My first time taking off with «Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024» – it’s a bumpy ride

As a child, I was always in awe when I went into my uncle’s basement. He had Microsoft Flight Simulator. I knew I definitely wanted to play it – a lot. Unfortunately, that never happened. Until now. With flight expert Simon on holiday, I’m taking over the controls, which I got especially for this review.

A promising start

I take off the day after the game was released. It’s a good job too, as launch day went far from smoothly. Many people weren’t able to play the game at all and failed to download it. I had more luck. I had to wait a few minutes when I started it up for the first time, but then I could get going.

As a noob, I choose career mode because it slowly introduces you to the controls. I grasp my Turtle Beach Velocity One flightdeck and try to navigate through the menus. It doesn’t seem to work, so I use my mouse and keyboard.

First, I get to create an avatar. I put together a body from various presets and dress my pilot.

Next, I choose my home airport – Alessandria, Italy – and start my career as an aspiring pilot. First, though, I have to get my private pilot’s licence. Off to the tutorials I go, which is where my frustration begins.

Poor control = crash

Training teaches me the basics: where to find the controls and how to use them or how to control the camera. Even though I’ve selected my flight controller as the primary control unit, I can’t select certain camera settings, or actions on the controller aren’t recognised.

At one point, I have to look at an instrument. Even though I point the camera at it, the game doesn’t want to register this. It only works when I use a keyboard to control the game. To progress through the tutorials, I have to keep using the keyboard controls. It’s annoying.

When I’m in the air for the first time, I can actually control the plane with my joystick – and it feels awesome. I want more of it. But the next lesson on the performance settings is a disappointment. Although I can operate the throttle on my flight controller and it moves in the game, the game doesn’t recognise this. I have to go back to the keyboard again. What’s my fancy control unit actually for?

I have the same problem when I’m introduced to taxiing – manoeuvring the aircraft on the ground. When I pull or push the throttle, nothing happens. I can only control the speed using the keyboard. When pulling up or down stops working during my first approach to landing and I spin to the ground, it’s obvious: there’s something wrong with my control stick.

Updates, restarts, and the like don’t help either. Damn it.

It works with the controller – but it’s far from perfect

But I really want to get my private pilot’s licence. So, with gritted teeth, I get out my standard controller and familiarise myself with its controls. The tutorials work perfectly and it takes just 20 minutes to get up in the air for the first time. Epic. But it still doesn’t feel the same as the first time I used the control stick.

After I scrape through getting my private pilot’s licence, I fly my first missions. The flights are fun, but I’d have liked the developer to be more imaginative. Almost all of my first missions follow the same pattern: friends of the airport management want to see the area from the air and I’m their pilot. After the fifth notification, I know the wording by heart. I just want to fly. I can skip this, but I’d miss out on extra points.

The mood’s also occasionally dampened by the loading times. These are related to the initial launch day issues. According to Asobo Studio boss Sebastian Wloch, they were caused by weaknesses in the database cache system. At least I can play and the loading times aren’t too long. I think I’m just spoiled by the SSD speed with local installation. At least the loading times with my 500 Mbit/s internet connection are within reasonable limits.

The texture loading times are also long – something that even I, as a noob, notice. Although I’m constantly overwhelmed with flying anyway. What’s more, the game doesn’t take up my CPU (Ryzen 5800X3D) and GPU (Radeon RX 6800 XT), but I still often experience stuttering. There are also many other anomalies in the game. For example, trees in buildings or ships on land. Technically, the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 could definitely do a lot better.

I want more – provided it works!

Despite the bumpy start for both me and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, I want to stick with it. Even after just a few hours, I love flying too much to give up. After all, the flight simulator does a lot of things right. The tutorials are short and straightforward. It doesn’t long before I can take off for the first time and fly missions. Now I really want to get the other certificates. But first, I’m going to return my flight controller and get a new one – because that’s the only way the game’s really fun. Maybe the biggest issues will have been fixed by then.

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