Megascenery Reno/Tahoe X
By Kevin Glover
8 July 2008
Well, I learned a valuable lesson with this product; never review something that you are very familiar with, because it will never live up to your expectations. Don't get me wrong; this is a nice package, but nothing is as good as real life. Anyway, I have spent a lot of time around this area, and it's rather special to me. The first time I flew occurred at Reno/Tahoe Int'l, and as it was my first time in a large airport, I was very impressed by all the jets, jetways, and buildings. Every time I drive by the airport now, I'm always struck by the multilevel parking, lovely glass architecture, and of course how the runway runs right up against a road; always a good idea, right? When I purchased the add-on, it came in the form of a 1085 MB instant download for the price of $10. It installed well enough, and came with a handy tool to scan for updates whenever you choose. The scenery covers 1,400 square miles and includes all airports in the area, with five notable ones.
Personally, photoreal scenery is just not my thing. It never seems to look good enough up close, especially in urban areas, where you have to differentiate the outlines of houses and such. The scenery up by Lake Tahoe and the mountains is marvelous, and most of you know what it's like from the glider tutorial mission in FSX. The lake is really quite large, and the add-on doesn't cover the whole area (just the eastern shore). As with most photoreal scenery, it looks great from, say, 3,000 feet or more, but up close it's a sludgy mess; not that this is individual to this product, of course.
I had to chuckle a little when I started up at my first flight. The ad said it included custom autogen. It may have trees and buildings different than FSX, but I've never seen any of those plants up Reno. Honestly, where's the sagebrush? Also, the houses really aren't that great of a representation. Reno's culture is really quite varied. You can see Spanish-style houses and 70's houses on the same block. While the included buildings are a step up from FSX, they still aren't what I would hope for. Also, the fact that the airport is right in the city bears testament to the fact that Reno has grown almost exponentially; the houses are absolutely piling up. Even if I turned autogen and custom objects up to ultra high, there weren't enough to give a good, urban city feel. Also, all the buildings and trees were terribly aligned, and that's bad with photoreal scenery as you can see what's supposed to go where. But hey, if you guys haven't been there as much as I have, most of this stuff won't bother you. However, for a native, it's a disappointment.
Reno/Tahoe may not be one of the busiest of biggest airports, but hey, it's still got a decent spread of land and buildings. Unfortunately, there are hardly more custom buildings in this add-on than in the stock scenery. Sure, they add some of the correct hotels, but there just aren't enough to keep you entertained. In all frankness, the default scenery of New York has more detail, buildings and care put into it than this add-on. Like I said before, even with all scenery sliders at full right it doesn't deliver enough detail. The buildings that it does include are OK, but the hotels are done the best out of the lot. The Grand Sierra Resort is a newer one, and it was nice to see that well portrayed. I found that all five of the major airports included were about the same as far as objects. There aren't any buildings at a couple of them.
In all, it's just OK. On one hand, it costs only about $10.00,
but on the other it only gives you a handful of objects and scenery.
To add to that, only the summer scenery is portrayed. Skiing is big
business up there, and it's disappointing not to see Mt. Rose or
NorthStar ski resorts in their full glory. The night lighting is
actually quite nice, but hey, there's not a lot to see at night,
so... It's not the best add-on, but for ten dollars you can't
really complain.
Kevin Glover
kevin.glover@hotmail.com
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