"De plane! De plane! It's stuttering! De plane!" First of let me say that you need a computer the size of the Empire state building to run this game. I got a PIII 800 with a GeForce 256 card and a 256 memory and  this game tore it to shreds in a matter of minutes. This made me think  again about upgrading my system. As long as you fly straight it's ok; that  is if you want to fly to the North pole or the South pole everytime you  boot up this game. But once you turn the aircraft, you'll experience  graphics turbulence. You'll feel your computer shudder and shake as it  battles it's way to redraw the scenery. You'll see your frames slow down  really bad. Lower the graphics settings? Try it and you'll just make this  game laugh in your face. Download the patch? Yes, I did and it was still  stuttering. You can make every upgrade you want on your computer but if the  game is the problem then it's a lost cause. If you're thinking about  picking up this game, make sure you have a powerful computer that runs on  nuclear energy. Like most other Microsoft Flight Sims, this one is geared  more towards the gamer side and not so much on the real simulator  enthusiasts. The planes are just too easy to fly. You could ask your kid  brother to do the take-off procedure. Realism is not that all real as the  game boasts itself to be. The game does have its own pluses though like a  huge database of airports, downloadable Jeppesen weather reports, and of  course there's a lot of third party support on this. If you're a gamer who  wants to try flight sims then pick this game up. If you're a simulator ,  then pick up something else like Fly 2K! (very realistic) or Aerowinx  744(very very realistic).