X-Plane 9 (Mac)

X-Plane 9 is a fantastic flight sim. Firstly to clarify some confusion in other reviews, and indeed with the Amazon details in terms of System Requirements;

As per the X-Plane product website the System Req. for Mac are:

2Ghz Processor, 1GB Ram,64mbVideoRam, 10 GB Hard drive space.

However, when you receive the discs, One disc runs the game/sim - the other 5 contain the entire world's scenery, and almost all of the world's airstrips/airports (note without any buildings etc, which I'll explain later) - Installing all of it takes 60-70GB. But you can have a great time installing just UK, or wherever else you want if your system is less capable (or run it from an external drive they're so cheap now).
I have an iMac at 2.4GHz, 2GB Ram, everything is installed, it all just works perfectly.
Obviously anyone with a Mac Pro or 4GB of Ram will have a slightly better experience, as with anything, but don't let this fool you, this Sim is awesome.
X-Plane comes with default aircraft inc General Aviation (twin and single prop and small jets) Heavy Metal (no, not Metallica) 747s plus others, fighter jets, a glider, helicopters,seaplanes, the space shuttle (really) and some megaplanes like a B2, Lancer and SR-71.

The instructions aren't great to be fair but there are massive resources on the web to help, I knew nothing at all, didn't know where to start! The product website also contains a downloadable PDF manual in English, and a folder within the game contains other detailed help and instructions on getting the best rendering options and graphics in a methodical manner, among other helpful advice.

Planes can be "flown" with a mouse, I did that for 4 months no problem,Helicopters can't really though, a joystick/throttle set-up like Saitek X52 or similar does transform the realism and control for sure.

Now to the quality of the graphics.
There are many settings, too many to mention but along the lines of; birds/deer in fine weather?; air balloons flying?; traffic density (cars/trucks on roads)?; show roads on/off?; forest density (how many trees); water effects (sea/lakes look real or not); how many objects?; (there are town/city buildings with scenery) and a master graphics quality setting.....these need tweaking properly and methodically to get the best for you. Some people want realistic flight dynamics, others want pretty scenery to fly over....it's a case of working them out to see what fits best for you...it can look ultra real-life if you get this right!
You can download "real" weather from the web, or set your own to rain/snow/thunder/wind all almost infinitely variable...

A huge online forum/community (Google it...) provides a massive resource. Hundreds of extra aircraft can be downloaded free.You can even download a Land rover to drive around airports/sceneries in. Many members are current/former pilots who offer advice and points on the realism of the flight dynamics of the aircraft, general opinion being that these are incredibly realistic, in fact the professionals use X-Plane as a simulator anyway (See product website).

Airport Scenery - As I mentioned when you start there are just the footprints of airports apart from one default scenery set at LOWI Innsbruck - but the forum/community again have hundreds of sceneries that can be downloaded for free, including many UK Airports plus worlwide ones big and small....you could never really use them all there's that many to choose from...
Some are a few buildings, others include town sceneries with roads/signs/static planes/static road vehicles/static boats/bridges/chimneys etc etc...

PlugIns - Again there are free plugins to enhance the experience, ... a camera with multiple angles/views; improved text based Air Traffic Control; a plugin that provides an animated pushback truck to push back the heavy passenger airliners back from the gate, and one that animated a passenger dock to the door of a large airliner if you park it just right..to name the best.

PayWare - There are aircraft you can by as add-ons, most of which come with huge PDF manuals and instructions, many are ultra realistic. And scenery packs that you can buy too very cheaply.And plugins, like one that gives you hangars to add to airports with opening/closing doors for about $3 or something like that!

The discs also include PlaneMaker - a programme for those of a creative mind to build their own planes!

And free software to make your own scenery is available from the web too. For the real design-minded there are free resources from the product website to make your own scenery objects, and even edit the "world" - say airport layouts/forests etc etc

All in all you can fly around in a simple plane having great fun (which i did for months!) If you put the time in to learn from others..you can start the session with no engines running, so you have to learn to start a 737 from "cold and dark" yourself, very rewarding! You can learn to navigate, real world navigational aids are on the "map" with real radio frequencies for you to put in your nav radios in the cockpit..for that first flight from A to B - where you take-off, stay up there......and eventually land safely!

Even this detailed look doesn't scratch the surface really, there is a steep learning curve, but it's more fun than ever...and you'll be looking forward to the wife/husband/partner watching Saturday evening reality shows so you can fly off for a couple of hours.......and it's really very cheap for the huge expandability alone.

The other reviews cover all the important points. As a recent convert to Mac, I find this simulation to be better than flight simulator. It runs fast and with good graphics on my Macbook Pro. The instructions though are lacking leading me to searches for guidance on the internet.

Having recently moved to Mac, I needed something to replace FSX. This is it - excellent graphics, the clouds being the best I've seen. Will take some time to master though.