5 Things to Do in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

The E3 is a specific event that brings contradictory emotions. For the fans of big franchises such as Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty it's usually an exciting time of announcements and surprises, but this can't be said about those of us who prefer strategies, turn-based, or simulators. Nope. There's not much for us to see there. I've got to tell you; I feel like a retiree watching these conferences. And then something happened. News more unexpected than Boris Johnson being factual broke out. Something that made my colleagues go "Yeah, Adam's probably getting asphyxiated." I mean the announcement of Microsoft Flight Simulator during last year's Xbox E3 conference. Finally, something for me at the fair! And more than just an indie game! But that was just the beginning – when we started writing about MSFS, we found that the developers had opted for the let's-blow-their-minds-with-graphics approach, and it worked so well that even people outside of the flight-sim base took notice.

Boeing 747 is an old design. Anyone remember the movie Airport 77? Classic.

That MS Flight Simulator's visuals are the most daring attempt at photorealism we've seen is a fact. By teaming up with Bing Maps and borrowing 2 petabytes of data from them, the developers give us the entire planet Earth to explore in what may be the most uncompromising world design strategy in video games ever. I mean, this really is something else: we get two million cities, forty-five thousand airports, all the mountains of the world... And to top it all off, the technology, combined with cutting-edge streaming capabilities, doesn't even require having servers in your basement – all the data is in the cloud.

"But satellite pictures alone are of course not enough to provide a realistic flying experience!" someone at Microsoft must have cried at some point during pre-production. The answer was: "More cutting-edge tech!" And so, AI will help the game create a 3-D world from the 2-D pictures. What can you do in such a huge world? Why, fly, of course! Some will go and visit the iconic landmarks of the worlds' metropolises, others will explore the wonders of nature, but in the end, everyone will just try to land in front of their homes. But I have a few, slightly less banal ideas for you guys that I recommend trying out when the game's out.

Landing the most difficult airport in the world

Welcome to Lukla. You'll have to handle it yourself.

EDITORS AND THEIR IDEAS

Most of our editorial staff has no idea about planes and aviation. Therefore, when I asked my colleagues about what will they do in the new Flight Simulator, their answers were... well, different than mine. Here are their ideas:

1. "Land on the Red Square like Mathias Rust"”
2. "I will fly to Kentucky"
3. "Make noise around my ex's block at night"
4. "I'll try to land Airbus A320 on the Hudson River"
5. "See if volcanoes are active"
6. "Measure time it takes to fly from my flat to the office"
7. "Check if the Earth is round"
8. "Barrel roll for as long as possible while listening to Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone"

Airports have their own characteristics. When landing in Gibraltar, pilots often struggle with dangerous crosswinds from the Gulf of Algeciras. When, in turn, flying to Madeira, to Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, we may discover that the issue, apart from the name, is the unusual, elevated platform design of runway 23, as well as the cliffs that ominously conclude runway 05. If you look at the ranking of the most dangerous airports in the world, there's one that's bound to catch your attention: the tiny Lukla airport in Nepal, located at an altitude of 2845 meters above the sea level (also known as Tenzing-Hillary). This should be a great place to test the physics engine of the new Flight Simulator – because of the sloping runway there.

Here's what the runway looks like from the opposite side.

Asobo Studio has improved the behavior of aircraft on uneven and inclined surfaces. Traction is also calculated dynamically, so we'll get different grip on surfaces such as asphalt, cement, grass, and others. The result? Hopefully skidding uncontrollably and taking sharp turns. This may seem a trivial inconvenience for you, but I hated the fact that in Il-2 Sturmovik, landing in undesignated places wasn't even possible. In FS 2020 it will be possible to experiment at will.

It's not far to Mount Everest from Lukla itself, so I recommend taking off with something like Daher-Socata TBM 900, encircling the highest peak on Earth, and landing back in Lukla. Preferably in severe weather conditions – because if you go crazy, then why not go all the way!

Racing with friends!

Online gameplay is one of the secrets to the longevity of the Flight Simulator series. In 2001, virtual pilots who wanted to experience flying planes from the comfort of their homes, created the VATSIM – a network platform that connected FS players in a shared world. Flying in VATSIM was one of the most hardcore experiences you could get on PC. You needed to know the rules, and the specialized jargon of the flight control chatter – truly, where eagles dare, and have enough time.

Landing always brings a lot of emotions.

I suggest using MSFS multiplayer in a more liberal way, and inviting people for racing. I have a very fond memory of one particular race we've had with friends in Flight Simulator X in 2009. The task was to fly from O'Hare to JFK and see who can do it the quickest (you might also go all the way and recreate something like the Air Race Classic). One condition – identical planes. In FS 2020, I feel like doing it in an Airbus A320. Don't forget to set the time of year to summer and pick a suitable hour – preferably right before sunset – after all, views are the most important thing.

In real life, this flight takes about 2 hours. However, all tricks are allowed in the race. The competition begins already on the ramp, and the result may well depend on who manages to get the plane off the ground first. If all goes well for everyone, you will be landing in New York almost simultaneously. Stay sharp in the falling darkness.

Visiting Area 51

The F-117S were supposed to be decommissioned, yet you can still see them around Area 51.

For gamers who like to hunt for easter eggs, the famous Area 51 will probably be the best place to start looking. This is not only the Mecca of tinfoil hats, fans of Naruto, and conspiracy theories, but also for aviation enthusiasts. Located in the area of the Nellis Air Force Base Complex, it's the proving ground for many miracles of modern aviation. Mysterious code names – AQUATONE or OXCART – hid extraordinary programs of strategic reconnaissance airplanes like U-2, or SR-71, which part of the air defense system during the Cold War. The nearby Tonopah Base was home to the mysterious "red eagles," the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron, a United States Air Force squadron equipped exclusively with the Soviet MiG fighters.

Today, Area 51 is still as mysterious as ever. It was there that American pilots practiced flying two stealth Black Hawks, around 2010. They played a key role in operation Operation Neptune Spear, the killing of Osama bin Laden. Moreover, the F-117 stealth bombers that bombed Iraq and Serbia in the nineties were officially decommissioned in 2008. Yet, just a year ago, the Combat Aircraft magazine obtained photos of F-117S flying over the Death Valley in California. The machines bore the insignia of a completely unknown Dark Knights formation, and as, Spinal Tap sang, "No one knows who they were or what they were doing."

DCS: Star Trek in Area 51.

The creators of flight simulators like to place Easter Eggs in Dreamland – Area 51, as well as at the Nellis and Edwards bases. In the Acceleration expansion to Flight Simulator X, there even was an entire mission about capturing UFOs using F/A-18 Hornets, and you could find SR-71 at the Edwards base. In the Nevada expansion to DCS: World, you should look into the hangars in Groom Lake – in one of them, you will find a Star Trek ship. Even X-Plane showed some minor curiosities, such as the outline of the Millennium Falcon on the parking ramp. I am sure that it will be an equally interesting place in FS 2020.

I will try it on gamepad, joystick, and mouse + keyboard

DCS World – a modern simulator with controls dating back to 1998.

Setting up controls is one of the most repulsive things in gaming. A huge number of key combinations, different controllers, coiling cables, and bad interface can make ALT+F4 the favorite shortcut. Developers from Asobo guarantee that MSFS will meet the requirements of both users of game pads and keyboards. "If someone just wants to fly a simpler plane (...), it's easily attainable with a gamepad," says Project Manager Jorg Neumann. And I believe this will work, because there's plenty of examples of good, simple models, like the mouse-based airplane control scheme in War Thunder, which is extremely successful. Flight Simulator should offer an equivalent solution. This is important, because setting up the full joystick setup is time-consuming, and you don't always need a super realistic experience.

This joy just be totally suitable for starters.

However, if you find you like MSFS, I recommend investing in a simpler joystick. This undoubtedly introduces a completely different quality of playing the simulator. I've tested countless joysticks, and I can tell you that probably the best price-to-quality choices is offered by the Thrustmaster T.16000M (without the throttle). This is a fairly accurate device costing less than $100. Cheaper alternatives behave like my mixer: they fly in all directions.

If you have the money and want something more expensive, you should be careful for older Saitek brand joysticks (X-52/55) – they're still pretty expensive, and oftentimes offer average quality. Only after the acquisition of Logitech, more reasonable models appeared, such as X-56 RGB, but these are priced at above $300. A real enthusiast will point you to Russian VIRPILs, or the Thrustmaster Warthog controller, but here, we already approach the barmy sum of $600, and considering the rising price of real-estate, I do not want to open these doors.

Check the weather in Australia

Almost like Red Dead Redemption 2.

A few days ago, the community of flight simulator stirred, after RDR2 modders were able to give the players a UFO, letting them whiz around the map. What did we find thanks to that? Well, mainly that volumetric clouds in RDR2 look better than most flight simulators. To understand the perils of "virtual piloting," you should be aware that FSX or X-Plane have really been striving to improve the clouds, such as the xEnviro. The price of such an expansion? $69.90 – cough it up, my dear!

Therefore, the weather system of the new Flight Simulator, which feeds data about real weather conditions, inspires great hopes and, in addition, offers some stunning views. This kind of a weather simulator recreates realistic, three-dimensional clouds consisting of several layers, that cast shadows and even reflect the ambient light of cities. Factors such as humidity, pressure, temperature, or wind are added to this. The developers demonstrated the operation of this system in practice in the second episode of their dev dairies in the Discovery Channel series, where Flight Simulator recreated real weather conditions in the area of the west coast of Australia. It was remarkable.