Hey Hobby Pilot! Stay up to date with our comparison of the five best Flight simulator games 2013. We tell you what’s hot and what is not!
Do you always imagine how it will feel like sitting in that cockpit, holding tight on the stick and going up high into the air? Can you possibly see yourself handling one of the greatest machines man has ever invented which is an airplane? Everybody does! I can’t possibly see anybody that doesn’t. Airplanes have positively changed the way we travel greatly. As a lover of flying, the advance of flight simulator games is something that, just the thought of it puts a smile on my face even when I’m having a bad day.
Due to gaming technology advances, those who don’t know anything about flying can now learn to fly without leaving their houses. Coolness factor! Flight simulator games aid you to operate all kinds of planes as if you are a real pilot. A flight simulator package offers you not only lots of airplanes but also airports that looks exactly like the real ones, wow!
Now let’s have a look at the best flight sim games of 2013:
The Top 5 Flying Simulators ruling in 2013
Virtual Pilot 3D (Windows & MAC)
One of the best flight simulator games 2012 is Virtual Pilot 3D. Every lover of flight sims is talking about this programs state of the art features and its amazing reality. The program allows you to choose over 200 airplanes and helicopters to fly, including new planes other sims don’t have such as the new airbus A380!.
It gives you access to controls of either vintage airplanes to a very modern cutting edge military aircraft. The feature that makes it stick out from the competition are the free lifetime updates. Unlike other flight sims out there, this flight simulator is constantly evolving and you get all the updates for free, once you are the owner of a copy of this excellent flight simulator game.
Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Windows only)
This is one of the best flying simulator programs by Microsoft. It’s the recent of version of the Microsoft Flight Simulator series.
It includes a graphics engine upgrade as well as compatibility with preview DirectX 10 and Windows Vista technologies. It also has amazing features like Tower control capability, more than 80 missions and more high detailed cities and airports.
Though it’s worth a look at, it is already a few years old and the downside of Microsofts Flight Sim is the fact that you will have to spend a lot of money on add ons and expansions to get the real fun. Also, this flight sim only works on Windows PC’s, not on MAC’s. If you want to try it anyway you can get it for the cheapest price by clicking here.
X-Plane v10 (Windows, MAC & Linux)
This flight simulator too is one of a kind; it was released on December 2011. This is the newest version of the 20 year old series of X-Plane. It has improved flight model including windflex, better use of the multi-core processing for artificial intelligence aircraft, global illumination and shadowing, etc. this is very interesting for many sim enthusiasts.
There are many compatible add-ons available for this game that allow you the simulate a big number of flying aircrafts and to explore the whole world.
Unfortunately it only includes 30 airplanes from gliders to a Space Shuttle, but it also allows online flying with other virtual pilotes.
All in all this is a game worth checking out, but in my opinion it can’t beat my favorite flight simulator game called Virtual Pilot 3D.
PROFlight Simulator (Windows & MAC)
This simulator is also very much state of the art and has been used in a range of projects in academia and industry (even NASA) and home built cockpits as well.
It offers more than 150 Airplanes and Helicopters already included in the package, this is the biggest choice of all the top flight simulator games presented here.
Over 48 programmers are working together on this advanced flight simulation software, to offer you a high level of realism. This is not really a game, it is a real simulation software and suitable to learn a lot about flying real aircraft.
It let’s you choose the weather you want to fly in, or alternatively you can use the “real sync” technology, which lets you fly in the real up to date weather conditions at the place where you are flying at that moment.
This Flight Sim also includes interesting bonuses, for example an interactive Scenery Designer and the Aeron Combat Flight Simulator, which allows you to connect with your friends and engage in dogfights with up to four teams.
Click here to check out the PROFlight Simulator website and Bonuses
F.A.S.T — Fleet Air Superiority Tactics (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch)
This flight sim is actually an iPhone app, so it’s perfect to play while you are on the go. It has crazy features; you can fly over 30 plus missions and learn how to dogfight, fly the deadly aircraft miles above the earth, fly freely in a full 3D, complete 360-degree environment with realistic fight controls, etc.
This is more for casual gamers than for real flight simulator enthusiasts. It can’t compare with a fully grown flight simulation software like Virtual Pilot 3D.
But it surely is a fun game to play while you are on the road and don’t have access to your computer.
Virtual Pilot 3D is still my Top Flight Simulation Software for 2013
The features of this awesome flight simulation are self explanatory. It has a more realistic scenery for serious flight simulation enthusiasts than any other simulator program. The program comes with more than 200 aircrafts eg: F16s, Concords, historical airplanes as well as helicopters. You can take off and land on more than 25.000 real world airports!
It is one of the few games that has a 60 days money back guarantee so if you are not impressed with the program, (which is unlikely) they will give you a full refund.
All said and done I think, if you dream of flying someday or if you love flying and you just can’t get enough of it like me, Virtual Pilot 3D is the best Flight Sim out there.