It's actually a 3D environment much like Doom where you move around to different parts of the room where you can select which plane to fly, take lessons, go to another FBO and so on. Everything is represented graphically, meaning the planes you can fly are shown as model airplanes sitting on a table that you click on to fly. If you want to move to a new FBO you click on the spinning globe, to take flying lessons you click on the marker board, to change the settings you click on the fusebox, the logbooks are on a bookshelf, and to exit you use, of course, the front door. Items like the "Choke Cola" machine and the coin-op video game are just there for show, but are indicative of the slightly tongue-in-cheek style of the game.
Upon choosing a plane to fly, you are presented with a short bit from a scrapbook giving a little information about the aircraft. From there you can choose a different plane, start off flying in the air, on the taxiway or on the runway. All that's just icing on the cake of actually flying. I hope you have a clean floor, because your chin is going to hit it when you see the graphics of the flying environment. Never before have graphics like this been featured in a flight sim. If you took a still shot from the playing screen, you'd swear that it was an actual picture taken from a plane but this is what it's like flying around in Flight Unlimited. One thing that I did find missing is that while the environment is frighteningly real, any buildings or structures seen from the air don't actually seem to be rendered in 3D. When you fly right down to them they are as flat as the ground they're on. I was really surprised that they weren't developed into 3D structures, but that is the only thing about the environment that isn't incredibly realistic.
Along with the unbelievable graphics, Flight Unlimited has a ton of great options and functions. There are multiple cockpit views, including the virtual cockpit which allow you to look around as if you were actually moving your head. The hat switch on a joystick will operate this as well as virtual headgear. This is a really impressive addition. There's also the cinematic view which is very difficult to fly in but looks really impressive. You view your plane as if it were being shot from many different passing helicopters at every conceivable position, rapidly switching from one camera to the other. It's a very MTV effect that you really have to see to understand. Other options include the ability to choose between four resolution modes, a slew of degrees for terrain detail, clouds, sun reflection through glass, sound levels of music and sound effects, detail of the actual airplane, and much more. If it can be affected, Flight Unlimited lets you affect it.
If I were to pick a word that best described Flight Unlimited it would have to be COOL. It lets you enjoy flying without being flat-out boring. When you end a flight you see a postcard from the area of the country you were just flying in, with a little message on the back talking about how much you love being where you are. And when you go to a new area you see the design crew messing around in the FBO office, playing video games and otherwise being goofy. While the game loads portions of the simulation you'll see beautiful shots of airplanes, and sometimes you'll get drawings of things like Godzilla devouring planes, or a wild alien flying through the galaxy. In a genre that could easily be stiff and boring, Flight Unlimited really puts the fun into flying.
If you're the kind who likes to shoot things, you may want to pass on Flight Unlimited. Even though it is a great, wonderful flight sim, remember that is exactly what it is: a flight sim. There are no monsters to shoot out of the air, no bad guys to fight. It is the funniest flight sim around, but if there has to be ordinance involved before you like it, you'll probably want to pass on this one. However, if you really like flying but find flight simulations normally dull and boring, RUN to get Flight Unlimited! Although it is not as in-depth as the Microsoft program as far as the actual operations of the airplane goes (you can't turn on carburetor heat and things like that), it is perfect if you want to learn to fly, and if you're an advanced flyer you'll never load any other flight sim after seeing the graphics in Flight Unlimited. Don't be misled by the attitude this simulation has, it is still a hard-core sim at heart.
