Flight Simulator 2004 Coverage

An anonymous reader writes "Flight Simulator 2004, subtitled 'A Century of Flight' prepares for release on July 28, 2003. The screenshots (one, two, three) look awesome. Some improvements include the ability to fly old planes, graphics improvements, major ATC (Air traffic control) improvements, and weather enhancements. Included is the ability to fly in real-time weather like X-Plane. Most older FS2002 data will work with FS2004." Looks like AVSim.com is a good place to go for more detailed flight sim add-ons and news.

Comments

Obligatory Richard Pearse first flight info.

[Bitsy Boffin]

Looks like Microsoft included the wright flyer in FS2004, but being a proud kiwi I have to chip in and remind them that it's generally accepted that Richard Pearse flew before the Wilbur & Orville.

While Richard himself denied this claim, he denied it based on his definition of flying, which for him meant being able to make a flight of several miles to the nearest town.

Regardless of who was first, Pearse had the superior and well before it's time design, a high wing monoplane, with elevators and ailerons.

http://chrisbrady.itgo.com/pearse/pearse.htm

System Requirements

[The Moving Shadow]

Funny how the Microsoft site says the minimum requirements to play FS 2004 are:

Windows PC 2000/XP â" 128 MB Ram
98/Me â" 64 MB Ram
Processor:450 MHz minimum
Available hard drive space:1.8 GB
DirectX 9 or later (included with Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight)
Video card: 8 MB/3D with DirectX 7.0 or later drivers
Other: mouse, joystick/yoke, sound card, speakers/headphones
Online/multiplayer: 56.6 kbps modem or LAN

But if i see those screenshots i am hardly sure if it will run fluently even anything but a P4 3,06 Ghz with some insane nVida or ATI gfx. When you really have a 450 Mhz machine you will probably settle for good old FS 98, because FS 2004 with all the eye candy turned off will look like that for sure.