I've seen a good few simulation game based YouTubers fawn over the new Microsoft Flight Simulator. They are really, really excited about the graphics. Their interest, interested me about the game.
I'm no flight sim fan. If I do anything it's probably got weapons strapped to it and even then the last combat plane 'sim' was over a decade ago(outer space doesn't count).
Anyway like I said the hype and excitement of these YouTubers took my interest. It wasn't till yesterday when Microsoft Flight Simulator was freely playable under the Xbox Ultimate game pass that I said I'd take a look for myself. Even just to say I did.
It's a hefty install. An initial 1 GB(ish) turns into an additional 92 GB once in the game and then it gets to download it's 'modules and expand it's file-system. Screwed if you have any kind of data cap.
It doesn't end there; From my understanding it's only as you play that it downloads more landscapes. Depending on the level of detail you are going for. The more detail, the more photo realism the more it needs to download. Buyer beware for sure.
There is no way I can give this game a 'proper go'. I've no H.O.T.A.S. setup and the last flight type joystick I owned was on an Atari 2600/C64, QuickShot Python 1!
Then again I didn't really need to be serious about taking the game. I'm just having a look at the game because I can. Even I can see the heresy of windowed mode never mind using a combo of Xbox joypad(!!), mouse and keyboard!
To fully complete my non sim heretic view of the game I set everything to easy mode. No need to make life difficult(show me the graphics!).
Is this an ultra fantastic simulation...? Yes. Yes it is. It has it all. Everything can be changed, altered and adapted to suit easy or hardcore players/gamers/pilots.
3 observations I'd like to make that are very much my own. Voice, graphics and A.I.
I love the voice communications in the game. The tower traffic control is great to hear. I'm a comms guy so no wonder I love the comms traffic, delicious procedure! Done well and fast in real life is a ballet to behold(two Tom Hanks films for communications - Sully & Greyhound).
Graphics for non Flight Sim me were underwhelming at first. Initially the thought I had was that a person would have had to live under a stone and not seen Google Earth or 3D modeling to be so super wowed by it. However once in the game and flying you start to notice the little things. Traffic moving(more like marbles on a track than actual traffic). The minor details. The refined, detail of everything you can see. It's impressive overall. Especially once you add in the lighting effects. I wasn't super wow'ed. My jaw didn't drop or anything but it has it's moments. This is as big a step up as there could be in versions so it's no wonder FS fans have been wetting themselves.
Even on Medium settings it's a good looking game(terrain, clouds and planes).
Once I had settings set to Ultra it was a real pleasure you can take for granted quickly. I didn't see any real lag with the graphic downloads. There was some very minor graphical fidelity switches I noticed. Even with broadband set to unlimited there was some delay in the best version of a graphics being shown. Low res one second, high res the next. Only if your close enough to notice. I'm sure that could be solved with more tweaking of the settings. A very forgivable thing given the extent of the games fidelity in or out of plane, 99.9% of the time.
Glistening of the sun on the wings made me squint for a second, that was cool.
The glisten of water as you fly over..... Very realistic.
Even the internal reflections on the windows. Subtle and superb.
A.I is A.I. Good when doing something it expects, bad when you throw a curve-ball at it.
Fly straight so I can take some beauty shots, no problem.
Set an A.I. autopilot and hop ahead in the course and it freaks out(9/10 times it crashes).
Those A.I. freakouts are a fun thing in themselves. Crashes are a bouncy affair rather than a true Flight Crash disaster simulator. There is no crash landing feature.
If your into Flight Sims you'll love this game. You'll fawn over banking your plane and seeing a sunset reflect off the plane etc etc.
If your not into Flight Sims, well Google Earth does the same job for ogling the planet, just without the sunset. Harsh but true.
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