Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 provides players with a virtual reality recreation of Earth that offers a sense of unmatched realism. Despite initial launch setbacks, the game promises thrilling aviation adventures and limitless exploration.
I'll never forget Christmas 1982. We had recently gotten our first computer, the IBM PC Jr, and I was desperately hoping that this new Flight Simulator game from a small and relatively new company called Microsoft was one of those ornately wrapped packages. Christmas morning came and all the gifts were opened but there was no Flight Simulator box under the tree.
My father looked at me with a grin and said, "hey, why don't you go boot up the computer and show me that new program you've been talking about". I ran to the PC and as I booted it, its insides whirring to life, I noticed a floppy disk in the drive. A few moments later and I was looking at a very low detailed instrument panel and a line-drawn horizon on my tiny 13-inch monitor.
For a brief moment... in my 12-year-old mind, I was in that cockpit.
Many players had issues with logging in or getting stuck at 97% loading.
Flash forward 42 years, and on launch day for Flight Simulator 2024 I waited about eight hours at what might as well have been a virtual airport waiting to connect to Microsoft's servers.
Once I was finally in a cockpit, though, this latest installment presents a breathtaking digital twin of Earth. That's made possible by the advanced cloud-based technology that was most likely the main culprit in the delays many faced getting into the game at launch.
With authentic biomes, real-time weather and new career paths, MSFS 2024 pushes the envelope of what we’ve come to expect from traditional flight simulator games. As it was with Asobo's previous release, Flight Simulator 2020, the game offers real-time weather as well as land, air, and sea traffic. Having this actual data available in game takes Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 to a whole other level of realism. During a recent flight over New York City, rain spattered across my cockpit window as UploadVR’s Ian Hamilton confirmed that it was indeed pouring out there.
Exploring the game's Free Flight mode, I took a couple of test flights over the iconic skylines of New York, the shimmering lights of Las Vegas, and the familiar streets of my hometown. Each flight provided a visual feast for the eyes, highlighting the simulator's potential for limitless exploration at a level of realism that feels incredibly satisfying to look at from high up in the air.
Other styles of play are available, such as curated world photography, activities, and challenge modes, as well as the ability to start a new job as a virtual pilot. The career mode still remains out of reach for me now, as the game will start into the mode but won’t let me select a starting airport to begin my career. No doubt, Microsoft and Asobo are working toward a swift solution for this issue.
Red Bull Air Racing is also featured in the game, offering challenges that even the most skilled pilots might find difficult. While I frequently met with failure in this part of the game, the excitement of flying low and fast drove me to improve with each crash I suffered through.
Beyond the game's familiar focus on aerial navigation, the 2024 release of Flight Simulator allows players to land and explore on foot, enhancing the game's depth. There are still severe mapping imperfections at street level, but the ongoing improvements to this 3D mapping tech conjure up dreams of a future iteration of Flight Simulator where one day we hopefully get to exit our aircraft and walk among much higher detailed streets in any city across the globe. It's going to be a while before we see that level of realism, though, so don’t hold your breath on this type of detail appearing any time soon in games like this one.
With DLSS aiding performance for those players equipped with an RTX series NVIDIA GPU, maintaining the game's level of detail still requires significant computing power. The heft of this game sometimes stresses even high-end systems when flying in densely populated areas, so to experience the game at the highest visual fidelity and frame rates, a powerful PC is essential.
PC Specs Used For Testing The Game
My setup is an Intel I9 13900k clocked at 5.8 GHz, 64 gigs of DDR5 RAM, ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero motherboard, and a Zotac Gaming 4090 Amp Extreme Airo GPU. All of my gameplay thus far has been done using a Meta Quest 3 with a Link cable connected to this system.
Captured at the VR ultra setting with DLSS set to auto
Running the game on a rig with the specs listed above, I still faced performance challenges in busy airspace when the game's VR graphics settings were dialed up to ultra. The sheer complexity and demands of this simulation reveal the need for some serious hardware, so if you don’t have a powerful PC, I wouldn’t recommend going above the low setting. Even though it might make the image quality suffer further, you might want to consider turning off any antialiasing options in the game. Performance will likely improve with updates, as it did with the 2020 version of the game, but until then, those without a top-end gaming rig will need to dial things back a bit.
Ultimately, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is more than just a game, it's an invitation for new generations of virtual pilots to chase their childhood dreams across an ever-expanding virtual world.
