I notice that many people seem to recommend FS 2004, i have FS 2002 is there anything special about 2004 that makes it superior for practicisng instrument procedures or will 2002 suffice?
Either is fine. No sim replicates the aircraft behaviour well, especially in pitch, but this doesn't matter since the job is to get the procedures into your head, and how the instruments respond, etc. You are not going for a scenic flight
For a scenic flight, you might buy x-plane and the 20GB of NASA scenery....