GamePlay
Flight sim fans will love this one. "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002" is a great improvement over previous versions. A great new feature that has been added is the Air Traffic Control. No more quiet skies. You'll now have to follow regulations set for the sky. The ATC will recongnize when you are near and begin to communicate with you. Thinking of landing or taking off? Be ready to be told when you can land. You may even be put in the queue line. You'll wonder how you ever survived without this feature before.

Newbies don't be intimidated by this complex game. Unlike previous versions, this version has some great tutorials to get you started. There are short videos by John and Martha King to help you learn the basics. After you've viewed the videos, you can continue with private lessons from Ron Machado, your personal instructor. His lessons will make learning to fly much easier. He takes control of the plane during times when you aren't "experienced" enough to fly, then hands the controls back over when its time to learn something new.

Perhaps my favorite feature is creating flight plans. "Flight Simulator" does come with lots of planned flights for you to try, but it's always fun to try something different. There are thousands (over 21,000 actually) of airports to choose from. One of the main reasons I love this feature so much is how easy it is to use, even a first timer could easily figure it out.

Manuals
"Microsoft Flight Simulator" does not come with a paper copy of the manuals. Instead, there is a library of manuals in .pdf format. Switching between the manual and the game, is not much fun. I quickly grew annoyed with the process. If you are like me, and like to have the manual sitting in your lap while you play; the only thing I can suggest is to print out the huge manual.

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