Microsoft Flight simulator is here finally. When it was first shown at E3 I couldn't believe my eyes, that was something I only dreamed about. I thought “meh it's bs, the game can't look like this, they will downgrade it”. And then i've got an alpha invite and saw everything with my own eyes. Same graphics, same technology as trailer, my jaw dropped.

So what is MSFS 2020? It's a game. Haha take that elitist flight simmers, go back to avsim. Ok lets get serious now. It's a flight simulation game which is definitely not for everyone. You need to at least have some interest in aviation, otherwise you'll get bored. You'll fly to your house, maybe crash your plane at someone else's house who you hate maybe and that's it. But if you love aviation, you love that feeling being in a plane, relaxing and enjoying the flight - it's for you. It's a must have.
There's no career or anything, basically only free flight mode where you can fly wherever you like. There are some challenges, some are easy some are tough, but the whole fun is flying what you want and where you want.

MSFS 2020 includes good tutorials for noobs and teach basics of flying pretty well. It's not that hard to get into so new players shouldn't be afraid too much. Although you will need to learn airliners and navigation systems by yourself but it's fun right? It might seem overwhelming at first but when you learn it and do everything by the book and land the plane in zero visibility it feels rewarding. Often you need to look at instruments much more than through the window.
You of course can choose how to fly, you can just turn on autopilot and enjoy the views or you could learn VOR navigation which keeps you occupied or just fly VFR, it's up to you how difficult the flying will be.
One thing i would like to see and that would attract more casual flyers is career mode. You start with 152, learn to fly, then fly some hours in small planes, doing tourist sightseeing trips, then make your way up to commercial airline pilot. Asobo please, you're talented, you definitely could add this.

There are a lot of planes, most people will find something they like. But the game lacks prop airliner and some older planes. 152 is nice in that regard but i'd love to see at least 2-3 more planes added for free. But overall the selection of planes is pretty good.

Now speaking about quality of the planes. I don't know why some people complain that planes are not study level. No other game has study level planes as default, that would be too much work and we would probably have 3 planes in the game. I rather take all these average quality planes than 3 study level ones. They're not too bad. Majority of planes are in GA category and they are done very well, they're on par or even better than cheaper payware planes we have in other games.
Of course there are problems. Some issues with autopilot, planes accelerating too fast and some other minor stuff, but overall they're very good as default.
Flight model is great, flying is extremely fun and planes feel alive. I'm coming from X-plane 11 and i absolutely love flight dynamics in MSFS.

Airliners are worse. They're more complex to make of course. Sadly they lack many features and aren't very accurate representation. Some basic stuff doesn't work. I don't care about all switches and knobs but IRS should work even if it's a default plane.
Most of the things work and you can have an enjoyable flight. The features are there, systems are there so developers or modders only need to adjust them to more realistic settings.
MCDU/FMC works decently, it lacks some things but it's usable and you can plan your flight.

Speaking of flight planning, there's a flight planning tool in the game which makes it easy to plan your trip. There are SID's and STAR's, transitions, airways, everything you need.
Overall the game is pretty realistic, planes behave like real things, you can use real life knowledge and resources to fly.

It has live weather system. And I tell you it's impressive, nothing like that has been seen or done before. It looks stunning. Flying through clouds, into a storm or watching the sun go down is something exceptional.
There's online traffic where you can see other people flying and there's real air traffic too. To have something like that in other games you needed to pay insane amount of money. Traffic, clouds and weather are over 100€ combined and it's not even close in quality what you get out of the box with MSFS.

Another amazing feature is photogrammetry and streamed textures of the world. Data is stored on MS servers and the game streams earth image applying scenery and buildings using bing maps and AI. Sure it's not perfect, AI does its thing and fails in some areas, but seriously people, did you really expect every single building and area would be 1:1 representation of the real world? I didn't even think we would have technology like this coming into gaming in 2020.
The ground may not look very high resolution from high altitude. But when you get closer to the ground it changes to something which is hard to believe. There's so much detail everywhere, grass, bushes, water, trees, buildings and the whole world is like that. This game is real eye-candy.

There are lots of freeware addons to improve the game further. Just know to remove them when new update comes out. Most problems are caused by mods. Don't forget to keep your drivers and Windows updated. Most issues are fixed by now.

There's a lot of graphic options to adjust so you could find that sweet spot between fps and graphics but don't expect it to run on 60fps, that won't happen, even on 5900x and rtx3090, just forget it. Fortunately 30fps is pretty acceptable and i'm willing to sacrifice fps for such graphics. Texture quality, reflections, water waves, everything looks sooo good. The game is VERY demanding. Don't even try it on potato PC, you'll waste your time. You will need at least 6 core cpu, mid-range GPU with 8GB of vRAM, 32GB of ram and M2 ssd. You can play on lower spec machine but it won't be very enjoyable. I play on 3700x, 2070s, 32GB ram at 3440x1440 and getting 20-45fps on ultra/high settings. It's DX11 so cpu isn't utilized fully. DX12 should come with console release.

You can customize the controls as you wish and you shouldn't play this with keyboard&mouse but I think that's kinda obvious. Buy a joystick or a yoke and use xbox controller for drone camera. It's so handy. The controls are precise, default settings are mostly good on my setup (honeycomb yoke, TFRP&TWCS).

Sound is another area this game shines. The engines sound great, all the sound effects are immersive. Especially the wind sounds, just switch to drone view and listen while cruising.

MSFS 2020 is an amazing game, a technical marvel. It's noob friendly and easy to get into thanks to tutorials. It looks amazing, feels great, it's realistic, has quality of life features, good selection of planes and it will keep you occupied for a very long time. Definitely worth the full price. It's a must have for any flight sim fan and someone who wants to get into flight sim genre.

Pros

• Looks stunning
  
• Good amount of planes
  
• Great flight physics
  
• Live weather
  
• Live traffic
  
• Flight planning
  
• Noob friendly
  
• Challenges
  
• Logbook
  
• Great sounds
  
• Photorealistic and extremely accurate world

Cons

• Some features missing
  
• Airliners lack polishing
  
• Issues with AP
  
• Technical issues and bugs
  
• Poor performance
  
• No career

Verdict: 91/100

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[h1]Jaw dropping technical marvel GOTY[/h1] Microsoft Flight simulator is here finally. When it was first shown at E3 I couldn't believe my eyes, that was something I only dreamed about. I thought “meh it's bs, the game can't look like this, they will downgrade it”. And then i've got an alpha invite and saw everything with my own eyes. Same graphics, same technology as trailer, my jaw dropped. So what is MSFS 2020? It's a game. Haha take that elitist flight simmers, go back to avsim. Ok lets get serious now. It's a flight simulation game which is definitely not for everyone. You need to at least have some interest in aviation, otherwise you'll get bored. You'll fly to your house, maybe crash your plane at someone else's house who you hate maybe and that's it. But if you love aviation, you love that feeling being in a plane, relaxing and enjoying the flight - it's for you. It's a must have. There's no career or anything, basically only free flight mode where you can fly wherever you like. There are some challenges, some are easy some are tough, but the whole fun is flying what you want and where you want. MSFS 2020 includes good tutorials for noobs and teach basics of flying pretty well. It's not that hard to get into so new players shouldn't be afraid too much. Although you will need to learn airliners and navigation systems by yourself but it's fun right? It might seem overwhelming at first but when you learn it and do everything by the book and land the plane in zero visibility it feels rewarding. Often you need to look at instruments much more than through the window. You of course can choose how to fly, you can just turn on autopilot and enjoy the views or you could learn VOR navigation which keeps you occupied or just fly VFR, it's up to you how difficult the flying will be. One thing i would like to see and that would attract more casual flyers is career mode. You start with 152, learn to fly, then fly some hours in small planes, doing tourist sightseeing trips, then make your way up to commercial airline pilot. Asobo please, you're talented, you definitely could add this. There are a lot of planes, most people will find something they like. But the game lacks prop airliner and some older planes. 152 is nice in that regard but i'd love to see at least 2-3 more planes added for free. But overall the selection of planes is pretty good. Now speaking about quality of the planes. I don't know why some people complain that planes are not study level. No other game has study level planes as default, that would be too much work and we would probably have 3 planes in the game. I rather take all these average quality planes than 3 study level ones. They're not too bad. Majority of planes are in GA category and they are done very well, they're on par or even better than cheaper payware planes we have in other games. Of course there are problems. Some issues with autopilot, planes accelerating too fast and some other minor stuff, but overall they're very good as default. Flight model is great, flying is extremely fun and planes feel alive. I'm coming from X-plane 11 and i absolutely love flight dynamics in MSFS. Airliners are worse. They're more complex to make of course. Sadly they lack many features and aren't very accurate representation. Some basic stuff doesn't work. I don't care about all switches and knobs but IRS should work even if it's a default plane. Most of the things work and you can have an enjoyable flight. The features are there, systems are there so developers or modders only need to adjust them to more realistic settings. MCDU/FMC works decently, it lacks some things but it's usable and you can plan your flight. Speaking of flight planning, there's a flight planning tool in the game which makes it easy to plan your trip. There are SID's and STAR's, transitions, airways, everything you need. Overall the game is pretty realistic, planes behave like real things, you can use real life knowledge and resources to fly. It has live weather system. And I tell you it's impressive, nothing like that has been seen or done before. It looks stunning. Flying through clouds, into a storm or watching the sun go down is something exceptional. There's online traffic where you can see other people flying and there's real air traffic too. To have something like that in other games you needed to pay insane amount of money. Traffic, clouds and weather are over 100€ combined and it's not even close in quality what you get out of the box with MSFS. Another amazing feature is photogrammetry and streamed textures of the world. Data is stored on MS servers and the game streams earth image applying scenery and buildings using bing maps and AI. Sure it's not perfect, AI does its thing and fails in some areas, but seriously people, did you really expect every single building and area would be 1:1 representation of the real world? I didn't even think we would have technology like this coming into gaming in 2020. The ground may not look very high resolution from high altitude. But when you get closer to the ground it changes to something which is hard to believe. There's so much detail everywhere, grass, bushes, water, trees, buildings and the whole world is like that. This game is real eye-candy. There are lots of freeware addons to improve the game further. Just know to remove them when new update comes out. Most problems are caused by mods. Don't forget to keep your drivers and Windows updated. Most issues are fixed by now. There's a lot of graphic options to adjust so you could find that sweet spot between fps and graphics but don't expect it to run on 60fps, that won't happen, even on 5900x and rtx3090, just forget it. Fortunately 30fps is pretty acceptable and i'm willing to sacrifice fps for such graphics. Texture quality, reflections, water waves, everything looks sooo good. The game is VERY demanding. Don't even try it on potato PC, you'll waste your time. You will need at least 6 core cpu, mid-range GPU with 8GB of vRAM, 32GB of ram and M2 ssd. You can play on lower spec machine but it won't be very enjoyable. I play on 3700x, 2070s, 32GB ram at 3440x1440 and getting 20-45fps on ultra/high settings. It's DX11 so cpu isn't utilized fully. DX12 should come with console release. You can customize the controls as you wish and you shouldn't play this with keyboard&mouse but I think that's kinda obvious. Buy a joystick or a yoke and use xbox controller for drone camera. It's so handy. The controls are precise, default settings are mostly good on my setup (honeycomb yoke, TFRP&TWCS). Sound is another area this game shines. The engines sound great, all the sound effects are immersive. Especially the wind sounds, just switch to drone view and listen while cruising. MSFS 2020 is an amazing game, a technical marvel. It's noob friendly and easy to get into thanks to tutorials. It looks amazing, feels great, it's realistic, has quality of life features, good selection of planes and it will keep you occupied for a very long time. Definitely worth the full price. It's a must have for any flight sim fan and someone who wants to get into flight sim genre. [b]Pros[/b] [list] [*]Looks stunning [*]Good amount of planes [*]Great flight physics [*]Live weather [*]Live traffic [*]Flight planning [*]Noob friendly [*]Challenges [*]Logbook [*]Great sounds [*]Photorealistic and extremely accurate world [/list] [b]Cons[/b] [list] [*]Some features missing [*]Airliners lack polishing [*]Issues with AP [*]Technical issues and bugs [*]Poor performance [*]No career [/list] [u]Verdict: 91/100[/u] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32930811-Kosmos%27s-Cosmic-reviews/?appid=704030][h1]Follow my curator page for more[/h1][/url]