Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Review (Win 10)

Test your piloting skills against the challenges of night flying, real-time atmospheric simulation, and live weather in a dynamic and living world. This our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 review.

Pros:

• Amazing graphics.
• 100gb download size.
• Controller support.
• Colorblind support.
• Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, global rendering quality (low end/medium/high end/ultra), frame rate limit (20/30/60, render scaling 3D slider, anti-aliasing, terrain level of detail, terrain vector data (buildings/trees/grass and bushes), objective level of detail, volumetric clouds, texture resolution, anisotropic filtering, texture supersampling, texture synthesis, water waves, shadow maps, terrain shadows, contact shadows, windshield effects, ambient occlusion, reflections, light shafts, bloom, depth of field, lens correction, lens flare, use generic plane models (Ai traffic) and a separate option for multiplayer.
• Data setting-satellite data streaming or no world streaming.
• You can limit/cap your data usage and speed in the settings.
• Set default controls-controller, mouse, keyboard.
• Assists-all assists/middle ground/true to life. You can customize these under the following areas-piloting, aircraft systems, failure and damage, navigation aids, notification, and user experience.
• The most detailed controller setup menu ever for each device.
• Flight Simulator gameplay.
• Four modes-world maps (free flight), live event (changes regularly), flight training (tutorial), and activities (challenge mode).
• Profile-stats, earned badges and achievements, hangar, and logbook of all flights.
• Hangar-change planes and plane liveries, see plane specs, and a brief description of them.
• Tutorials-8 lessons and they even tell you how long they will take.
• Clean easy to navigate the menu.
• Helpful hints on loading screens.
• Loading times are not that bad once in the game.
• Play and do what you want.
• Tailor the game to your exact needs and preferences.
• Can set up custom camera angles and assign a hotkey to them.
• View-out of plane and cockpit (can change seating position like far back or up close).
• Weather-set it or use live weather. Choices are-storm/snow/rain/overcast/high level clouds/broken clouds/scattered clouds/few clouds and clear skies.
• Multiplayer-live/all players and off which is only group members can be seen.
• Can tweak the weather further with the settings for-date, density/depth (snow), precipitation, lightning, temperature, is a, and pressure.
• Traffic-live traffic, Ai or off
• Handy search button for settings and airports.
• World map allows you to choose any departure and destination airport and then the weather and multiplayer settings.
• Full control tower chatter.
• Focus on the nearest landing strip in free roam and it will create a flight path for you to follow and help you with speed. (optional).
• AI co-pilot-you can have your Copilot take control at any time.
• Drone-allows you to fly around with full camera style controls.
• Sound volumes change if you are wearing a headset.
• When selecting departure/arrival locations you can (on the bigger airfields) set the gate/location within the airport.
• Seeing the world play out below you is incredible.
• Can set up your own routes.
• Can see other planes and their callsigns on the minimap and in the world.
• Weather and time of day can be flipped with a menu button and slider whenever you like.
• Much better to fly the plane with a controller but everything else with the mouse and keyboard.

Cons:

• No way to turn the music off when it’s downloading as it’s done in-game.
• Long initial load time.
• The game will start choppy as it streams in the content.
• Mission prompts in the tutorial don’t always show and nor do control keys.
• Fail (crash) on any step of the training and you have to start it all again.
• The learning curve with the sensitivity and general controls.
• Decides to stop showing controller prompts at random times.
• Slow loading times.
• Can’t skip the initial splash screens.
• Not all towns, villages, airports, places of interest are detailed.
• Can’t tell which tutorials you have done.
• Default controls are not great.