Flight simulators have their place. They are good because they can teach you the physics of flight, how to fly, etc. and they can be very realistic. On many you can add wind and that will add some challenges too.
Their downfall is that they don't teach the right things to learn initially. You will be basically learning how to fly by the seat of your pants whereas an instructor would be able to teach you the right maneuvers. They also can't teach you how to preflight, how to tune your engine, how to make minor repairs etc. But for the most part they are nice. I found the one I got with my NexStar to be helpful. It is not one of the better ones but I found it to be very close to how the real plane flies. It really helped me to learn how to fly when the plane is coming towards me.

Good luck!