This probably isn’t what you want to hear from someone reviewing Flight Simulator 2024, but I spent my first three hours in-game gleefully running along the ground. From the air, this year’s iteration is even more breathtaking than its already astonishing 2020 predecessor; from the ground, though, it’s something else entirely. Touch down anywhere in the world, set out on foot, and the detail is extraordinary; cool winter light shines through dense forests of alpine trees on sheer snow-covered mountains; bleached rocks and parched flora pepper endless expanses of undulating desert sand; wind-blasted cliffside pathways wind through tawny thickets down to pebbled beaches and gently shimmering water – and provided you stay away from the lumpen photogrammetry of urban sprawls, it all looks so . If Flight Simulator 2020’s holiday in a box potential already had you smitten, developer Asobo’s follow-up justifies its existence on its explorable landscapes alone.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 reviewDeveloper: AsoboPublisher: Xbox Game StudiosPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass and PC (Steam, Windows)
And it does, perhaps, feel like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 needs to justify its existence more than most. Asobo’s 2020 effort was already a stunning achievement – a simulation so mind-bogglingly expansive in scope, so extraordinarily ambitious, it would require a truly revolutionary upgrade to feel genuinely essential. Unsurprisingly, Flight Simulator 2024 isn’t that sequel, instead favouring intelligent finessing and focused expansion over radical reinvention – but it’s still an impressive follow-up, building on its predecessor’s enthralling combination of open-ended simulation and more approachable curated challenges with purpose and precision.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 FORBIDDEN PLACES Tour – Haunted Islands and Government SECRETS Watch on YouTube
That means its fundamental pleasures remain very much the same as before. Asobo’s 1:1 digital recreation of Earth – amassed and assembled through a clever confluence of real-world data – is still near unfathomable in its scope and realism, albeit now somehow even more dazzling, with its new cloud formations, improved weather effects, richly detailed terrain meshes, and, yes, that ground-level magic. It doesn’t feel particularly hyperbolic to call its 29,401 miles of simulated Earth the greatest digital world ever committed to a video game – a thing of staggering beauty, endless freedom, and infinite opportunities. As you soar over its vast wilderness expanses and sprawling light-pricked metropolises, as you burst through lavishly rendered cloud layers and careen over iconic landmarks, it’s a world so remarkable its allure is obvious even if you’re not a traditional flight sim fan. And if you really want to wow yourself with how far 2024’s iteration has come, it’s got one hell of a party trick. Now, you can send the camera hurtling upward from your current position at any time, scenery shrinking until you’re hovering over Earth from outer space. Then just spin the globe and plunge seamlessly to a new destination, jagged peaks and rolling hills bursting into view as light shifts, seasons change, and flora and fauna spring into existence on-the-fly. It’s jaw-dropping.