Recent reviews by [TBR] Factical Tuckwit

The game has been going over 10 years and has progressed so much in that time. graphically it's also very nice if you run it in DX12,
Very friendly community and lots of useful information available online to help with any single aspect of the game / mission types.

TL;DR - Fantastic eye candy but incredibly rushed it would appear with plenty of bugs.

For reference, Running a 6700k @4.6 all core, 32GB 3200 CL16 RAM, GTX1080 @2Ghz, 1TB WD Nvme and 200Mb fibre internet.

Right, now that's out of the way, Let's get into the meat and bones of it.

Intro - Straight away, this sim is b-e-a-utiful, I don't mean just pretty, I mean it truly is next gen as far as a flight simulator is concerned (which for DX 11 is pretty darn good going). This leads me straight to the first of many sticking points. Guys, we are over halfway through 2020 and DX 12 launched mid 2015. Yes over five years ago. So, why oh why are Asosbo and Microsoft still running what should be their flagship on DX 11?? Especially without even the option to run DX12 / Vulkan

Installation - Prepare yourself for a large (like 90+ Gigabyte in size) download - whilst the game client is running, whomever thought that was a good idea needs a stern talking to! People were crying out for a proper installer. Note that during this install, the music has no ability to be muted in the client (thankfully windows 10 mixer has a mute option). Whilst the client is running it is utilising a lot of CPU and GPU (some people more than others) as well as being incredibly buggy from a lot of the people I helped / talked through their install. Personally I got lucky and had no real trouble, but, there are plenty that do. Make sure your windows version is up to date. GPU drivers too. I am aware this is good practice on a flagship launch but definitely for this sim more than most.
Also with the install, changing the install directory is done in the game client so don't just quick skip by clicking *next, next next* especially if you want to install it to a specific SSD / NVME drive - again, I would heartily recommend if you have the spare 150+ gb for the install once it unpacks.

Aesthetics - as I said, this sim looks amazing. Even on medium settings it's pretty remarkable. Start turning on high / ultra settings and it suddenly becomes true eye candy. From the reflections in the aircraft skins, to the moonlight reflecting in the water. From the beauty of the plains as you fly over, to the city scapes and custom crafted airports like Heathrow and the likes. Yes there are places where the scenery isn't perfect (A certain typo put into map data creating a 200ft not 20ft building springs to mind) but Asobo have promised regular updates. As their data feeds off bing map data, it means that as bing maps gets updates, Asobo can update. Likewise the clouds (fully volumetric so they cast shadow onto whatever is underneath for example) and weather system are a marvel in themselves - Which is where my next issue lies. when it works. Feel free to program your own specific highly customisable weather. It looks, reacts, and feels mind boggling. The much touted *live* weather however is very hit and miss at the moment. Flying at 30,00ft with live weather on, and I see a 3 knot tailwind and not a cloud in the sky - for some reason, it's just broken. Yes I know it's initial release, but these issues were picked up in the long alpha process, there was much said and promised during showcase videos from MS and Asobo themselves, so for it to still be broken on release is disappointing to say the least.

Aircraft - This is a mixed bag too. Again they are a wonder to behold both visually and aerodynamically. No longer just modeled around a single point as far as flight dynamics go, these aircraft take a LOT of positional data from all over the aircraft and control surfaces. they have been flown by real pilots during the design and testing phases - and on the GA aircraft - it really does show. As for the airliners (of which there are 2 on the standard, 3 on the full package) Whilst you potentially shouldn't expect a full study level aircraft, they shouldn't have released in the broken way they fly at the moment. A 747 shouldn't throw it's trim from one extreme to the other and porpoise itself to death, a 787 should have a functioning LNAV and VNAV. I could go on, but the bugs list for the airliners is something I suspect Asobo will be working on for quite a while.

Multiplayer - No surprises, another mixed bag. Your choices are flying on a server location based instance (east US, Europe etc) where you may or may not see the people you wish to fly with, depending on if they are connected to the same server, if they are within range of you, and probably even if mercury is rising is pisces! Yes, there are times I felt like I needed a bowl of entrails to predict who would be able to see me.
Next up is groups, a fantastic idea for deciding who you want to allow in your instance, with the group leader deciding the time of day, weather conditions etc. Unfortunately yet again, Implementation let it down. This had the ability to be so much more, except if they are not in your friends list - they are not flying with you, which as it's using xbox live, even friends I talk to on discord - are showing offline in the sim!!!

As for those of you who fly on custom ATC discords already on FSX for example (think fsATC, Easternhops, Mrbales, Downwind etc), there is no dedicated server system as yet, and that is a glaring omission. Yes they have touted Vatsim integration from launch. Fantastic!!!. But it's difficult not to have that integration when vatsim uses simconnect and this sim is again built on simconnect (which on the plus side means other utilities like littlenavmaps and ProjectFly for example, worked instantly.).

As was said in the tldr, it looks amazing, the small aircraft fly like a dream but this should still be in beta in my view.
I hope this helps, as overall, I think this sim has so much potential to take us through the next few years.

Any constructive / informative comments and feedback appreciated.

**Tuck**