Microsoft Flight Simulator - A General Overview for Xbox Series X|S

Written by Stephen Varner on July 31, 2021

News: The teams over at Asobo Studios and Microsoft have created something really special that will allow us to travel all over the world.

Like many Xbox owners I was thrilled when Microsoft announced that the newest edition of it’s titular Flight Sim was coming to consoles. Also like many others it was to be my first foray into a Flight Simulator title. I’ve played plenty of aerial combat games in the past of course but most of those have had an arcade tilt with a focus on combat rather than maintaining a stable flight. When I first got my hands on the PC release last year I fell in love. To date I have nearly 80 hours of flight time and that doesn’t count all the time I’ve spent researching flight plans and landmarks and interesting facts about the places I visit. For me it was a lens in which to view the world, anywhere I wanted, any time I wanted during a period where that was largely impossible for most of the globe.

Now, I’ll be honest. The deeper I got into Flight Simulator the more I started to question it’s viability on a console. This game is complicated, or at least…it can be. There’s nothing if not an excellent set of tutorials and assist options to onboard new players but the fact remains that given the number of menus, controls and mechanics present in the game it was difficult to imagine how ALL of it was going to translate to a platform that won’t guarantee access to a mouse and keyboard. The simple answer to that is…not easily. Having spent some time with the Xbox version now and having used an Xbox gamepad a fair bit on PC in conjunction with the M&K controls I think what I can say is I think they’ve probably done the best possible job in solving a very difficult problem. There’s a lot of holding this button and pressing that one for some of the controls you’d probably want a little bit easier access to but the primary mechanical and flight surface controls are mostly single button presses. If you want fast access to things like switching back and forth between the drone camera or active pause though (great for taking screenshots) you’ll probably have to remap a few things to suit your needs. Clicking the left thumbstick will toggle a Destiny esque virtual cursor that you can use in lieu of a mouse. It’s worth saying however that you can always just plug in a mouse and keyboard to your console and solve this problem. This isn’t a deal breaker by any stretch but it’s worth noting as some players may be hoping for a more streamlined console experience but I just don’t see how they could have done much different without sacrificing key pieces and options within the game.

With that bit out of the way I have to say that’s largely where my concerns stop. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a triumph of a game and it’s translation to console is a key benchmark for what Xbox’s pair of new consoles can really do. The fact that this game can run at all on a piece of hardware that costs less than the GPU’s it’s chewing up and spitting out on the PC side is an achievement unto itself, but it’s also a very clear indication of just how impressive the Series S truly is.

Now, if you’re anything like me, one of the first things you’re going to do once you’re able to reliably keep a plane in the air for more than a couple of minutes is to go find your house and fly over it right? For me that was the first “aha” moment. The next was taking that prop from the street and city that was recognizably my own in the real world and traveling directly to wherever I wanted to go. There’s just something about seeing such an astonishing approximation of my own town with nothing noteworthy to actually see that gave me the inspiration to go see the places I’ve always wanted to go with the confidence that it’s going to look pretty darn close to the way it does in real life. Coupling that with the freedom to see it my own way on my own time hooked me in a way no game has in more than a decade. That’s my experience with the game. For others maybe it’s the role play of guiding a real world flight that’s actually happening out there in the real time weather that’s being simulated in game. Maybe it’s trying to beat a friend's score in one of the many landing or bush trip challenges available to test what you’ve learned so far. I could go on and on about my experiences of flying over the top of Pike’s Peak or navigating the entire length of the Grand Canyon on my way to Las Vegas but I would rather recommend you just go have the adventures that you want to have yourself.

Flight Simulator is nothing short of a technical triumph both in scale and complexity but also in how well it translates to consoles and to players with any and all levels of experience with this type of game. The simple fact is there is literally an entire world of things for you to do and see in Microsoft Flight Simulator and it can be enjoyed whether you want to meticulously manage your fuel mix and aileron trim or if you just want to casually go sightseeing in the world’s most beautiful places.