TLDR:

Game has so many terrible bugs DO NOT BUY ἱτ ₷ǙϹĸŞ ₳₴₴
but when it works it's pretty fun

PART 1: ORIGINAL

The 18 hours I have spent on the game are actually spent downloading the damn thing. It keeps doing a chunk then resetting. I'm still trying to get help on this bug but so far none of it has worked, or the forums have been outdated. It seems that this issue has been around ever since release. Installing a f*cking game should not take this damn long. Do not buy this game.

PART 2: RANTING

After two days of downloading (most of the time spent troubleshooting), I got it to work. It works quite well and up until now I've been happy with the gameplay. THERE ARE SO MANY BUGS!!! Most of the airports I have been to are PINK, you heard me right THE AIRPORTS ARE PINK?!?! I don't know how that's a possible error but it is shameful for a game that is so expensive and has been out for THREEE YEARS and more years before that going towards production I assume. I've played this game for about three days in total and every session has a bug or several. In the 747 when I load a saved flight, the throttle jams, the AI assistant dies, the HUD disappears (even after turning it on and off), and there isn't another soul unfortunate enough as I, to find a solution to these problems other than ending the whole flight.

Not only are there loads of bugs, the game design isn't nice either. I can't find any way to switch camera views other than pressing buttons hoping it doesn't do something unrecoverable.

PART 3: THE TIMELINE

The thing that prompted me to write this is a long story. I was thinking "I want to see if they made my favourite place 3D unlike Google maps. Why don't I fly there from my home city Christchurch, in my favourite plane the 747!" And that's where the bugs start crawling. Just after pushing back from the gate, the ATC widget breaks and I can't stop the pushbakc until I re-tune it.

I brushed the first one off assuming it was just a weird scenario and it's fine. ((Note: The airport looks fine, it isn't pink)) On my way to Sydney, it was getting late in real life so I saved the game and went to bed. Next morning when I loaded up the flight (which took me quite a while to figure out due to peculiar layout), I tried adjusting the throttle and it didn't budge "Oh silly me I forgot about autopilot" Nope, even after turning off autothrottle it didn't move. I searched for ages online to find a solution but none worked. I really didn't want to lose my progress so I just restarted the flight hoping it would restart me where I was. While I didn't have to takeoff or anything, I was respawned AT SEA LEVEL. Rather inconvenient. If that was the only issue and it fixed my throttle problem (which it did) things would be fine. But.
Restarting the flight only presented MORE bugs, it hid the HUD, muted the ATC people (I have no idea how), and broke the autopilot completely.

After this ʂhiτʂh◌w I gave in and ended the flight. I set my departure to a custom location a while away from SYD, and when I added the pin, I can't change anything about it! I can't say what altitude, what heading, what speed, nothing! Anyway, restarting the flight fixed all of the immediate issues and I was happy. But then through the thick and low cloud, a Barbie styled eyesore loomed into view "What the F%^K???". Yep, it's Sydney. When I got within one nautical mile, the lag kicked in, and boy did it KICK. My computer can run MSFS perfectly fine with no hitches flying over a detailed city, but the short final to Sydney? Not a chance.

After touching down on the hot pink monstrosity, the lag started to ease off and I could taxi to the gate which was thankfully rather uneventful. I shut down my plane and ended the flight. Now for the next leg to Dubai! Not long after takeoff, the ATC chat stops dead, and then speeds up but without the voice, it's just sending the messages and not waiting for any would-be voiceline to end. It's just rapid fire and I can hardly keep up. Other than this, it's mainly fine.

On approach to Dubai, nothing abnormal happens. The airport is pink, and the ATC is fast and muted. It's all fine, I do a really good landing, I taxi to the gate, shut down, and that's another few more hours added to the logbook. But heading out of Dubai, something appalling happens. The entire right side of my aircraft doesn't work. It turns on fine,and it receives the orders from my throttle, but the engines don't do anything. At this point, I've had enough bʋllshἱτ and I have an itch to write an angry review. Here I am, pleasing that itch.

Looking back on my review I have no mercy for the guy who should be tasked with fixing these bugs. They shouldn't have existed in the first place. Thank you for reading this hand written review that is longer than all of my essay requirements ever, and please comment if you spot a spelling or grammatical error.


PART 4: TEMPLATE

---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☑ Good (If you like planes)
☐ Average at best
☐ Meh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Sucks

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{Audio}---
☑ Eargasm (If you like planes)
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Gran
☐ All

---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage depending on the plane
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☑ Only if you care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second life for grinding

---{Story}---
☑ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It‘ll replace your life

---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond

---{Price}---
☐ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ It’s free!
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☑ You could also just burn your money

---{Bugs}---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☑ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

---{𝑥/10}---
☐1
☐2
☐3
☐4
☑5
☐6
☐7
☐8
☐9
☐10

PART 5: Recent thoughts

I've been doing a bit of research on my favourite plane and it's MSFS version (ATR). I decided it's worth the cost and bought it. I also bought NZCH by NZA simulations, I got charged, though I didn't get the airport. I tried getting a refund on Steam so that I could try again, but apparently it had been modified, consumed, or something else. I didn't even get the damn thing. Regardless, I didn't get the refund, so I sent a problem report to the Devs yesterday (at the time of writing), still no response. Hopefully I get the airport I paid almost $40 for. Currently trying to fix the pink airports, might work(?).
When I get the airport I paid for, I'll be back to update my review.

PART 6: Update

I got my airport! But a major downside is that parts of it are pink so I'm currently re-installing the game and it's taken two days so far. I still don't like the devs because it could be so much easier to just let steam do the downloading but no, they wanted their own stupid downloader that has never worked normally for me. XP12 is probably better.

PART 7: What a rabbit hole
Turns out the pink/missing textures bug has been around for ever. I've done everything to try and fix it but NOTHING worked. Asobo and Microsoft should be ashamed. I know that sounds harsh but this game costs more money than any other game I own, takes up more space, took longer to download (2-3 days), uses more resources, and causes more suffering (to me).

DO NOT BUY THIS WASTE OF TIME AND STORAGE


even if my review somehow hasn't swayed you, at least buy it from the Microsoft Store or the Xbox App.

TLDR: Game has so many terrible bugs DO NOT BUY ἱτ ₷ǙϹĸŞ ₳₴₴ but when it works it's pretty fun PART 1: ORIGINAL The 18 hours I have spent on the game are actually spent downloading the damn thing. It keeps doing a chunk then resetting. I'm still trying to get help on this bug but so far none of it has worked, or the forums have been outdated. It seems that this issue has been around ever since release. Installing a f*cking game should not take this damn long. Do not buy this game. PART 2: RANTING After two days of downloading (most of the time spent troubleshooting), I got it to work. It works quite well and up until now I've been happy with the gameplay. THERE ARE SO MANY BUGS!!! Most of the airports I have been to are PINK, you heard me right THE AIRPORTS ARE PINK?!?! I don't know how that's a possible error but it is shameful for a game that is so expensive and has been out for THREEE YEARS and more years before that going towards production I assume. I've played this game for about three days in total and every session has a bug or several. In the 747 when I load a saved flight, the throttle jams, the AI assistant dies, the HUD disappears (even after turning it on and off), and there isn't another soul unfortunate enough as I, to find a solution to these problems other than ending the whole flight. Not only are there loads of bugs, the game design isn't nice either. I can't find any way to switch camera views other than pressing buttons hoping it doesn't do something unrecoverable. PART 3: THE TIMELINE The thing that prompted me to write this is a long story. I was thinking "I want to see if they made my favourite place 3D unlike Google maps. Why don't I fly there from my home city Christchurch, in my favourite plane the 747!" And that's where the bugs start crawling. Just after pushing back from the gate, the ATC widget breaks and I can't stop the pushbakc until I re-tune it. I brushed the first one off assuming it was just a weird scenario and it's fine. ((Note: The airport looks fine, it isn't pink)) On my way to Sydney, it was getting late in real life so I saved the game and went to bed. Next morning when I loaded up the flight (which took me quite a while to figure out due to peculiar layout), I tried adjusting the throttle and it didn't budge "Oh silly me I forgot about autopilot" Nope, even after turning off autothrottle it didn't move. I searched for ages online to find a solution but none worked. I really didn't want to lose my progress so I just restarted the flight hoping it would restart me where I was. While I didn't have to takeoff or anything, I was respawned AT SEA LEVEL. Rather inconvenient. If that was the only issue and it fixed my throttle problem (which it did) things would be fine. But. Restarting the flight only presented MORE bugs, it hid the HUD, muted the ATC people (I have no idea how), and broke the autopilot completely. After this ʂhiτʂh◌w I gave in and ended the flight. I set my departure to a custom location a while away from SYD, and when I added the pin, I can't change anything about it! I can't say what altitude, what heading, what speed, nothing! Anyway, restarting the flight fixed all of the immediate issues and I was happy. But then through the thick and low cloud, a Barbie styled eyesore loomed into view "What the F%^K???". Yep, it's Sydney. When I got within one nautical mile, the lag kicked in, and boy did it KICK. My computer can run MSFS perfectly fine with no hitches flying over a detailed city, but the short final to Sydney? Not a chance. After touching down on the hot pink monstrosity, the lag started to ease off and I could taxi to the gate which was thankfully rather uneventful. I shut down my plane and ended the flight. Now for the next leg to Dubai! Not long after takeoff, the ATC chat stops dead, and then speeds up but without the voice, it's just sending the messages and not waiting for any would-be voiceline to end. It's just rapid fire and I can hardly keep up. Other than this, it's mainly fine. On approach to Dubai, nothing abnormal happens. The airport is pink, and the ATC is fast and muted. It's all fine, I do a really good landing, I taxi to the gate, shut down, and that's another few more hours added to the logbook. But heading out of Dubai, something appalling happens. The entire right side of my aircraft doesn't work. It turns on fine,and it receives the orders from my throttle, but the engines don't do anything. At this point, I've had enough bʋllshἱτ and I have an itch to write an angry review. Here I am, pleasing that itch. Looking back on my review I have no mercy for the guy who should be tasked with fixing these bugs. They shouldn't have existed in the first place. Thank you for reading this hand written review that is longer than all of my essay requirements ever, and please comment if you spot a spelling or grammatical error. PART 4: TEMPLATE ---{PC Requirements}--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{Gameplay}--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good (If you like planes) ☐ Average at best ☐ Meh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Sucks ---{Graphics}--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{Audio}--- ☑ Eargasm (If you like planes) ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ---{Audience}--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Gran ☐ All ---{Difficulity}--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☑ Significant brain usage depending on the plane ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{Grind}--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☑ Only if you care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isnt necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You‘ll need a second life for grinding ---{Story}--- ☑ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It‘ll replace your life ---{Game Time}--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond ---{Price}--- ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ It’s free! ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☑ You could also just burn your money ---{Bugs}--- ☐ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☑ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{𝑥/10}--- ☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☑5 ☐6 ☐7 ☐8 ☐9 ☐10 PART 5: Recent thoughts I've been doing a bit of research on my favourite plane and it's MSFS version (ATR). I decided it's worth the cost and bought it. I also bought NZCH by NZA simulations, I got charged, though I didn't get the airport. I tried getting a refund on Steam so that I could try again, but apparently it had been modified, consumed, or something else. I didn't even get the damn thing. Regardless, I didn't get the refund, so I sent a problem report to the Devs yesterday (at the time of writing), still no response. Hopefully I get the airport I paid almost $40 for. Currently trying to fix the pink airports, might work(?). When I get the airport I paid for, I'll be back to update my review. PART 6: Update I got my airport! But a major downside is that parts of it are pink so I'm currently re-installing the game and it's taken two days so far. I still don't like the devs because it could be so much easier to just let steam do the downloading but no, they wanted their own stupid downloader that has never worked normally for me. XP12 is probably better. PART 7: What a rabbit hole Turns out the pink/missing textures bug has been around for ever. I've done everything to try and fix it but NOTHING worked. Asobo and Microsoft should be ashamed. I know that sounds harsh but this game costs more money than any other game I own, takes up more space, took longer to download (2-3 days), uses more resources, and causes more suffering (to me). DO NOT BUY THIS WASTE OF TIME AND STORAGE even if my review somehow hasn't swayed you, at least buy it from the Microsoft Store or the Xbox App.