How Good is FSX?

The Review

Note: This tutorial refers to FSX:SE as FSX. FSX is a rather famous simulator out there that a lot of people still play. It was released in 2006, but is still played quite a lot by many users around the world.

Selection of Planes

The selection of planes in FSX is decent. It has a rather large selection, including GA Aircraft, Commercial aircraft (ranging from regional CRJs to international 747s), fighter aircraft, stunt aircraft, gliders, and helicopters. The aircraft include:

Trike Ultralight
Piper Cub
Beechcraft Baron 58
Beechcraft King Air 350
Cessna 172
EH101
Bell 206B
Robinson Beta II
P-51
Maule Orion
De Havilland DHC-2
Airbus A321
CRJ700
Boeing 737-800
Boeing 747-400
Boeing FA-18
Learjet 45
DG-808
Extra 300S
Grumman Goose
Mooney Bravo

All these aircraft work pretty well. You might spot another plane such as a Dash 8, but the plane cannot be controlled by a player. The selection of planes should be more than enough to start someone off, but if you want to go more realistic, there are many good freeware and payware options out there for add on planes, scenery, and other objects. The default planes aren't bad, but you can get much better planes with payware add-ons. None of these planes have an FMC, which is crucial for flying IFR on realistic networks such as VATSIM. You can get planes with FMCs as addons, mostly payware, but all default aircraft do not have an FMC (also known as an MCDU or FMS).

Scenery

For many people, scenery is a big decision maker for deciding whether or not to get a simulator. Since FSX is from 2006, the scenery is pretty outdated, so airport taxiways won't be accurate, and the scenery won't look very good overall. You can see the general idea of the scenery, however, you are not able to see your own house or your street.

There are trees, however they are pretty much randomly placed and they don't look very realistic. If you want FSX to look more realistic, get add-ons. Payware add-ons such as Orbx Scenery Addons really enhance the experience. Freeware add-ons are available, but most of the time, they will not be as good as payware add-ons. Default scenery in FSX is computer-generated. There are some errors in the scenery. One of the big ones is Geilo Airport in Dagali (ICAO code ENDI). In real life, it is a beautiful place, but in FSX, the scenery has errors and as a result, has random cliffs, canyons, spikes, and all sorts of deformations in the scenery. If you want to see what I mean, just google 'FSX ENDI', click on images, and scroll through all the images. The scenery around that airport really is messed up, but in real life, it is a very beautiful airport. Don't let the FSX scenery trick you.

Price

FSX is $24.99 for the base package on Steam. It is worth it. The simulator is old, sure, but is still a very good simulator, and a cheap option as well. When you look at simulators such as FS2020 or X-Plane 11, you can see that they are much more expensive. Really, the things that change are the graphics, scenery, and planes. Not much else.

Multiplayer

FSX has a multiplayer section, which players can play on the same server, see each others' aircraft, be ATC, or even share a cockpit. There are many servers that you can choose from. The best is probably Downwind, followed by fsATC, then Green Fly, etc. I cover the servers more in-depth with this article.

ATC

Air Traffic Control in FSX is realistic to an extent. The communications are enough to get the point of ATC across to the user of the flight simulator, however, should not be used in the real aviation world. When a player files an IFR flight plan, they will not be given any SIDs or STARs to fly in or out of an airport. Instead, AI air traffic control will guide the player and other AI traffic via radio vectors from the departing airport to the arriving airport. FSX does have some built in waypoints, enough to program in a SID to a GPS, but ATC will not automatically give you a SID or STAR by default. Another thing that can be off are procedures for helicopters. Helicopters (there are three built in to FSX) will be treated the same as an actual plane. You will usually not be directed to a helipad and ATC in FSX will expect you to taxi without leaving the ground. Voices in FSX are pre-programmed, but so are all other simulators that don't actively have a team of real humans doing ATC. The selection for voices is okay, but it's not a very wide selection. Voices for air traffic controllers and AI traffic are randomized from the voices that you don't use. The voice that you use will only be used by you and no controller or AI aircraft in FSX will use it. ATC in FSX is similar to the real world, except for (like I mentioned) SIDs and STARs and a few other limitations. ATC does talk very slow, and things can slow down if there are more than three other AI aircraft on the frequency. ATC does do frequent handoffs, however, so the communications are never really congested.

Conclusion

In conclusion, FSX gets 6.5/10. The plane selection is rather good. FSX contains a very good amount of airports. The graphics... they bring the rating down quite a bit. The price is good. The multiplayer function just brings it up a bit more. If you are looking to buy a cheap flight simulator that you will be active on, it is a good idea to start with FSX then make your way up to FS2020 and X-Plane. In settings, FSX lets you customize everything a little bit. You can choose how much traffic you want, how many buildings, etc. But, default FSX planes and scenery are from 2006, and if you want up-to-date simulation, get another simulator such as FS2020, or even some add-ons for FSX.

Happy Flying!