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Flying high with Microsoft’s great Flight Simulator

By Jean-Claude Elias - Sep 23,2020 - Last updated at Sep 23,2020

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

Computer games are not created equal. One of them in particular stands out. It actually is well beyond the traditional notion of game and simple fun. It is in a class of its own and would deserve a different name, to distinguish it from the crop. It is Microsoft’s celebrated Flight Simulator (MFS). After many years of being out of the limelight it is now back, with incredible new features, and is more realistic than ever, benefitting from the sheer processing power of today’s personal computers and from fast web connectivity.

It was first introduced in 1982. By 1993, with its version 5.0, the programme had already reached maturity and had won itself a huge, faithful fan base, the world over. Teenagers would play it, as well as big corporations executives.

I used to play it myself in the 1990s and would proudly say that it is the only computer game I play. Things have not changed since. I still am not interested in any other computer interactive form of entertainment. I learned the most part of the concept and principles of flying aircrafts with it, took off from and landed in a good number of airports without leaving my living room, and saw many friends become addicted, from all age groups.

MFS is rare case of perfect edutainment, the ideal illustration of it. You acquire serious, useful, scientific, technical skills and get your kicks from doing it. If you have never flown MFS you should be prepared for a rush of adrenaline upon your very first attempt at taking off the ground.

Comments on the web written by specialised sites make you want to go and get the software immediately. “A spectacular comeback” says theverge.com. But “… this is not a game for wimpy PCs” notes tomsguide.com. Take heart however, most of the home computers today do meet the minimum requirements. It just would not be right to try and run it on a Core i3 entry-level laptop. And of course, you can enjoy the new MFS 2020 on an Xbox if you prefer.

MFS 2020 comes in three versions. The Standard Edition is $60, the Deluxe is $90 and the Premium $120. The difference is in the number of aircrafts you can choose from, respectively 20, 25 and 35. You can take off and land in 37,000 airports, and customise a limited, selected number of them with astonishing details. 

Already spectacular in the 1990s, MFS 2020 now draws on the raw power of the latest crop of processors by Intel and more particularly on the muscular graphics processors designed and sold by Nvidia and AMD, making full use of the 4K image resolution and video frame rate that were not imaginable even in our wildest dreams at the beginning of the journey with the application. If aficionados did miss MFS during the last few years when it was somewhat dormant, they now think it was definitely worth the wait!

The planes, the scenery, everything you see is absolutely breath-taking, and the smoothness of the motion makes the early versions look like they were taking place in the silent movies’ era, thinking of it all retrospectively.

Some have asked why there is no trial version or demo that one can test and watch before buying. The answer is a long but acceptable one. This type of game (again, not the perfect word to describe MFS…) does not lend itself well to trial and demo. It takes some time just to get started and to feel what is going on in MFS. There are however videos on YouTube that one can watch and that give a good idea of what to expect and that work as perfect appetisers.

In these days of relatively constrained travel habits what can be cooler than to fly everywhere without leaving home?

 

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