This can range from a Bush Trip in a Cub, to aerobatics in a Pitts, to water landings in an Icon A5 and taking off from international airports in large airliners like the Airbus A320. One of the things I appreciated the most from my hands-on time with Microsoft Flight Simulator is its open invitation to let you see and fly where you want right from the start. “The visual and voice-guided tutorial does a great job of showing new pilots the ropes and helping sim veterans shake off any ice that may have accumulated on their wings.” It’s about as straight forward and direct as one could hope for to get flying as quickly as possible. Pick a plane, a departure runaway, a destination, set flight conditions and press Fly. When you first start MSFS, you’re greeted by the World Map (aka Free Flight), a Live Event (an online leaderboard landing challenge), Flight Training, Activities, and News. So, as far as hardware compatibility and support was concerned, I was golden. While in-flight, on-screen situational commands let me know which button controlled the landing gear, flaps, brakes, and trim. My Thrustmaster T16000M FCS flight stick was found and assigned without any manual adjustment or tweaks needed on my part (great!). By default, Microsoft Flight Simulator considers my machine ‘High-End’ and I’ve been able to fly at this default setting with no issues controlling my craft, taking off or landing and the simulator still looks great in motion. My personal rig is an Asus ROG Zephyrus M laptop powered by GTX 1060 GPU, an Intel i7-8750H CPU, and 16 GB RAM. “ Microsoft Flight Simulator considers my machine ‘High-End’ and I’ve been able to fly at this default setting with no issues” And it should be no secret that the better your PC hardware, the better the simulator will look and perform. The cinematic trailers and prior experience with the title have shown me a truly beautiful game. Having last experienced Microsoft Flight Simulator a year ago with a full complement of flight hardware and a powerful PC rig at a demo event, I was looking forward to seeing how my modest gaming laptop and Thrustmaster joystick would fare. With the quality and attention to detail of the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’m convinced we could have tricked a couple of adults. The graphics at the time - coupled with our awesome bunkbed cockpit - were convincing enough to sell the illusion to a bunch of first graders. Here’s the best part: We would invite over the neighborhood kids, convince them we’ve remotely tapped into a plane flying overhead with our high-tech looking setup, run out front and spot a plane overhead and say, “There! Look! We’re flying that one right now…” It was a pretty immersive setup for a couple of kids. Every so often we’d pull out the bottom mattress, set up the family computer under the top bunk, grab a couple chairs to make our cockpit and play Flight Simulator together one on the keyboard, one on the flight stick. Growing up, my brother and I shared a room with a bunkbed. Microsoft Flight Simulator will release with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta), Windows 10 PC, and Steam on August 18. With full release just a few weeks away, the simulator is poised to let virtual pilots escape their confines and see the world.In our latest hands-on with the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator, we hit the skies from the comfort of home.
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