Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator arrived on Xbox Series X|S in the summer of 2021 and became the first truly full-fledged civilian flight simulator that made sense on a console. Its main appeal lies in its scale: the game reconstructs the entire planet from satellite and aerial imagery, uses machine learning to compute the shapes of buildings and trees from it, and streams detailed data from the cloud based on wherever you happen to be flying. You can therefore take off from an airfield in your own region, fly over your own house, and head toward the Alps or Manhattan. Everything is available, from a small Cessna through turboprop aircraft to airliners, along with training lessons for complete beginners, a system of challenges, and free flight without any rules at all.

Bringing it to console was the technically most demanding part of the project. Gamepad controls received a thoughtfully designed layout and assistance features that can gradually be turned off as the player gains confidence, while support for real yokes and pedals was retained. Series X handles high resolution and a rich level of detail, Series S works with reduced parameters, but the flying experience itself remains the same. Weather and air traffic can be switched to real-time data, so a cloud over Prague in the simulator matches the cloud over Prague outside your window, and night flights over lit-up cities rank among the most beautiful images of the generation.

Reviewers welcomed the game with enthusiasm, praising above all how it turned into more of a calm form of tourism than a dry technical discipline. A huge community of aircraft and airport creators has also grown up around the simulator, and their creations have reached console players too, through the store. Today Flight Simulator remains a one-of-a-kind title: it has no rival, offers practically endless content, and works equally well as a demanding hobby and as a meditative spectacle of the world from above. The steady addition of new regions and aircraft through updates also means you can return to the game months later and each time discover something new in it.