Put about five hours into this last night.
The helicopter flight model is very good. I immediately started on the Expert model, and it took me about 30 minutes to get comfortable. I haven't really played a lot of sim-quality helicopter games... the biggest hurdle was learning how to trim the helicopter. It's quite easy once you get the hang of it- I ended up mapping the trim to the hat on my stick.
I also briefly tried the middle-tier flight model, and it was a complete breeze to fly as it auto-trims for you. So, it's definitely accessible.
As for the graphics, they are quite good. Seattle is rendered superbly, with satellite textures and buildings placed above. The engine seems a lot more optimized than ARMA2's, and the framerate was fine on my box (i5 quad core, win7 64, 4 gig ram, 6850).
The campaign so far is a complete blast. The missions are very clever and often quite funny. On my third mission I had to cart a millionaire and his assistant around the Seattle metro area showing him various golf courses. Another mission involved me searching for whales in the Puget sound with an insurance agent (I won't get into why an insurance agent was interested in whales. It's a long story).
I haven't seen any of the "random" money making missions yet, as I'm still in the beginning of the campaign. I'd say I'm about 6 missions in.
In addition to the normal civilian missions, between each one you can fly a "flashback" mission where you're piloting a military chopper in south east asia in a combat/support role.
This brings me to one of the more endearing parts of the game, the characters. In true Bohemia Interactive fashion, the dialog is pretty ridiculous. However, given the fact that the banter is between three guys working at a small helicopter company, it fits extremely well. The dialog is voiced decently, and because of it's amateurish writing, it comes off as actually authentic conversation between normal people.
The best instance is your brother. Every time you're done with a normal campaign mission, you walk into the office and you're brother greets you. He's always kinda spaced out, and you always ask him what the matter is. He then says something along the lines of "Well, man, it's just that last mission you flew kinda reminded me of my days back in Asia. We were in the ****, man! The way you had to hover over those checkpoints was just like this one time...". The game then prompts you asking if you want to let your brother continue his story. If you say yes, the game loads up a "flashback" mission where you fly as your brother in southeast asia. I'm assuming if you say no you can go back and fly these sub-missions later.
Another great aspect is, because this is running in the Arma2 engine, you can get out of your helicopter and walk around anywhere. If you see a cool looking park, you can land in the middle of it and take a stroll. All the ground textures are extremely detailing up close, with tons of bushes and grass and whatnot.
TrackIR integration is fantastic as well. It's by far the most immersive flight sim I've ever played. Landing your chopper on a street corner, getting out of the chopper and looking around using the TrackIR is just awesome.
As you play the campaign you accrue money, which can be spent on outfitting a helicopter with extra gear such as side-benches, IR cameras, winches, etc. You can also buy brand new choppers eventually. Also, helicopters get general wear and tear as you use them and you need to spend money repairing. Another great little touch is you can walk around your office and helicopter hanger, and inspect about 10 different parts on your chopper. Inspecting the various parts reduces the amount you need to pay for repairs.
So, overall, I love it. It's a total throwback to the glory days of PC gaming where developers and designers made the type of game they wanted to play, and threw in features just for the sake of making the experience more authentic. I can't recommend it enough if you have even a passing interest in the subject.
