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If there’s one thing I learned from my father it’s that Microsoft has made the absolute best Flight Simulator games ever. The second “game” my father purchased once he finally bought a computer that had a CD-ROM was the newest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator that he could get his hands on (the first he got was Myst). Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight definitely does not disappoint.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight brings together the crisp, clear graphics one comes to expect from their long line of Flight Simulators. The game’s technical aspects had my father (a pilot of fifteen years) saying, “Hey, that actually happens in this kind of situation!” The physics engine is so precise that the slightest miscalculation could spell disaster for you and your crew, just as it would in real life. After crashing a couple times (once into the control tower on takeoff, only slightly accidentally), I let my father take over as he is the professional pilot and would best be able to tell us exactly how this game rates compared to the real thing.

According to the professional, the keyboard commands make it a little difficult to fine-tune controls with the accuracy that a joystick would, but considering the limitations of the keyboard, the controls seem to have been very well thought out. With a joystick, the controls were ultra-smooth. There were a few maneuvers that involved something akin to Vulcan Death Keystroking, but those were few and far between. I, as a novice at best, found the joystick much more comfortable, but the keyboard was not completely impossible to use. Once most of the commands were remembered I had little trouble finding everything when I needed it.

Speaking of remembering the commands, the learning center is literally jam packed with a database of information regarding not only basic, intermediate, and advanced flight controls, but also information on both historical and modern aircraft. It has movies about events in aviation history and how flying is really accomplished by the professionals. The historical aircraft are not merely for history lessons in this version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. I was actually able to fly face first into a cornfield on that fateful day on Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina with the Wright brothers. I buried “The Spirit of St. Louis” under miles of water trying to take Charles Lindbergh’s place as the first human to fly across the Atlantic. I was even able to crash multiple times while trying to fly a helicopter.

Microsoft has improved many aspects from their previous Flight Simulators such as scenery, 3D clouds, dynamic weather effects and more to make the pilot’s flying experience more like the real thing than ever before. Added airports, real-world weather downloading and a drastically improved Air Traffic Control system make this “game” an absolute must for any fan of flying. I also recommend this game for fans of the previous Flight Simulator games, or anyone interesting in getting him or herself started on learning how to piloting an aircraft really works. As my father said before he engrossed himself in flying a LearJet on a route he knows extremely well from San Antonio to Dallas, “Damn Dale, this is great! I wish I had this when I was learning to fly!”