Microsoft Flight Simulator has been motoring along for over a month now, and a big update has arrived.
Here's everything you need to know about the Xbox Game Studios title.
Latest News - Japan World Update Patch Notes
The country of Japan has been remastered in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and we believe more countries will follow suit.
The update went live Tuesday, 29 September, and you can head here for the patch notes.
Release Date & Platforms
Microsoft Flight Simulator arrived on Tuesday, 18 August 2020 on PC via Steam and Windows, but there is no news from Microsoft as to when the game will arrive on Xbox One.
We expect it to arrive on console when Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S releases - which has now been confirmed to be 10 November.
READ MORE: Xbox Series S Trailer Confirms Release Date
The game will release on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, and XboxSeries X.
Trailers
There have been numerous trailers in the run-up to release, from a History Trailer, throwing it back to when the Flight Simulator series started in the 80s, all the way to a deep dive into just how they created the Flight Sim world.
In what we believe to be the first in a series of partnership trailers, we can see how Bing Maps worked with Flight Sim to produce the stunning scenery on the game.
Take a look at what different procedures were put in to bring different areas to life.
The following trailer was released on Monday, 13 July as Pre-orders went live!
The launch trailer was shown off at XO19 all the way back on 9 June 2019.
Buy now
You can buy the PC version from Amazon right here.
The standard version of the game can be pre-ordered for $59.99 / £59.99, whereas the Deluxe Edition comes in at $89.99 / £79.99 and Premium Deluxe at $119.99 / £109.99.
Take a look at the additional airports and aircraft you get in this video:
Free on Xbox Game Pass for PC
Subscribers to Xbox Game Pass can get the game included with their subscription, so there's been no better time to level up your gaming experience.
For those looking for a complete set-up, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gets you access to all the Game Pass titles on both console and PC.
Graphics
Your graphics will all depend on your PC's spec (see below).
We can see what the graphics do you look like when playing on an "ideal" set-up with this Oceania trailer.
We expect more locations to be revealed in this series in the coming weeks.
PC Requirements
We can see from the below image what the requirements are to play MFS.
You will need the November 2019 update of Windows 10 to run it on any PC.
8GB of RAM is required, with 32 GB the Ideal Spec!
Get ready for hard drive space though, with 150GB required to get playing.
Locations
The world is literally your oyster in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Every single airport in the world will be available for you to take off from and land.
With the whole world at your disposal, where should you go?
Here's our best picks as you get jet setting.
The finer details
As you may have seen from some of the trailers, Flight Simulators detail stretches as far as the eye can see!
Animals feature in the game, and include elephants, giraffes, flamingos and more!
And from some of the footage we've seen, the wild-life has a surprising level of detail too. They even well animated and look great close up.
You'll also get to see cars and vehicles moving around on the land, which gives a sense that you're flying over a living, breathing world.
The detail doesn't stop there either, with one Reddit user showcasing how accurately the game recreates landmarks around the world, by comparing them to Google Earth images. Spoiler alert - they're almost uncanny!
Gameplay
With its improved physics engine, Flight Sim will feel much more realistic.
You will still be able to use compatible joystick controls
making the game incredibly realistic.
TRAVEL THE WORLD - Fly across a real-time globe in a plane of your choice!
Whether the game will involve haptic responses to elevation changes and turbulence, we still don’t know, and we’ll have to wait for more information regarding this, or even for a full release of the game
READ MORE: Mircosoft Flight Simulator PC Requirements
Ultimately, the game tries to immerse the player in the best way possible with realistic scenarios and high-fidelity graphics.
Best Controllers
There are some amazing controllers out there for Flight Simulator, and we've put together our very own list of some of the best!
READ MORE: The best controllers and joysticks for Microsoft Flight Simulator
Whether you want to go all-in with the top of the line, or want to keep to a budget, take a look at our guide to getting the most out of this amazing game.
CLICK HERE TO BUY: Thrustmaster T. Flight HOTAS X- £65.78
Multiplayer
The most peculiar requirement is, of course, bandwidth.
ABOVE THE CLOUDS: This game has been in development for a while, so we’re expecting big things!
Then again, for the “seamless” multiplayer feature to really pay off, you should aim for the recommended requirements at least.
In a recent interview, the developers confirmed the minimum bandwidth should still be more than enough to have a ‘good representation of the world’ anyway.
10 Disc Version
For those who may want to own a physical copy of the epic Flight Simulator, you may be getting more than you thought...ten times more in fact.
For gamers in Europe, you'll be able to purchase a pack of 10 discs for the game, which come inside an expandable box.
YOUR DISCS CAN BE FOUND HERE, HERE, AND HERE: This extensive pack is almost a collectors edition in itself
Why get the discs when you can download? Well, remember not everyone has access to super-fast internet, or the space for the whopping 150GB of data for the new game.
The discs come up to 90GB of data, and won't require crazy internet speeds to install. You will still need an update from Microsoft before the game can be played, however.
World & Simulation Updates
There will be free updates in the future which come in two forms: world updates and changes to the simulation part of the game.
The world is continually updated from the very latest data from Bing Maps, and actually refreshes every 28 days!
FREE UPGRADE: The world of Flight Simulator is constantly refreshed with real world data!
There will also be new airports, landing challenges and more included in the future.
When it comes to simulation changes, the focus is more on flight mechanics, and refining the flight sim experience even further.
Will there be DLC?
Good news for Flight Sim players, as there will be DLC coming to the game.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is planning on introducing paid DLC, which will be arriving every few months.
We're super excited to see how the game expands and grows their already impressive catalogue of vehicles!