Fast forward a decade or two, and we are currently on Flight Simulator X. I do like this a lot, with the graphics settings bumped to maximum, some of the scenery you get to fly through is breathtakingly spectacular. In my book, this is one of the few decent games that Microsoft has produced and now it’s gone. They have essentially axed a product line that had a massive following and spawned so many add-ons that you could pretty much fly anything to anywhere. The realism is bar none, you can even play the part of Air Traffic Control in multiplayer mode. Unbelievably, this is actually quite fun, especially if you decide to make a slight deviation to a Boeing 747… directly into the path of a hapless Cessna.

Another series that disappeared into the ether was Combat Flight Simulator. If you find FS slightly snooze worthy, then CFS is the one you want. The dogfights were great and the campaigns were very lengthy, especially in CFS 2. But there’s nothing more gratifying than finally reaching Berlin if you play the Allied campaign, zooming around in your Spitfire for the final attack with guns blazing.

My hope is that the brand will be outsourced to a third party developer; it would be unthinkable for Microsoft to completely shelve this, although version X still has a lot of life left in it. I’m sure I will get over it though, the impending release of Final Fantasy XIII and Starcraft 2 will keep me happy. Especially when Starcraft 2 is released, I may not see daylight for a while.

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