Some new stuff posted since last time i looked at the website. Seems the rumors of it being an arcade game aren't entirely true. (Read FAQ)

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

From the update posted above

Many of you are concerned that because we want to appeal to a wider audience, we must be building an arcade game.

We don’t need to create an arcade game to welcome a wider audience. But we do need to improve the total user experience if we’re to be successful in welcoming new audiences into the experience of Flight. The passion and fascination of flight is powerful, with so many different aspects to aviation and different levels of enjoyment to experience. There is distinct value and strength to be gained by welcoming a wider audience, and we can’t claim to have done the best job of it in the past.

--Wow, that's a surprising burst of honesty from a developer. I'd say they "get it." When it comes to making a powerful, streamlined user experience, You fail the first time someone needs to change an option by opening the config file (think widescreen support...), needs to use windows explorer to install a new plane, or have to look up optimization guides just to get the game running well.

They get to the crux of the issue with sims today. It's not the difficulty, learning curve, or challenge of flying an aircraft that's turning a lot of people off. It's the difficulty, learning curve, and frustration of operating the sim itself. It seems like so many sims games these days just can't get out of their own way. --

Then things get concerning:

Based on the previous webisode, we’ve heard, “This doesn’t look any different from FSX!”

As we said in the introduction, we’re still early in the development cycle, so the fact that you comment on the similarity to FSX is great! This comment alone should ease some of the arcade concerns. Please follow along with our progress as we continue to release more webisodes, screenshots, and additional information. In the end, we hope that you’ll have a great time looking back at these early samples and being part of the evolution. Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support!

--We call that a "non-answer." I get the still-early-development reasoning, but I was really hoping for an answer like "actually, that was FSX. We're simply using the FSX engine for marketing reasons, until the flight engine is ready for prime time." or "Looked like it yes, but as it's still early, we're not focusing on the visual aspect of the software. Hardware will evolve over the two plus years of development, and we'd rather wait until we can get a clearer view of the community hardware foot-print we'll be launching into." The answer above pretty much breaks down as:
Community: Um...that looks like FSX, just re-skinned...
MS: It sure does!

"What does appealing to a wider audience mean?


It means improving the user-interface experience, achieving better performance on today’s hardware, providing more focused challenges for people who aren’t quite sure what to do next, and introducing more persistent experiences for people who return often. It also means keeping alive the freedom to go where you want, when you want, and to do what you want. Regardless of their hardware power, piloting experience, or level of interest, many people have enjoyed the traditional flight-simulation experience as a solitary activity. We see a compelling social aspect to the experience inherent in the fun, and we need to better enable and support this dynamic to strengthen the entire Flight experience for everyone."

thats a waght off my mind

I still think the overall 'improvement' they have in mind to the current FSX is just developing a dedicated online experience with achievements you can earn, etc. -- much like the Valve games in Steam.

FS2004 was based on fs2002,fs2000,fs98 and fs95 and people didnt seem to mind one bit!

Yes, they are focusing hard on online for this version. But improving the interface while keeping sim elements would be welcome, as well as better performance.

and FSX was based on....

promisses...

What really irks me is that my FSX doesn't look anything like those videos, and it should. When FSX came out they made it sound like if you didn't run it in Vista or 7 you were really missing something, now that I have Win 7 it doesn't look any better. A few of you will say well if you put so and so's scenery pack in it will but why should I pay someone else an additional 30-40 bucks to make better what MS didn't. So I have to wonder if the Stearman video is refecting what we can expect the Game to look like out of the box? Is it going to be a "real world" simulation or a Generic World? I could enjoy it if it looks like anywhere providing different Terrains, Seasons and Weather without having it be a real location.