Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

Beebo Brink

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I'd love to buy Microsoft Air Balloon Simulator. Skip all the flight/plane stuff and just draft along those landscapes.
 
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Ghost Pepper

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I'd love to buy Microsoft Air Balloon Simulator. Skip all the flight/plane stuff and just draft along those landscapes.
On Steam there is a page for Hot Air Baloon Simulator but it doesn't have much about it. Just talks some about it and says coming soon but the OS requirement is Windows 7.

 

Free

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Noodles

The sequel will probably be better.
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I'd love to buy Microsoft Air Balloon Simulator. Skip all the flight/plane stuff and just draft along those landscapes.
Feels like something they should add now that you mention it. Maybe have some preset routes to see certain scenery, or a free fly mode.
 

Ghost Pepper

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Feels like something they should add now that you mention it. Maybe have some preset routes to see certain scenery, or a free fly mode.
They have something called "Discovery Flights" mode when the Xbox Series X|S version comes out that instantly sets you off near various landmarks to casually fly around some places. Don't know if it's coming to the PC version.
 
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Ghost Pepper

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However he bought a $20 jet fighter to be able to do it. Not sure if a free one could do it. You can only get to the edge of space.
 

Govi

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Just wondering how the cargo ship's crew are going to get that wheeled box down from the heli-pad? The handrails appear to be in the way and there's no apparent cargo elevator or crane to lower it. Is it a motor/generator set? Is the ship without electric power? It appears to be dead in the water. Shouldn't the delivery of the generator be accompanied by tow-boats of some kind, if the ship's without power? If there is an elevator and the ship's without power, how will the crew get the generator to where it can be connected? Or have they got a power cable to run up to the generator where it sits on the heli-pad?

Inquiring minds want to know!
 

Dakota Tebaldi

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Just wondering how the cargo ship's crew are going to get that wheeled box down from the heli-pad? The handrails appear to be in the way and there's no apparent cargo elevator or crane to lower it. Is it a motor/generator set? Is the ship without electric power? It appears to be dead in the water. Shouldn't the delivery of the generator be accompanied by tow-boats of some kind, if the ship's without power? If there is an elevator and the ship's without power, how will the crew get the generator to where it can be connected? Or have they got a power cable to run up to the generator where it sits on the heli-pad?

Inquiring minds want to know!
It's hard to tell just from a short clip like that BUT, I assume that it's taking a dead gen-set off the rig and moving it to the ship so it can be taken away. Maybe the mission starts with you delivering the new one, and you end it by bringing the bad one back to the ship.
 
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Dakota Tebaldi

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Oooo, hot air balloons and science research!
Not JUST hot air balloons - although that would be cool all by itself - but it looks like they're including some scenery specifically for ballooners to look at!

One of my favorite parts of the previous Flight Simulator X was the missions you could do. They used various airplanes and did things like this - like delivering cargo or flying a particular passenger route, or searching for a lost hiker or whatever. And while you could always just "fly" your own flights and pretend you were doing those things, the missions had the benefit of some special dynamic scenery and fully-voiced interactions with your copilot and ATC or passengers, etc, to flesh out the "story" of the mission. And a lot of the missions had sort of special conditions or secret easter eggs that you got trophies for stumbling upon, too.

My favorite mission of all was this one where you were flying an old Grumman Goose somewhere in the Amazon, and you had to take this archaeologist to a remote lakeside temple while he talks about how there's a legend the temple contains a cursed idol of some kind. You end up helping him escape dramatically in the middle of an earthquake, and then on the way back to the airport things just start going wrong with the airplane - IF you're skilled, you barely make it back to the airport without crashing, it's hilarious and fun!
 
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WolfEyes

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I thought it was an ambulance being carried to the ship then once land was reached it was air lifted from the ship to land.

Guess I was seeing things. lol

My dad would be in heaven.
 

CronoCloud Creeggan

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Since the Great Satan of Redmond has given up on the console war, they've been bringing over their franchises. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now on PS5, at least for those who pre-ordered. I haven't really had enough time to mess around much with the game, but I did check to see if a certain dismantled airport in Chicago was still in the game.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024_20251203141402 by cronocloudcreeggan, on Flickr

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024_20251203141413 by cronocloudcreeggan, on Flickr

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024_20251203141707 by cronocloudcreeggan, on Flickr

Yes, it is. Meigs, the starter airport for the original FS1 and 2 in the 80's is still there.

The game does a better job with getting the roads looking like they should than the buildings. I puttered around my locality looking for things and the local hospital was there, but didn't look right. Neither were a bunch of grain silos about 5 miles south. It got the interstate interchanges right though.

The controls are complex, using the DualSense the default throttle is on X/O. Rudder seems to be on L2/R2. Right stick moves your cockpit view (which isn't inverted) but the left stick is your yoke and is inverted as is proper.

It was easier to control with the T-Flight Hotas 4, which the game supports out of the box, both with and without pedals. I didn't test out my new pedals, but the joystick twist rudder worked pretty well. I was able to take off at my local airport, visit a nearby town where I went to school at and putter back to my current hometown easy enough. Didn't try to land though. I'm going to need to go through the tutorials for that.

I didn't actually fly in those pics above, just took pictures of Meigs and the skyline. By the time I decided to try taking off from Meigs and flying around, the weather had changed and the Sears Tower looked like this:

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024_20251203145828 by cronocloudcreeggan, on Flickr

I will NEVER call it the "Willis Tower" that's blasphemy.....it's The Sears Tower dammit.
 
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Noodles

The sequel will probably be better.
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My preferred Word exploration game is American Truck Simulator.

Like, seriously, I have like a hundred hours or something on it.