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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 comes out tomorrow!
I've basically been avoiding spoilers all year, but yesterday I finally watched a presentation the developers made about the software round about a month ago, going into all the new features. There's some really really cool stuff in there.
Probably the biggest new thing is Career Mode. Special missions/scenarios have been a thing in the last two releases of Flight Simulator* but in FS2024 it's not just a couple of dozen fixed scenarios. You basically get to roleplay an entire aviation career, from the very beginning. You create a character and select an airport - literally any airport in the world that's not a major international airport (because that would be silly), where you get your first flight lessons and begin taking certification tests. As you pass them, you get to start doing missions for in-game money - the world map sort of procedurally populates with available region- and season-appropriate jobs. If you've ever played something like American Truck Simulator, it's very similar to that. New types of certifications and increased reputation (from flying well) opens up new kinds of jobs. You start by flying for someone else in their plane and they take a cut of your pay, but once you make enough money you can start buying your own plane(s), with the caveat that there is now a wear-and-tear system for the planes you fly and you have to shoulder the maintenance costs.
This video goes into what the system looks like:
This is entirely optional, though. It is its own separate game mode. You never have to touch it if you don't want to, and as you've always been able to do in Flight Simulator, you can just pick a plane, put it at any airport you want, and just fly around wherever and however you want to.
But even on that end there's some amazing things going on. Obviously "better graphics" and raytracing and all that; but also, the world has much higher fidelity. The ground has bumps and objects on it have collision. You can leave tire tracks in soft surfaces like mud or snow. The outside of your plane can accumulate dirt if you're operating in dusty conditions. You can do a walk-around preflight of your airplane before getting in, and controls and switches - like circuit breakers for example - that were always "there" but whose function was never really simulated in previous editions, ARE simulated this time. There are wild and domestic animals, not just in designated mission scenarios but in the world generally. Realtime air traffic is still there obvs, but realtime global shipping traffic - like the kind you can see on marine tracking websites, is now also simulated. They really went all-out, lol.
Here's the presentation video, although it's an hour and a half long and I don't know if anyone else here is really that interested in this. XD
If you would find the technical geekery boring, the stuff about the activities and the world improvements are in their own chapters so you can skip right to those.
I've basically been avoiding spoilers all year, but yesterday I finally watched a presentation the developers made about the software round about a month ago, going into all the new features. There's some really really cool stuff in there.
Probably the biggest new thing is Career Mode. Special missions/scenarios have been a thing in the last two releases of Flight Simulator* but in FS2024 it's not just a couple of dozen fixed scenarios. You basically get to roleplay an entire aviation career, from the very beginning. You create a character and select an airport - literally any airport in the world that's not a major international airport (because that would be silly), where you get your first flight lessons and begin taking certification tests. As you pass them, you get to start doing missions for in-game money - the world map sort of procedurally populates with available region- and season-appropriate jobs. If you've ever played something like American Truck Simulator, it's very similar to that. New types of certifications and increased reputation (from flying well) opens up new kinds of jobs. You start by flying for someone else in their plane and they take a cut of your pay, but once you make enough money you can start buying your own plane(s), with the caveat that there is now a wear-and-tear system for the planes you fly and you have to shoulder the maintenance costs.
This video goes into what the system looks like:
This is entirely optional, though. It is its own separate game mode. You never have to touch it if you don't want to, and as you've always been able to do in Flight Simulator, you can just pick a plane, put it at any airport you want, and just fly around wherever and however you want to.
But even on that end there's some amazing things going on. Obviously "better graphics" and raytracing and all that; but also, the world has much higher fidelity. The ground has bumps and objects on it have collision. You can leave tire tracks in soft surfaces like mud or snow. The outside of your plane can accumulate dirt if you're operating in dusty conditions. You can do a walk-around preflight of your airplane before getting in, and controls and switches - like circuit breakers for example - that were always "there" but whose function was never really simulated in previous editions, ARE simulated this time. There are wild and domestic animals, not just in designated mission scenarios but in the world generally. Realtime air traffic is still there obvs, but realtime global shipping traffic - like the kind you can see on marine tracking websites, is now also simulated. They really went all-out, lol.
Here's the presentation video, although it's an hour and a half long and I don't know if anyone else here is really that interested in this. XD
If you would find the technical geekery boring, the stuff about the activities and the world improvements are in their own chapters so you can skip right to those.
