The trouble was, of course, there wasnt much game to it.
The locations are hand-picked for gorgeousness and just the right amount of flight challenge.
Its going to keep the non-hardcore engaged for longer, and might even drive a few flight stick sales.
Failure to take off
Now to address… the unpleasantness.
n the 16 years Ive been reviewing games, Ive never wrestled with a launch quite this bad.
Odd and nightmarish in equal measure.
The loading screens are much quicker now.
The (technical) crashes have all but abated.
The streaming tech poweringFlight Simulator 2024simply cant prop up the ambitions of the game for many of its users.
Where else does the newFlight Simulatorbuild on its predecessor?
Well, airports are notably more detailed now.
The flight model, too, has had a tune-up.
Theres a but, of course.
To an extent, that comes with the territory.
Planes are tremendously complicated things, and my penchant for flying commercial jets only exacerbates that phenomenon.
Could you imagine actually piloting such a behemoth using an Xbox controller?
What would that feel like?
Imagine boarding a flight and seeing the pilot charging up his controller before take-off.
Youd be getting off that flight.
This befuddling assist situation also belies a weakness inFlight Simulator 2024s Flight School mode.
Theyre not particularly responsive to how you perform in each lesson, either.
Its meditative, non-taxing, and demonstrates what the tech can do beautifully.
It couldnt have been a worse take-off, but now thatFlight Sim 2024s airborne, the real work begins.
But the blueprint hasnt been realized properly yet.
Should I play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024?
If your internet connection can keep up, the scenery can be gorgeous.
But its not a pick-up-and-fly experience, despite the pad functionality and photo mode.
Don’t play it if…
Your internets spottyThe cloud streaming tech powering this sim has been unstable so far, even on lightning-quick connections.
If youre still alternating between AOL free trial disks, its probably not worth it.
Theres screen narration, subtitles, and adjustable HUD opacity, along with scalable text size.
Mercifully for the motion sickness, it’s possible for you to turn off camera shake, too.
The virtual cockpit for this one was mygaming PC, outputting to a 30-inch display via myRTX 2080 TI.
First reviewed December 2024.
