Game or Training Aid?

Are Flight Sim programs a game or can they be useful? well I am convinced that they helped me a great deal during my PPL course. They also saved me money, I learnt how to track V.O.R's on the sim, and then when it came to doing it for real I am convinced that I picked it up far sooner than I would have if I hadn't used the sim. At home on the sim you can pause and work out what as gone wrong! in the air when your brain turns to the size of a pea! it is much more difficult, and is costing you £100 a hour. The other thing I found sim's useful for is navigation, you can plan a route on ICAO chart put a wind in on the sim use your whizz wheel to give you an heading to fly, set your stop watch and away you go. Sim's can also be useful for keeping up your instrument flying skills. There is no better feeling (OK there is one but that is another site)than flying for 30 minutes in solid IMC and then popping out at 500 feet and the runway been dead ahead (well OK not always but who cares your not in the real world try it again)The four pictures show how you could use features to navigate also.