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[sluissa]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/07/chocks-away-ms-flight-flies-feb-29th/

So, it was somewhat expected, but perhaps not to this extent that Microsoft flight would be free to play with DLC. There were hints that we would have an extensive library of DLC to choose from so that Microsoft could get themselves some of that sweet, sweet add-on money that third party companies have been making for years off of previous flight sims. In the past, Microsoft got their $50 and then mod makers got 30 here, 20 there, 15 over there, is some cases going well beyond what the original program cost the customer. It seems obvious that Microsoft would want a piece of this, and so they decided to take it... by limiting people to a tiny little archipelago out in the middle of the Pacific. Possible expansions to come later.

This is... frustrating to me... A big part of my enjoyment of the series was long cross country trips, seeing large areas. Yeah, I enjoyed flying around some of the famous landmarks, but I also enjoyed just flying over Montana, or the Gulf Coast, or perhaps Turkey. But it seems as if, unless I buy the entire world, in Hawaii sized portions, at 20 dollars a pop, I'm not going to be able to do what I want where I want.

Nice work, Microsoft... Nice work. I'll play around Hawaii, since you give me that for free, but don't expect any extra money out of me unless you drastically change your business model.

tl;dr: Microsoft still thinks the real estate bubble hasn't burst yet and that it applies to virtual land.

[RaySmuckles]

Nice work, Microsoft... Nice work. I'll play around Hawaii, since you give me that for free, but don't expect any extra money out of me unless you drastically change your business model.

No, no...

From the article:

You’ll get the Big Island of Hawaii for free, but for 1600 points (£13.60 in the real world, or 6.7777 Peggles in the surreal world(or $20USD - Ray)) you can add all the other Hawaiian airspace with additional missions and challenges, and a new single-engine plane, the Vans RV-6A.

You can play around PART of Hawaii. Just the big island. If you want to unlock the rest of the islands, that'll be $20.

That seems... excessive. I mean, I guess I can see it as the basic cost to experience the game, but if just part of Hawaii is valued at $20, what is the Grand Canyon going to cost? Angkor Wat? New York City? etc. I can see the gaming costing hundreds of dollars just to get the majority of the globe and a handful of planes.

[GreatJustice]

Can I fly my plane into a skyscraper?

[RaySmuckles]

Can I fly my plane into a skyscraper?

Only with the Jihaad Pack, priced at 3200 MS points.

[Biag]

Well, I can't think of a worse way to announce that a game has a free demo. Hats off to Microsoft, I guess.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Expect to see MS Flight 2012 DLC be pirated to hell and back because of this. What kind of jackass really pays these people money to put things back into a game that should already be in it? Microsoft is ridiculous. I can't even think of a single Xbox game I've encountered in the last few years that isn't chock-full of bullshit DLCs. Icon pack, 5.99$. A map, 9.99$. A background for the rudimentary OS, .99 cents...

We're going to be buying video games in the future that open up and only have a DLC button. Then you can pay money to re-implement the parts of the game you want to play. Sweet.

Music pack, 39.99$.

I also like how they're obviously expecting the fact that it starts out free to boost confidence in the game, and lead to people buying a million separate downloadable packages (which essentially amount to models of buildings and a texturized recreation of water/grass/earth) to make it a full game like it is supposed to be.

[Tilla]

It's HEAVILY tied into online stuff too so it's pirateability may be tough. I was in the beta for a bit and it seemed to be an eternally online system that would be really hard to break free of even for skilled piracy teams. I may be wrong.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

It's HEAVILY tied into online stuff too so it's pirateability may be tough. I was in the beta for a bit and it seemed to be an eternally online system that would be really hard to break free of even for skilled piracy teams. I may be wrong.

Well, you are very wrong, considering the job of those teams is to break free of those silly constraints. Especially how you don't need an active online connection to play a single player flight simulator. (Also, forced connection is easily explainable, since the main point of this is to make people buy DLC, probably on a shoddy in-game system akin to play-2-pay games. Also an easy excuse to implement more draconian DRM measures.) But that's a bit off topic.

Is anyone other than me very unimpressed by the graphics? Isn't the main selling point of MSFlight to be a.)realistic and b.)nice to look at? Otherwise I don't see the reason why to partake in such a shallow experience. But I suppose that's just me.

[sluissa]

Nice work, Microsoft... Nice work. I'll play around Hawaii, since you give me that for free, but don't expect any extra money out of me unless you drastically change your business model.

No, no...

From the article:

You’ll get the Big Island of Hawaii for free, but for 1600 points (£13.60 in the real world, or 6.7777 Peggles in the surreal world(or $20USD - Ray)) you can add all the other Hawaiian airspace with additional missions and challenges, and a new single-engine plane, the Vans RV-6A.

You can play around PART of Hawaii. Just the big island. If you want to unlock the rest of the islands, that'll be $20.

That seems... excessive. I mean, I guess I can see it as the basic cost to experience the game, but if just part of Hawaii is valued at $20, what is the Grand Canyon going to cost? Angkor Wat? New York City? etc. I can see the gaming costing hundreds of dollars just to get the majority of the globe and a handful of planes.

Sorry, I thought I mentioned that you only got part of Hawaii in there. Should have proof-read. You do get Hawai'i though, the proper name for the big island.


This whole business model also completely screws over most of the Vatsim community as well. A lot of their gameplay focuses around flying between two different, usually very distant Airports. Will they have to buy the land for each airport and everything in between as well? Will they even be able to do that until Microsoft gets done making all of the land they want to fly over? This is also ignoring completely that they haven't mentioned a single airliner, which is what the Virtual Airlines and Vatsim tend to fly more often than not.

I honestly wouldn't mind them doing this sort of business model if they first gave us a relatively low res world to fly around to start with. If they wanted to sell high res packs for certain areas, then that's fine, but to give us an artificial wall(or natural, I guess in this case, I believe they haven't mentioned releasing a single plane that could make a Hawaii to mainland trip.) is just ridiculous and completely beyond the point of a flight sim... Freedom.

As for the graphics, well, they're not bad. But most flight simmers are used to FSX and FS2004's quite dated graphics, or X-Plane's generic set of models and textures pasted over everything. Besides, at 20,000 feet, low res textures don't look all that bad. They're an upgrade to what we've got available, but if all we're upgrading is Hawaii, followed by other small areas to come later, then it's too little too late, in my opinion.