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Reviews (by Karl)

OVERLAND - JAPANESE AIRPORTS VOL3

OVERLAND - JAPANESE AIRPORTS VOL3

It's great to finally have a highly-detailed rendition of one of Asia's busiest airports - Tokyo Narita - for FS2004. The level of detail for such a complex airport is astounding, not to mention the almost non-existent hit on frame-rates. Even with Ultimate Traffic running at 100%, taxiing, taking off and landing are still smooth affairs. I especially like the detail in the central area - it appears that every building, car park, roadway and ramp has been faithfully recreated. The control tower alone is a masterpiece, as are the numerous off-airport hotels included with this package. The only complaint I have (and it is only a little one) is the quality of the photo-scenery around the airports - I feel that it could have been a little sharper and more realistic, however this doesn't really ruin the overall enjoyment of the package. To be really honest, I've not explored the other included airfields in any great depth, and although tiny by comparison to Narita, they too are very detailed. There is one airport (I can't remember which) where the photo ground textures appear to have been much improved, and actually cover a whole island. In my opinion, however, the other airfields are pretty irrelevant, as Narita is the one that really shines in this package!

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FLYTAMPA - LEGACY - SAN DIEGO FS2004

FLYTAMPA - LEGACY - SAN DIEGO FS2004

Yet another G-MAX speciality from Mr. Martin Brunken, this time offering the user San Diego in California. The previous review mentioned no impact on framerates, due to the small size of the airport, however on my machine framerates are slightly worse than any of the other three 'Fly' sceneries. I'm not quite sure why this is (maybe it's the huge amount of autogen in the immediate airport vicinity), however I won't let it influence the rest of my review. With San Diego, we have the now almost standard 3D taxiway edge lights (first used in FlyMiami) and the amazing custom tarmac textures, plus the usual landside detail such as car-parks, 3D cars, trees, etc. There are, however, two things which really stand out in this scenery; first is the US Coast Guard facility, which necessitates a trip out of the airport boundary and across a main road. Here, there is a helipad and a pier reaching out into the sea, moored to which are several examples of the USCG boat fleet. The pier can also be used by sea-planes, which is a nice little touch. The second thing I really like is the moving cars (yes, I did say MOVING cars!) which zoom across the raised part of the Pacific motorway (or freeway if you're American) - this really adds to the realism when on short finals to runway 27! To make the approach that bit more difficult, the multi-storey car park right at the end of this runway has also been included. In short, this is another excellent 'Fly' scenery, although I'm not entirely convinced it's worth 18 Euros, especially when compared to the bigger airports in this series. In addition, with this airport being mainly domestic, its lasting appeal is also questionable. I'm still going to give this a respectable 4, however if you live near to or often frequent San Diego airport, then this may well be deserved of the full 5.

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FLYTAMPA - LEGACY - MIAMI FS2004

FLYTAMPA - LEGACY - MIAMI FS2004

WOW! What a combination of detail and friendly frame-rates! I absolutely love the attention given to the building work in progress at MIA - it makes the scenery feel so real. Add a copy of Flight1's Ultimate Traffic to this and you have one hell of a package. My AI traffic is currently running at 100% and, although this does hit frame-rates, the impact is far less than other sceneries I've seen recently. Well worth my ten English Pounds!

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