I bought the original Real Flight a few years ago, and it sucked bad. Very unrealistic, though it was more primitive than what's out there today. I tried the G3 demo as well, and IMO, it hasn't improved that much. Planes feel very clunky in the sim, not smooth as they do in real life. Not to mention the fact that they're over priced. One of my gripes with G3 is the fact that you can't buy just the software. You have to pay for the controller. Since I already have an interlink, that makes little sense. Hangar 9's sim comes with just the software though, yet it too is very expensive. I see no need for them to cost so much since similar programs, such as Microsoft's Flight Simulator series, are nowhere near that expensive.

With a good instructor, flight sims are totally unnecessary.