I have steam and I was navigating in the Free to play category when I stumbled upon Microsoft Flight. I had played Microsoft Flight Simulator in the past but Microsoft Flight seem to give it a different face and so I decided to try it out.

Steam is like Linux for games: one click install. That's what I like about it. Unfortunately, because of the way things are set up, it turned out to be not so simple once I started playing.

I installed Microsoft Flight and played two missions with the default airplane: the Icon. I wanted to change planes to try out something new, so I picked a mission that featured a different play. The game said that in order to play this mission I had to have a LIVE account. So I clicked the designated button to create a LIVE account. Why do I need a LIVE account to play a mission with a different airplane? MYSTERY...

So I click the button to create an account and I am informed that the game might open the browser. Might open... that's funny. The game does not know what it is going to do next... Anyway, so even though my default browser is Google Chrome, I get Internet Explorer for some reason (it seems that Microsoft products always open Internet Explorer, and completely ignore the default browser on Microsoft Windows, which is funny and ironic because it suggests that Microsoft products have poor integration with the operating system).

Now, I am Internet Explorer. I create a LIVE account. It's actually an Xbox LIVE account. Again, funny because I don't even have an Xbox. Anyway, I guess that's just how the systems are connected: Microsoft did a system for Xbox which they reused on the PC, and then everything got called the Xbox LIVE.

I have the account. I got back in the game. Now the game says that it needs to update my LIVE installation and if I refuse the game will quit. So I guess I have no choice. So I allow the game to update. The window gets minimized, I guess a Windows installer application going on. I do the "next, next, next" thing, and at the end of the installation I am given a choice of either automatically close Microsoft Flight or to restart Windows. I can't restart Windows because I have other things going on at the same time, including this post. So I close Microsoft Flight in order to complete the installation. Again, funny. The Windows installer was unable to automatically close Microsoft Flight, which means I have to do it myself. You would think that a simple Linux like "kill -9" wouldn't be so hard, not to mention the fact that I have to close an application to upgrade the LIVE platform... I close Microsoft Flight.

At this point something completely unexpected happens. I guess the Steam screenshot application asking me if I want to save a particular screenshot that I took in-game. Woot??? I didn't take an in-game screenshot! Oh! Wait! I did press F12... I get it! F12 is both bound to Steam to take in-game screenshots and to change the view to top view. Great! Now, I can't change to top view without taking a screenshot. Once again, Microsoft Flight shows great integration with Steam...

Now, I start Microsoft Flight again. Let's see if everything will work this time around. The game asks me to login to LIVE. I try to change the stored password, because it is wrong, but there is a bug. The text box is frozen. I manage to unfreeze by clicking around almost randomly. Now the game logs in but it still needs to update the profile. Didn't this happen before? Anyway, this finally finishes and everything seems to be working now.

So I had to go through all of this crap just because I wanted to play with another airplane on Microsoft Flight. Three cheers for crappy Software Engineering. Hurray, hurray, hurray!!!

Tags: tech