Simon Canning | May 29, 2007
USERS of Windows have long become accustomed to the regular delivery of service packs to clean up bugs and fix new-found security shortcomings of the operating system.
Microsoft has always pushed the boundaries with the FS series
Service packs are a part of life for Windows users, but Microsoft has achieved a first with the release of a service pack for its Flight Simulator game.
Flight Simulator X was greeted with acclaim last year. It was heralded as a major step forward in giving desktop pilots a taste of real-life flight.
As with every incarnation of the game before it, FSX was also met with a barrage of criticism, with many claiming the game was unplayable on all but the most powerful systems.
Microsoft has always pushed the boundaries with the FS series, choosing to let technology catch up with the capabilities of the game. FSX was no different.
Enter FSX Service Pack 1, a free download for owners of the game.
Critics would suggest the patch offers what should have been in the game in the first place -- most importantly, support for the new generation of multicore processors.
It does offer that. FSX was a stuttering mess, only playable at with acceptable frame rates with much of the detail turned down, losing what makes the full game so enjoyable. The patch doubles frame rates for some users.
Using multicore chips to maximum effect, a flight through clouds and over some of the world's most picturesque cities takes on an almost lifelike quality. Microsoft has changed the way textures and auto-generated scenery are handled by the CPU.
Players need only know that the download lets them enjoy the game with more eye candy, even if a system powerful enough to play it to its full potential is not even on the market yet.
In the game, water laps at the edges of rivers and lakes like the real thing and diehard fans can even conduct a visual flight rules journey from Sydney to Canberra following the Hume Highway.
What Microsoft is offering gives those who have suffered under its performance a new lease on life. Indeed, FSX SP1 is effectively a new game that lives up to the promise that so often precedes a Flight Simulator release, but which previous versions have rarely delivered.
SPECIFICATIONS
• Publisher: Microsoft
• Price: Free
• Web: www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/
• Rating: 9/10