When you turn the FSX flying aids on and go for a mission of some kind, you will be able to see a large part of Flight already. Means audio notes, goals, pointers, rewards.
When you enter Flight, turn off the aids and jump into the
free flight screen, you have a good rendition of flying around in smaller planes and I can't spot any big downsides on the behaviour of them. In fact, I actually think that some of the stuff is rendered more correct and more detailed as on FSX planes. The landing part and turbulence comes to my mind. Sound details and lighting too.
We're still talking about a totally free game and from reading some of the impressions about the pay-contents, it's not that bad at all. Even compared to FSX payware which not only offers some well done and detailed titles, but also some lame ducks for 30 bucks.

So I wonder where the strong language comes in and I also wonder if some folks remember the first FSX days.
The only 'crap' I've found is the rather rigid way to sell new stuff and to pay for each and every item which goes beyond one Hawaiian island without ATC and other planes flying around. That's not something I'm too tempted about, especially when being able to enjoy the good FSX payware I already own. Since they also refuse third party devs to enter, I really wonder what the future will bring for Flight.
However, I think the open minded folks should fly more than 5 minutes and then may come to the point of looking at it with an interest on further developments. It's free! Just head for the first missions and then free flight is available. Otherwise it's very much like judging a book by its cover. Just sayin'. They
had a forum full of rants over at Avsim. I doubt that there was much use, but a ton of emotions.
Quote:Is the flight and/or weather engine better somehow?
I like the actual display and the behaviour of the planes much better. As said, I've only tried the free ones so far, but the folks running the Hawaii addon plus the other planes seem to be happy. Just make sure to disable all the helping things with autorudder, mixture and so on and you'll get the FSX-alike setup with the benefits of less performance impact and, in my eyes, a better display.
However, I would have loved to see more 'future' on the whole graphics aspect. It surely received improvements over FSX, but I had expected more. It runs fine though, even on my old laptop.
I may add that I'm looking for some more addon dev's statements on X-Plane 10. Looks like a good setup for me, at least an interesting one. Their dev studio isn't closed. And it surely aims at simulating things, which of course leads to the more or less awkward ways of interacting, just like on our well known FSX, we've already got so used to.