It’s been a while coming, but Dovetail Games have finally revealed the first details about Flight Sim World which will be landing on Steam Early Access in the coming weeks. While it was originally due to be known as Dovetail Games Flight Simulator and releasing last year, Dovetail have clearly been busy behind the scenes working to ensure the new title is ready to meet the high expectations of fans. …
It’s been a few weeks since I delivered my first hands-on impressions of Dovetail Games Flight School, and now the game has been released, it’s about time I delivered a Verdict on it. Please keep in mind that I am approaching this Verdict from the point of view of a casual sim-er.
The first thing that I want to say about Flight School, is that I’m not sure who the target audience is. It is an introduction to flight simulators, and is something of a prelude to the fully featured Dovetail Games Flight Simulator that should be releasing later this year. With two planes as standard (the Piper PA-18 Super Cub and Piper PA-28 Cherokee), and a third (the Diamond DA42) coming along as free post-launch content for those who didn’t pre-order, you won’t be getting behind the stick of any 747s or A380s here. There are missions to complete, but with only 9 present, they won’t tax experienced pilots for too long, while newcomers will know whether this is the game for them after completing some of the extensive tutorial lessons.
The relatively small amount of content leaves me pondering why any dedicated fliers would move on from Microsfot Flight Simulator X for this, knowing a meatier package will come later this year. Then for those who might want to get involved in flight simulators, they will be paying out for Flight School (admittedly, at a budget £11.99), then forking out again for the full simulator if they really do enjoy it. If it is being treated as a demo, it seems pretty expensive. Certainly then, it is worth considering whether this is what you want, or if you want to wait and try things out with the full package. If there was a discount on the full simulator for those who own Flight School, that would be interesting and might make this more appealing to newcomers.
If you do want to get into Flight School, at the very least, it will give you a good grounding for the basics of flying some of the smaller planes that are commonly found in flight sims. The tutorials are in-depth and will cover most situations you will encounter in the Free Flight mode and the missions. They can be frustrating; some of the tolerances for making a mistake are very slight, and for a beginner, they don’t always do a great job of telling you where things have gone wrong and how to correct them. These issues aren’t as severe as when I talked about them in my preview, but it can be frustrating to fail a tutorial when you think you have done everything correctly. It is definitely worth reading the manual to get a feeling for the keyboard and mouse controlled cockpit controls. Trying to fly solely with a Xbox 360 pad will leave you wondering why the tutor keeps telling you off. If I had a joystick setup, I get the impression that everything would have come much easier.
The Free Flight mode is perhaps the highlight of this package as you can choose a flight path across vast swathes of the globe. I’ve taken journeys in my native Welsh valleys, flown over Austrian mountain ranges, explored parts of India and even flown under Sydney’s famous harbour bridge which made me smile, even if I did fail the landing back at the airport.
It’s provides you with a glorious sense of freedom, and the landscapes in different countries are distinctive. It is a shame though that some of the airports and major cities are lacking in detail, or just look like they belong in Flight Simulator 98. Of course, that is an exaggeration, but it doesn’t seem like it has made a leap forward from Flight Simulator X which Dovetail re-released on Steam last year. The planes on hand are impressively detailed (at least to an untrained eye), and there is a noticeable difference in how the Super Cub and Cherokee fly.
Overall, Flight School is a welcome introduction to flight sims, though as I mentioned earlier, I’m not entirely sure who the target audience really is. The positive is that my experience with Flight School has left me extremely interested in seeing how Dovetail’s full simulator turns out. Flight School is a solid game, especially at the budget price, but please go in with your expectations set accordingly, I’m talking to experienced fliers here. This isn’t a new Flight Simulator X, it really is just a training school for new fliers and on that front it does a good job, but judging by some of my videos, I could do with trying the landing tutorial a few more times.
The Verdict – On Target
Platforms Available/Reviewed – PC
Please read this post for more on our scoring policy. Review copy supplied by PR.
Let me first preface this piece by explaining my background with flight simulators. I played Microsoft Flight Simulator ’98 back in the day, I had an absolute blast…but wasn’t actually any good at flying the planes. Since then, my flying experience has mainly come from the Battlefield games, along with a dabble in things like Tom Clancy’s HAWX. What does that all mean? If you are a die-hard flight simulator fan, this isn’t the article for you as I won’t be talking about how accurate the plane models are or other details like that, but please feel free to laugh at my flying “skills” in the videos! …
While we here at Reticule Towers were hibernating over the winter period, Dovetail Games quietly announced that they were releasing two new flight sims this year. While we won’t see the fully fledged Dovetail Games Flight Simulator until later in the year, the smaller, more caring younger brother, Dovetail Games Flight School is due this April and has a genuinely exciting new trailer out. Hit the break to find out more. …
“Welcome to the Great Indoors” is the tagline for Dovetail Games Fishing, and soon we will be reeling the game in with open arms when it is released on Steam in late October. Before then, the game will end its Early Access phase on September 8th and move into a Closed Beta period for those who have already dropped a line and have been baited into trying the game out. …
Dovetail Games, the team behind Train Simulator and the recent rebirth of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Steam are expanding their relationship with Microsoft. Find out more, after the break. …
It’s timely. The full trailer for Terminator:Genysis (bad spelling, bad) comes out, Stephen Hawkin’s himself comes out and warns against the potential machine threat and then DoveTail Games Fishing enters it’s second phase of Steam’s early access. It’s the start of the end people, and it all begins with Fish A.I.
Jump to the cut for an explanation (of sorts…) …
I meant to drop a line about this last week, and I had thought about baiting in readers by giving the Early Access build a play…but yes, Dovetail Games Fishing launched on Steam’s Early Access program last week. As my fishing puns are now depleted, please read on without fear. …
It was around this time last year that I took my first steps into the Train Simulator franchise with this review. At the end of the Verdict, I said that I had to differentiate it in my mind from most games as it is a pure blood simulator without many of the ‘gamey’ elements that you find in something like European Truck Simulator or Farming Simulator. A year has passed since then, the game has been updated, and I am taking the opportunity to deliver a Verdict on the new version. …
I’ve touched on the upcoming work from Dovetail Games a few times in recent months as they transition towards releasing Train Simulator 2015, establishing links with Microsoft and their flight simulator games while also spreading their wings into the fishing game scene. It has been a big change in focus for a company who used to hone in solely on the Train Simulator franchise, and I wanted to find out more about what was going on. I was able to have a chat with Doug McConkey, the brand director at Dovetail Games, about the new games and the change in focus of the company. Hit the break to find out more. …