Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on PC on August 18

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: The Flight Simulator series got its start way back in 1982 with the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0. The franchise was regularly iterated over the years but seemingly became less of a priority after the 2006 launch of Flight Simulator X. The next version, Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition, didn’t arrive until 2014 and was more of a bundle featuring DLC and minor tweaks to its namesake than a true sequel.

The next installment of Microsoft’s popular Flight Simulator is set to take off on August 18 and will be available in three different editions featuring a varying number of planes and airports.

In an era where developers have increasingly moved away from true-to-life simulators, Microsoft has continued to focus on realism as a core component.

The new game features more than 1.5 billion buildings, two billion trees, roads, mountains and rivers, real-time weather and traffic patterns as well as highly detailed and accurate cockpits with realistic instrumentation.

For the best experience, you’ll want the most powerful hardware you can afford in order to crank up the eye candy although according to Microsoft, you can get by with a minimum of a Ryzen 3 1200 / Intel Core i5-4460, Radeon RX 570 / Nvidia GTX 770 and at least 8GB of RAM running Windows 10.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Standard Edition will retail for $59.99 and includes 20 planes and 30 airports. For $89.99, you can upgrade to the Deluxe Edition which features five additional aircraft and five more international airports. At $119.99, the Premium Deluxe Edition is the most expensive but also the most inclusive with 30 planes and 40 total airports.

All three are available to pre-order from today.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/85975-microsoft-flight-simulator-launches-pc-august-18.html

 

[Uncle Al]

From all the hype I was expecting more, a LOT more, especially for these kinds of bucks .... sounds like they are going the loot box route and going to squeeze every penny they can out of you by selling aircraft and airports at high prices. Guess I'm going to put it on hold for awhile and see how it develops. Can't say I'm surprised, but as usual, very disappointed with Microsoft for being so greedy, especially in this day and time .....

 

[andyross]

From all the hype I was expecting more, a LOT more, especially for these kinds of bucks .... sounds like they are going the loot box route and going to squeeze every penny they can out of you by selling aircraft and airports at high prices. Guess I'm going to put it on hold for awhile and see how it develops. Can't say I'm surprised, but as usual, very disappointed with Microsoft for being so greedy, especially in this day and time .....

I remember playing FS on a Tandy 1000SX (7.16MHz 8088, 320x200x16 "PCjr-level" graphics). I even had some floppies with expansion packs covering more area. Graphics were nearly nothing, and roads were just squiggly lines. Even then, I thought the core package had at least more airports. I remember they were many around the 'base' airport of the late-great Meigs Field. And even later versions often contained quite a bit more. This latest version does seem like a step backwards.

 

[MaestroIT]

Premium Deluxe Edition sells for $119.99 and all you get is 30 planes and 40 airports??

They have been advertising this games contain every airport in the world, how much would that version cost? $1 billion ??

 

[Vulcanproject]

I would say the cost to run this game for Microsoft is high. I mean they can afford it, but the kind of data they are talking about storing, processing and then pushing out from their servers must be heavy duty.

Over two petabytes they claimed. That's easily Netflix level of content, except of course Netflix are getting the sweet subscription cash to cover it.

I half expected a steep up front cost for this title, and there it is. Game pass is where it's at for this game.

 

[CrayonMuncher]

This article needs updating, eurogamer asked for clarification on the airports. Basically they have specifically crafted some airports to be very detailed, but over 37000 airports are in the game regardless. The normal, non-super detailed, versions of the airports are also in the game if you do not have the premium version, you can find the info on their website

 

[EClyde]

I would play this if I could fly over my house and have it look correct. What fun

 

[SilentMarket]

It looks like Microsoft kisses China's *** showing the Shanghai tower in full occupation, which is in fact empty in reality, they can simulating my ***.

 

[m3diapers]

I really enjoy playing with ATC, had so much fun with the idea of get-creative.

 

[300Hitter]

I'll stick with x-plane 11

 

[candle_86]

Really consuming about lack of air craft? 10-15 is normal for flight simulator, go ahead load fsx/2004/2002/2000/98/95 and look at the total airframes included. As for airports those are highly detailed, non highly detailed airfields using generic models will still exist just like in any other version. The only downside I see is because it's streaming from Microsoft it looks like it will lack mod support. I'm excited none the less, fsx is quite old these days.

 

[Faelan]

No VR support at launch. I can kinda understand that and I’m guessing even a 2080ti is going to struggle with that kind of graphics fidelity. But no head tracking support? That’s such a basic thing. Sorry, but I’m not going to ruin the immersion by using a hat switch for looking around. I’ll just give it a pass until they either add VR or head tracking support.