Microsoft Flight now on Steam

[jomni]

MS Flight and all it's add-ons can be obtained from Steam (at the same price).
As if it matters. You will still need Games for Windows Live.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/203850/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

[alaskancrab]

dunno the starter bundle looks like a better deal actually.

[jomni]

Take note that Steam classified Flight as a Casual game.

[fxsttcb]

dunno the starter bundle looks like a better deal actually.It is a much better deal. I wouldn't purchase the Mustang on it's own, but the rest of Hawaii and the Maule individually cost more than the 3pc Bundle.
Hopefully future bundles(I'm thinking Alaska, Hawaii, and a new regional transport!) will be made available at that same ~30% discount rate...Don

[ozkhan]

MS Flight and all it's add-ons can be obtained from Steam (at the same price).
As if it matters. You will still need Games for Windows Live.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/203850/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

Well that's a bummer.

The other advantage though, is you can pay the exact (much cheaper here in Australia) price for Flight, instead of having to buy Microsoft "tokens" or whatever they are called, then use a subset of them to purchase Flight.

James

[alaskancrab]

Don: Oh well at least we now know they have christmas, blackfriday/cybermonday sales. So definitely the Zero is going to be only bought when it's 50% off

[mith]

So definitely the Zero is going to be only bought when it's 50% off

It's already 50% off.... buy the plane (half there) and buy the cockpit... the other half there....

hehe

[azzaro]

Funny, after flying for 50+ hours and exhausting most of the gameplay potential, I was just thinking Flight was running out of steam?!
I'm ready for more content... — Bob

[GKSeifert]

Have any of you tried Steam? It's the worst software I have ever experienced. Steam installed quickly but it took twenty minutes to update itself after the install. Then the download of that combo pack quit within half a minute and there was no way to restart it. The package was not shown anywhere in Steam. Can't restart what is not even shown. I opened a ticket but they seem to have lost it. It never showed up when I logged in to their support site again to check on it. No email, or telephone support available at all. And the Steam forums indicate that the support site takes about a week to respond anyway. I will never use Steam again. I went ahead and picked up the Hawaii pack and the Maule directly through Flight/Live and had it downloaded and installed in half an hour. It did cost $43.50 instead of the $30 that Steam charged me. But at least I got what I paid for, where I got nothing but a headache for the $30. I've opened a Paypal dispute about the Steam transaction. Regarding the $43.50... It did leave about $2.90 or 200 Klingon warships in MS's funny money somewhere in limbo. You might say I didn't really pay $43.50 for what I got. But if I don't ever buy anything else I did. They have my $43.50 and I will never get any of it back. And if I do buy something else it will certainly cost more funny money than I have (200 Klingon warships) so I will have to put more in and will again wind up leaving some of my money in their bank.

So be aware that you have to install a very complicated Steam application to get whatever you buy through them and it seems to be quite undependable and poorly supported. And I think you are tied into them from that point on as well. You may have to start Flight through Steam. I am not sure about that. I would rather just be tied to Live rather than both of them. Live at least seems to work.


Gord

[Ragtopjohnny]

I have no problems with Steam. I play Left4Dead, World in Conflict on it. No troubles at all. Just remember to allow firewall permissions and you'll be all set. Hope this helps Gord with his problems with Steam. Keep trying Gord, never give up, you'll get it working.

[scruffyduck]

Take note that Steam classified Flight as a Casual game.

Maybe I am reading the wrong place but the Genre on the Flight Page says: Free to Play (http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Free%20to%20Play?snr=1_5_9__400/), Casual (http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Casual?snr=1_5_9__400/), Simulation (http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Simulation?snr=1_5_9__400/)

http://www.scruffyduck.org.uk/screenshots/image135.png

[GKSeifert]

I have no problems with Steam. I play Left4Dead, World in Conflict on it. No troubles at all. Just remember to allow firewall permissions and you'll be all set. Hope this helps Gord with his problems with Steam. Keep trying Gord, never give up, you'll get it working.

Thanks for the suggestion. The installer for Steam did put entries for Steam into the vanilla Windows 7 firewall. It should have worked. Glad you have had success with Steam. I hope you never have trouble with it. They have made it almost impossible to get support in any reasonable time frame. I just think it is ridiculous to have to install something as intrusive as Steam just to get a one time add-on for Flight. I will never need it for anything else. I got what I wanted, but without Steam. Hope paypal will get my $30 back.

BTW, I really am very happy with the Hawaii package and the Maule. I got an email almost the day I installed Flight about interments of the ashes of survivors of the USS Arizona in the sunken ship. This got me to wondering what Pearl Harbor looks like in Flight. So I flew the area with the Icon. Darned if you can't see the Arizona below the water. Also the smaller markers of the other ships, The USS Missouri permanently at dock, the sunken USS Utah on the other side of Ford Island and the USS Bowfin sub at the eastern end of the Ford Island bridge. All quite accurate. And, of course, with the Icon I could land and taxi around the area. One thing that is not very accurate is that, if you take it in mind to go wadding or swimming, you can't do that. But you can walk on the water! :-)

Gord

[DavidChyandour]

I had the same problem buying the bundle through Steam. They emailed confirming the transaction but nothing in the Library from which the download should be obtained. I've emailed but I hope they don't take as long to reply. I'm sure it would have been easier direct through Microsoft.

[Trev]

Nothing wrong with Steam. Been using them since the days of the original Half-Life.
@DavidChyander. You get to install the add-ons when you start Flight. It will come up with a Window and the codes to put in.
:)

[alaskancrab]

Only problem with steam, is the exact moment the internet goes down you always reach for a game to play...

[Trev]

You can play games in off line mode.
:)

[jomni]

I had the same problem buying the bundle through Steam. They emailed confirming the transaction but nothing in the Library from which the download should be obtained. I've emailed but I hope they don't take as long to reply. I'm sure it would have been easier direct through Microsoft.

Steam says you need Windows Live installed. Must mean that you download from there.

[GKSeifert]

Nothing wrong with Steam. Been using them since the days of the original Half-Life.
@DavidChyander. You get to install the add-ons when you start Flight. It will come up with a Window and the codes to put in.
:)

In my case I did start Flight again and got no pop up window. And as I said the network usage page in Steam showed zero bytes downloaded, so I don't know how it would have done anything at all. And Jomni, I do have Live installed. That is how I eventually purchased and downloaded the product. I am afraid that there IS something wrong with Steam in relation to the Flight Hawaii combo pack although it may work fine for all the other games. I am just not interested in their online services and object to being forced to install Steam to get the package I paid for. And I am pretty ticked that they take the buyers money but fail to provide any information at all on how to obtain what has been paid for and also fail to have any reasonable support available. Waiting a week for them to get back to me, maybe, is not an option. I paid for a downloadable package and expect to be able to download it almost immediately, as I did through Flight/Live.

Gord

[loki]

Did you activate the DLC as described on Steam? From the Flight page on Steam:


Notice:To activate downloadable content for Flight after your purchase, launch Microsoft Flight and select 'Redeem Code' from the main menu. Then follow the instructions to redeem your content.
Alternatively, you can redeem Product Codes for the downloadable content at https://live.xbox.com/RedeemToken.

[loki]

You can play games in off line mode.

Only if you activate it before you lose your internet connection. If your connection unexpectedly drops on you, you are out of luck.

[GKSeifert]

I have noticed a 'Stickey' post on the Steam forums that does talk about how this DLC should be accessed. Hope a link to their forums is not out of place here.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2634843

In my case, none of that happened. Flight never showed up in my game library so I could not right click on it get to the keys. I never had any notification of unredeemed codes after logging into Live, nor on the map or in the hangar. It seems Steam just never assigned those codes to me after purchase, which is why I have initiated the Paypal dispute.

Rather than "Have any of you tried Steam", my original question should have been "Have any of you successfully purchased DLC through Steam for Flight that was initially installed outside of Steam". I have not seen anyone say they have successfully managed it, but I have seen one other say they had tried, but nothing happened. Just like it didn't happen for me.

BTW, the Maule is quite a bit of fun in gusty conditions and a crosswind landings if you first remove the check marks from 'Increased Stability' and 'Propeller Effects'. It no longer feels like it is on rails. Way more fun! And spend a little time over Pearl Harbor, or on it with the Icon. Quite a bit of detail there. You can actually see the Arizona below the surface.

Gord

[Trev]

You could try this. When I first purchased the Hawaiian Adventure pack from Steam I couldn't download it. Eventually I thought maybe it was because I had downloaded Flight from MS. So I uninstalled Flight and downloaded it again through Steam. When I went to start up Flight this box came up with the codes in it for the package and as I clicked on each one it proceeded to download. I didn't try this out before I uninstalled the MS download of Flight though.
:)

[mith]

I haven't had any problems with Steam... and I've downloaded a couple games from it.... but that's just me.... heh

[Joe]

Funny, after flying for 50+ hours and exhausting most of the gameplay potential, I was just thinking Flight was running out of steam?!
I'm ready for more content... — Bob

I agree, The only way they will maintain a faithful player base is to keep the content fresh and constant. However adding aircraft without panels has already become very discouraging and not the content I think most of us are looking for..

This is where we will all see just how serious Microsoft is about this title. They have started with a very strong foundation and it has the potential to become a great simulator. If they don't stop releasing 1/2 of a aircraft(with out panels)(I know where they can download some if they need them; wink:wink) and/or start adding other areas my days will soon be numbered.

With all this said I still like Flight very much, little buggy in multiplayer still but mechanics are sound.

[GKSeifert]

Thanks Trev, that is what I have been coming to suspect. And that is what I did not want to get into. I don't ever intend to use Steam for anything else and don't see the sense in getting tied into it just for Flight. Particularly since there would then be Steam as well as Live competing for my systems time while I am using Flight. There was no pre-purchase warning that the Steam application would be forced on me, no indication anywhere that I would have to re-download Flight and run it through Steam. It is just not the kind of transaction I was expecting.

Anyway I now have the Hawaii pack and the Maule through Live/Flight and it works great. No Steam anywhere near my machine. :-)

Gord

[Paxx]

Here is the official Steam/MSFlight FAQ (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2643707) and how to install Steam purchased DLC for Flight.

[alaskancrab]

I'm confused what's the story here... if you buy from Steam do you just get the activation codes to use in Flight, or do you have to use both. I'm pretty sure for GTAIV I have to use steam, the game doesn't even show up on my GFWL account accepts for the XP points I earned.

[loki]

I'm confused what's the story here... if you buy from Steam do you just get the activation codes to use in Flight, or do you have to use both.

It looks like those that installed Flight through GFWL first, then bought something through Steam can't see the activation codes for their purchases. Sounds like something on the system gets confused when Flight already exists. However, those that install Flight through Steam from the get go don't have this problem.

[GKSeifert]

Here is the official Steam/MSFlight FAQ (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2643707) and how to install Steam purchased DLC for Flight.

Yep, that is the one I linked to in Post #21 but I guess I didn't describe it as clearly as you did. It still doesn't say anything about having to re-install Flight through Steam, which seems to be the stumbling block, although it sort of intimates that in the "Where can I see all of my DLC codes" answer. How would Flight get in the Library if it were not installed through Steam?

It is now clear that there are two versions of Flight. One installed through Steam and the original non-Steam version. This is seen in the answer to the "If I have purchased content for Flight through Games for Windows–LIVE" question. It seems that you MUST install the Steam version to get the DLC through Steam, but once you have gotten the codes you apparently can use the Steam purchased DLC in the non Steam version of Flight as well. All very messy and not at all well documented. I prefer the more expensive but far simpler GFWL purchase and install.

Gord

[Paxx]

It's just a confusing procedure. The FAQ explains it all.

First click redeem at the Flight main menu.

Then follow the 3 instructions.

You can view your prepaid codes within the Steam client by selecting Flight within your game library.
Next, right-click on Flight and select View Game CD Key. This will show you all of your prepaid codes purchased through Steam.

[loki]

It still doesn't say anything about having to re-install Flight through Steam, which seems to be the stumbling block, although it sort of intimates that in the "Where can I see all of my DLC codes" answer. How would Flight get in the Library if it were not installed through Steam?

They are probably assuming that the people buying DLC through Steam have also installed Flight through Steam.

[loki]

It's just a confusing procedure. The FAQ explains it all.

With the most confusion for those who had already installed Flight through GFWL, and then tried to purchase the DLC through Steam. The codes don't seem to appear properly for them to be redeemed.

It seems like the best practice is to install Flight through either GFWL or Steam, and then stick to that system for DLC.

[n4gix]

With the most confusion for those who had already installed Flight through GFWL, and then tried to purchase the DLC through Steam. The codes don't seem to appear properly for them to be redeemed.

It seems like the best practice is to install Flight through either GFWL or Steam, and then stick to that system for DLC.
Absolutely one-hundred percent correct analysis and conclusion, Loki!

It's a false dichotomy. Either install the GFWL -or- the Steam version. There's no difference in the end, except with the Steam version you now have two overlays (Steam and GFWL) to contend with, both of which wind up connecting via LIVE... :confused:

[DavidChyandour]

I had some problems with Steam, too. I downloaded MS Flight when it first became available, then purchased the Island/Planes Bundle and found myself playing the Steam download game. They confirmed the purchase but the download did not appear in the Steam Library. After several emails and responses which did not solve the problem I contacted MS Flight to explain. They, helpfully and immediately, told me that what I had to do was download the original Base Flight all over again (you know how long that takes) but through Steam this time. This I did and eventually I did download the three items, but it was touch and go what was happening in the course of the download. It's a crazy way to add to the Base and Microsoft say they are working on an easier solution. For those who follow my path, it cannot come soon enough!

[ScatterbrainKid]

..Have any of you tried Steam? It's the worst software I have ever experienced...

I had my fingers burnt by Steam a couple of years ago and have avoided it like the plague ever since.
I've been seriously thinking of buying MS Flight but the only thing that's putting me off is the fact that I apparently have to go through Steam to get it, is that right?

[loki]

No, you can get Flight directly from Microsoft without any requirement to use Steam. It was only made available through Steam after it became available through Microsoft's Live Service actually.

As for Steam, I find it works very well.

[Trev]

No problems with Steam here. Been using it for years.
:)

[EastCoastGuy]

I bought directly through Microsoft too. I only go to Steam for the Flight Forums.

[ScatterbrainKid]

Have I got this right?-
1- MS Flight is FREE for dowload but we only get one plane and Hawaii?
2- We have to pay for extra aircraft and scenery areas?
3- It's all done via downloads and we can't buy it on disk in a box?

[JSkorna]

1. Yes.

2. Yes.

3. Yes, never on disk in a box.

[vonBobo]

The free download is only the big island, and it comes with two planes.
The big island is huge without much to look at. Combine that with the two slowest planes and it isnt a great representation of what the game can do.

I'd suggest downloading from steam to avoid the Live/steam compatibility problems, and then buy the hawaii pack, as the extra land and planes give a much better experience than the free trial.

[EastCoastGuy]

Have I got this right?-
1- MS Flight is FREE for dowload but we only get one plane and Hawaii?
2- We have to pay for extra aircraft and scenery areas?
3- It's all done via downloads and we can't buy it on disk in a box?

1 - It's free with two planes (Icon and Stearman) and you only get the big island of Hawaii.

2 - Yes.

The Hawaii pack comes with one more plane (RV-6A) and the remainder of the Hawaiian Islands, as well as more missions and challenges.
There is also the Maule, needed for cargo/passenger missions.
There are also three (so far) warbirds (Mustang, Zero, Warhawk) but they don't have cockpits.

3 - Yes

[Emile]

You could try this. When I first purchased the Hawaiian Adventure pack from Steam I couldn't download it. Eventually I thought maybe it was because I had downloaded Flight from MS. So I uninstalled Flight and downloaded it again through Steam. When I went to start up Flight this box came up with the codes in it for the package and as I clicked on each one it proceeded to download. I didn't try this out before I uninstalled the MS download of Flight though.
:)

I have the same case. Where did you find the Flight download on STEAM? I do not find it..Did you pay again?
Thanks in advance

[Trev]

Start Steam which should automaticlly go to the store and in the search box upper right type in Flight then press your enter key and that shall bring up flight.
:)