a) Haven't played it, but I have the original one and it's fun.

b) Got it - love it, I spend hours flying around the Scottish mountains (home) and it can be updated with patches, mods etc. off the net.

c) Got it - good if you like that sort of thing, the random maps keep it going for a lot longer than campaigns.

I'd go for FS2004 - you can get really immersed and learn to navigate etc, or mess about and fly anywhere in the world, pyramids, statue of liberty anything you like.

Edit - should have read all the posts, that HW sounds good, but my opinion still stands!

Re: MS FS2004 or Combat FS3 or Age of Empires II
 

Definitely not this one. It is not bad, but it is much better together with the expansion "The Conquerors" which adds a few civilizations and important interface improvements, and there is a cheap gold edition that has both. I don't think you can get the expansion separately nowadays, so it makes sense to get them together.

My pic would be FS 2004. There are a lot of fantastic add ons out there. Project Fokker (The F70 and F100 Regional Jet), The T-45 Goshawk from DSB (also their T-38, F-5, Hawk and F-20 packages are awsome!), the Hawker Hunter by Dave Garwood, the Dash 8 and CRJ from Premier Aircraft Design, Folland Gant by Brian Franklin, Su-27B/UB/Su-30MKK Package by Bill Wolfgen (Bear Studios), Soko Galeb by Goran Savic, Aermacchi MB326H by David Friswell, MI-24V Hind E Tim "Piglet" Conrad, heck the Lear 45 that comes with FS 2004 is great! :up:

After two years of hold-ups, I finally got myself FS2004 for Christmas. I'm currently taking a (slow) tour of the USA in my old DC-3. Lots of fun! :up: