Flight Unlimited III is a 1999 flight simulator video game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It allows players to pilot simulations of real-world commercial and civilian aircraft in and around Seattle, Washington. Players can fly freely or engage in "Challenge" missions, such as thwarting a theft or locating Bigfoot. The development team built on the general aviation gameplay of Flight Unlimited II, with more detailed physics and terrain, more planes, and a real-time weather system. Roughly half of Flight Unlimited IIs team returned to work on the sequel, supported by new hires.
Lead designer Peter James described Flight Unlimited IIIs development as a struggle, thanks to a lack of interest from Electronic Arts and from Looking Glass's management. Placed in direct competition with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 and Fly!, the game failed to capture sufficient market share. It became one of Looking Glass's biggest commercial flops, with roughly 20,000 units sold in the United States during 1999. This contributed to the company's closure in 2000. The game was well received by critics, who praised its terrain rendering and dynamic weather. Its simulated physics were lauded by several reviewers, but others felt that the physics were imprecise and that the game's system requirements were extremely high.
Gameplay
thumb|left|The player flies over [[Mount Rainier in the Beechcraft Baron 58, using visual navigation]]
Flight Unlimited III is a three-dimensional (3D) flight simulator video game, in which the player pilots virtual reproductions of real-world planes. Players may control ten aircraft: the Lake Turbo Renegade, Stemme S10, Mooney Bravo, Fokker Dr.I, Beechjet 400A, and five planes first included in Flight Unlimited II. In May 1998, Electronic Arts was announced as the game's publisher, as part of a multi-title marketing and distribution deal that also included System Shock 2. Looking Glass's goal was to build on the foundation of Flight Unlimited II and to provide what project leader Tom Sperry called "the true joy and sensation of flight in the most realistic environment available". The company first displayed Flight Unlimited III at the MicroWINGS Conference in August 1998. At the show, the game was revealed to take place in and around Seattle—a choice based on fan requests and on the varied landscape and weather of Puget Sound.
Former flight instructor Peter James, who had worked on Flight Unlimited II, assumed the role of lead designer. He was largely responsible for Flight Unlimited IIIs lessons, planes, and simulated flight instruments. James believed that other flight simulators had holes with regard to realism, and he hoped to create a more accurate experience. This system was more advanced than that of Flight Unlimited II, The physics code was informed by "real aircraft data" and the personal experience of pilots, and each of the planes was flown as research for the game. Because the plane cockpits of previous Flight Unlimited games had been criticized by pilots, the team tried to make Flight Unlimited IIIs cockpits extremely authentic. the highest resolution used in a flight simulator at that time. Artist Karen Wolff designed the terrain by combining large topographic maps into a "mosaic", which recreated the elevations and depressions of the Seattle area.
Flight Unlimited IIIs official site was opened in March 1999, and the game was shown alongside Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May. Tal Blevins of IGN wrote that the game had "come a long way" since he had seen it earlier in the year, and that it was almost complete, with development of the real-time weather system in its final stages.<!-- while MicroWINGS praised the use of 16-bit color and the high-resolution terrain textures.--> Flight Unlimited III was shown again at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in July, at which point beta testing was nearly complete and the game was "90% done", according to James. He stated that the public reaction was "great", which energized the team for a short time. nine months behind schedule. James wrote that the team celebrated with a small dinner party, and that "the next few days were spent finding out how many people [were] quitting." The game was released on September 17, 1999.
Reception
Flight Unlimited III was placed in direct competition with flight simulators such as Fly! and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. The game failed to capture sufficient market share and became one of Looking Glass's biggest commercial flops. The game later earned a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. Together with the costly development of Flight Combat, the game's low sales used up Looking Glass's earnings from Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2, which had helped them recover from the failures of British Open Championship Golf and Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. These events contributed to the company's bankruptcy and closure in May 2000. The game was, however, positively received by critics, with an aggregate review score of 88% on GameRankings.
Josh Nolan of Computer Gaming World wrote, "FU3 is experience-oriented: it's user-friendly, graphically glamorous, and lots of fun." While he praised its visuals and air traffic control, he considered the game to be simpler than Flight Simulator 2000 because of its less detailed lessons, interfaces, and flight physics. The magazine later nominated Flight Unlimited III as the 1999 "Simulation of the Year". Writing for Computer Games Magazine, Denny Atkin stated that the use of turbulence "really sets FU3 apart from the competition", and that the game's simulation of air traffic is "like no other sim". He praised its graphics and dynamic weather, and he found the flight physics solid in general but "overly gentle" for aerobatic maneuvers. He concluded, "It's not only an excellent simulus of general aviation flying, ... it's even a good game."
Simon Bradley of PC Zone wrote, "FUIII has atmosphere in a way that MS Combat Flight Sim can't even dream of." He praised its graphics, flight physics, and detailed flight environment. He also complained of "unflyably slow frame rates" and warned that the game could not be played on older computers. Tony Lopez of GameSpot called the game's environmental modeling "simply breathtaking" and noted that elevations were rendered more smoothly than in Fly! or Microsoft Flight Simulator. He wrote that the game's flight physics and weather simulation were superior to those of any other flight simulator and that the "powerful, easy-to-use" FLED editing tool could popularize the game. IGN writer Marc Saltzman commented that the game features "absolutely stunning terrain at all altitudes, realistic weather and lighting effects, and highly-detailed planes". Saltzman praised the accuracy of Flight Unlimited IIIs physics but remarked that the game's frame rate was "noticeably slower" than that of its rivals.