Before I started flying for real, I was absolutely besotted with FS 2002.
But now that I've experienced the real thing, I almost never even fire it up
anymore. My club has a nice sim setup, with a yoke and rudder pedals, and I
have played with FS 2004 on that machine. Having rudder pedals is almost
certainly a necessity for anyone who wants to fly it for training purposes.
Witout pedals, it's really just an elaborate video game.

Good luck!