from Hacker News

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

by theodorejb on 6/11/23, 6:41 PM with 15 comments

  • by daly on 6/11/23, 9:38 PM

    I was an early user of the flight simulator back in the day.

    I logged over 2000 hours on the original flight simulator. I kept my flight hours in a log book. I used actual physical maps. I visited every airport within 500 miles of Meigs Field. I flew in all kinds of weather. I bought every extra option. I visited local pro shops and bought a dozen flying books.

    I highly recommend "Stick and Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche". Best book ever.

    I took private pilot flying lessons and knew exactly how to fly.

    I pre-paid for the new MS Flight Simulator. I bought pedals and a yoke. I bought a new, high-end laptop that exceeded the specs. Once the flight simulator arrived I flew it every day for 2 weeks.

    Half of every day was spent downloading updates. I spent 5 hours talking to a pleasant fellow in India trying to correct errors. I spent hours talking to other MS support people. In fact, for those 2 weeks I spent more hours on the phone with MS support than I did flying the plane.

    When it worked it was truly an amazing program. Mostly it didn't work. Constant updates broke everything.

    I sent back the pedals and yoke hardware.

    I cancelled the flight simulator. MS kept my money.

    Your (flying) miles might vary but I would not suggest buying this program.

  • by mcaravey on 6/11/23, 10:15 PM

    These activities remind me a lot of playing SimCopter. Nothing quite beets the anxiety of getting shot at by some baddies in the city I built while trying to drop a rope ladder on a train. Great times.

    Generally, I really appreciate them putting stuff like this in the game though. Even though I’ve played flight simulator since the early days, I’ve always had a hard time engaging because I don’t enjoy flying for flying’s sake. It’s also part of the reason why I prefer the Forza games or other arcade racers over pure simulators. Obviously I’m not cultured enough but then again, I’m also a very casual gamer.

  • by piloto_ciego on 6/11/23, 9:07 PM

    Having worked as a professional pilot for many years… the visuals in this video look… I don’t know, more real than real?

    Ad hoc medevac in a caravan is something I’ve done a time or two… this is kind of surreal.

    Very cool.

  • by catketch on 6/11/23, 9:45 PM

    Get this on Apple vision pro at launch
  • by polishdude20 on 6/12/23, 5:32 AM

    Can it please run at least reasonably well in VR without requiring two RTX 4090's?

    I feel like VR is the next big thing for this game if only more people could run it

  • by pcdoodle on 6/12/23, 11:59 AM

    Wow, I fire 2020 up every 6 months to see if it stops crashing with newer patches. Never felt like I got the $60 value out of it.
  • by kylehotchkiss on 6/11/23, 9:27 PM

    Incredible work! Wish it wasn’t limited to just Xbox, I’d love to run this on iPad one day
  • by fabiensanglard on 6/11/23, 8:46 PM

    WOW.

    When I think of what I used when I started (Flight Simulator 4).

  • by netsharc on 6/11/23, 10:09 PM

    Hmm, heli missions? Gives me SimCopter vibes...
  • by jourintown on 6/12/23, 12:32 AM

    Look forward to that.