I purchased this game because I was told by many that this is the best flight sim ever made. Indeed, as long as you are willing to forgive ancient graphics, obfuscated UI, lack of proper widescreen, and compatibility issues, you can enjoy a great simulation experience.

The sim aspect is near-perfect. The 2D cockpit view allows for every button in the darn thing to be pressed and used as it really would be. The flight model feels very realistic. The AI is smart, and the missions feel like actual missions. The downside to all this is that everything is very hard to use. There is no real in-game training (the training missions are simple scenarios; they don't include exposition or proper text instruction), the UI is a mess (no tooltips on buttons in the complicated mission planner), and the great interactivity of the 2D cockpit is not mirrored by the widescreen-friendly 3d cockpit. Overall, the program feels very clunky.

Most importantly, the game doesn't like new graphics cards or drivers. Clouds appear above everything (which is VERY annoying!) on my ATI Radeon HD 5770. Some lockups may also occur.

Overall, I'd have to recommend Lock-On over this, although it is an impressive sim nonetheless.

I've been playing this game now a few times a week since I bought it -- a few months ago. Still haven't played all races or variations yet, I'm enjoying it immensely, despite the outdated graphics and special effects. The strategy is really well balanced. Well ... the AI is good, but could be better. Challenging enough to be fun though.