After last week's events in the US, Microsoft has postponed the launch of a new version of its flight simulator while it removes the World Trade Centre from its landscape database. It also plans to offer current users a patch to remove the buildings from earlier versions.

Activision has postponed the launch of Spiderman 2 for the PlayStation because the superhero fights on top of skyscrapers. Ubi Soft is delaying the release of Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear: Black Thorn, to remove or change terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. And Electronic Arts's Red Alert 2 will be offered with a new cover. The original showed the New York skyline in flames.

Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla said the company felt it was "the right thing" to remove the twin towers from Flight Simulator 2002, scheduled for its UK launch on October 26. "Obviously, we don't want to have any imagery that would upset anyone."

This has become, in the course of events, a sensitive point, and some UK retailers have removed Microsoft Flight Simulator from sale. The program's high level of realism extends to the scenery, and while most landscapes are mocked up in a general sort of way, the centres of a handful of cities are presented in some detail. It would be astonishing if Manhattan were not one of them. And since the program is a simulation, not a game, it would be even more astonishing if users could not set the coordinates for the WTC and fly a jet into them.

But unlike games, crashes are where Flight Simulator's attempt to be as realistic as possible comes to a halt.