MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2002
							Graphics: 9 Sound: 10 Gameplay: 8 Replay Value: 9 Reviewer's Tilt: 10 Overall: 9.4
				Well worth the rather expensive price
			It's going to be tough to review this game, because I am still playing it thoroughly. One thing can be established though: This game is fun. It takes a while to learn how to do, but once you have the controls down, and every single flight function to keep the plane in the air, you're in for a huge treat. I've always wanted to fly a commercial airliner from Denver to Honolulu, and now I can. The game has the whole entire Earth's scenery, textures, terrain, and national monuments on it. See Mt. Rushmore from a cessna, or the Eiffel Tower, or every single hotel in Honolulu or Las Vegas on it. In Las Vegas you can even see the fountains outside of the Bellagio hotel! Or see Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii erupt. The amount of details put in to this finely-tweaked masterpiece is truly mind-boggling. Something like this is beyond comprehension until you seriously play it. The whole world is on your desktop PC! And the textures are all very true to life. I've even seen my small town of Canon City, CO on the game, including some landmarks nearby. (Yes, the Royal Gorge Bridge is very close to us.) Every single tiny detail is carefully mapped onto the game's graphical engine. And it works fine, usually at 60 FPS. The interactivity of the game is pretty amazing too, considering you can choose your airport destination at all times through radio contact with the tower. There's actually air traffic as well, which is a bonus. I don't know how the radio knows where you are through GPS, but somehow it does. This is really groundbreaking technology that Microsoft have given us, the same masterminds behind Halo. I should mention the things you can do in the game, because there are many options. First off, you can create your own flight and destination. There's even the option to do "missions" in the game, where you have to transport goods, fly people to another country, and even shoot footage in the air that would make a good Hollywood movie. You can open up previous "Adventures" from the previous game, MSFS2000. Or online multiplayer, which is really unique as well. There's tons of options to do, so you will never get bored with this game. $50 may be a bit much for a computer game, but this game is worth every penny. If you can find it, I recommend getting this game. I haven't played the Professional Editon, which is $70 (!), but it is probably good as well. I play this game with a keyboard, but I'm sure it's even better with a joystick. (Everyone tells me this.) Joystick or not, the game has some strange controls. This isn't as user-friendly as Ace Combat 04, which has some of the best controls in any video game I've seen, but it's not overly complicated either. If you've ever seen inside of a cockpit, you know how difficult it is to keep a 747 airborne. You have so many buttons and levers, etc. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but once you know how to take off, taxi, land, etc., it's a truly engaging experience. (But I have yet to land a plane successfully.)