
There's no getting away from the fact that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 suffered a disastrous start last week. Server overloads meant that players couldn't even get into the game for 24 hours, and the problems continued after that.
Sure, the loading screens might have subsided, but certain aircraft still weren't showing up, textures were loading in too late, and there were all sorts of other issues. Not a good start for a title that was expected to be a GOTY candidate!
However, all things must pass in the end, and it feels like Flight Sim 2024 is finally starting to get a bit of stability as we kick off a new week. There are still concerns and issues being reported, but nowhere near on the same scale.
So, now that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is kind of working properly on Xbox and PC, have you had a chance to try it yet? If so, let us know your thoughts down in the poll and comments below... we want to know how you're getting on!
Is Flight Sim 2024 Working Properly For You Yet? (367 votes)
- Yeah, no issues at all now!
- It's mostly fine, just a few minor problems
- It kinda works, kinda doesn't
- Not really, but at least it doesn't load endlessly now
- Nope, totally broken still!
If It Is Working, What Do You Think So Far? (286 votes)
- It's incredible, I love it!
- It's pretty cool, yeah
- It's alright I guess, not bad
- It's pretty disappointing to be honest
- I really don't like it!
Comments 33
It works for me…kind of, I get the ‘melting’ buildings which lots of people say is an issue. The biggest problem for me is there are no sounds from the aircraft, no engine noise etc. it seems to be common according to Reddit, anyone experiencing the same found a fix?
If it works it is amazing but there is always something that is not working correctly. Absurd penalties in career , flightsystems not correctly working , a plane that starts smoking from the get go and has weird throttle values , CTD , pop in , objects or complete menu’s fail to load / stream , ATC stuck / does not register commands , flightplans differ with navigation and all the 1000-s of other problems I did not mention.
So yes , you can start a flight and maybe , just maybe you get lucky and have a smooth flight but most of the times there is at least 1 thing that does not work / load properly.
Oh … and did anybody tried to change the controls ? The person that worked on that should be penalized with very short arms and a lot of itches…
I managed to get in and play yesterday and it’s a bit of a jank fest. I tried a free flight which worked fine but the textures were just ugly. I then tried the first mission in the campaign and the quality was all over the place. Regular stutters and frame rate drops and what the hell is going on with the dialogue? I understand this isn’t a story driven RPG so it’s very low priority but the NPC at the flight school sounds like he was both written and voiced by an AI. Quality wise 2024 feels like a downgrade to 2020 at the moment.
Textures not loading properly, so Paris streets looked like a nightmare 🤣
It worked fine for me the day I tried. I think that was Friday or Saturday. I’ve not been back to it since though. Like all Flight Sims for me, it’s fine, but a very, very casual game. Flight Sim ever being GotY sounds sort of strange to me, but I like it
Yeah, I think I'm gonna wait to try it until they iron out the issues.
How can Xbox drop the ball so badly ..
How does this apparently have so many issues ..isn't it basically the same flight simulator that's already out just erm updated and stuff added
I think this is the first experiment of game partially cloud and partially installed, not lucky experience for me, too long loadings, few crashes or start. When works i love it, but i prefered 400gb game with no crashes and fast loading than this.
Personal experience that might be totally different for other people
I've been playing it a lot, but not without problems.
World Photography is awesome. Managed to photograph some animals in Africa and some landmarks in Asia. The photo goals are a nice motivation to keep coming back.
Career is what I always wanted in the 2020 version, with missions. The mission grades, however, seem like a hit or miss. Today, I had one of the smoothest landings in a mission, yet the game gave me a rating of 0% in landing smoothness. Maybe not 100%, but 0% would be if I had crashed it. They need to sort this out.
Nature detail seems much better than 2020, especially on the ground, but when you're flying in cities, the buildings still look like cardboard maquettes.
And where are the Bush Trips? I hope they add it in a future update.
@BearFut_1800 Re: melting buildings, I think we have to expect some of that. They have modelled the WHOLE world from satellite data and algorithms. You shouldn't get too close up as it ruins the illusion. That's not going to change.
It's an experimental technology, we're all essentially beta testers. I'm playing on Series X and a PC (5600X and 3070). It's a lot more stable than at launch but even with 700mbps I'm disappointed with the visuals. I'm going to test VR tonight. Navigating the menus and new bindings isn't at all intuitive but I guess they wanted to try and distinguish this version from 2020 somehow. I do feel like the new features could have been added to 2020 and they could have kept a large install for those without stable or fast bandwidth. I'm currently playing through Gamepass and would like to purchase eventually - I need a few more weeks of play testing!
The game itself is a technical showcase. I've taken a few test flights from locations on the map.
But I feel the onboarding is pretty bad. I booted up the World Photographer mode and went to Egypt where they put me in a helicopter but there was not tutorial, I didn't know how to do anything. How to make my chopper just hover? How to take a photo? How to do anything frankly.
Does the game have a guided tutorial system? Perhaps it's hidden in another area I haven't explored yet, like Career, but I feel they should point this out, or ask "do you need a guide" because the controls are not obvious even when you look in the menus!
@purexbox
Is the state of the release the reason why MS didn’t want you to do a review for release day?
@themightyant I did that Egypt shoot. I crashed upside down but was still able to exit the helicopter and complete the photography challenges - complete with a mini sand storm whipped up by my rotor blades.
@BearFut_1800 the Buildings/Cities will never look perfect as they're using Microsoft Bing maps and satellite data. It would look a lot better with Google data but I digress.
@16BitHero yeah, I do accept that - of course..I think it’s the sound issue that is bugging me more than anything tbh
@PsBoxSwitchOwner I'll be curious to see if Indiana Jones gets an early review. Machine Games are brilliant devs and I can see it reviewing very positively but Xbox 1st party track record is poor recently.
@16BitHero How did you exit the helicopter? I landed but there was no guidance, and so I went to have a look at controller settings and felt very stupid as I couldn't understand them. It felt like a flight manual and navigating the interface was a pain. One of my lives I was a UI/UX designer and it irked me. lol.
@PsBoxSwitchOwner No, that wasn't it!
They told us it was due to plans for a day one update along with the fact that it's an online-only game.
Nothing crazy, we just weren't allowed to say anything because of the usual embargo rules that every game gets.
I liked the 2020 one but didn't play a ton of it. I expected to like this one too but wasn't expecting to get addicted to it. Aside from a few rounds of COD this is all I played this week, 25 hours. I'm loving it so far.
I only had server issues day 1 and they have been perfect since. No issues getting in and never losing connection. The only bug I have noticed is the flight path assistance not working on some missions but that has happened less and less over the week. I tried it on cloud streaming and the controls were wonky (drifting sticks), I will check back on that sometime.
@themightyant lots of frustrated people on MSFS forum, Steam forum and Reddit are available to assist 😔 (It's RB or LB + B on an Xbox controller).
@FraserG I was just curious as everything went quiet afterwards!
@16BitHero I think Indy will and I think it will settle around 87/88 if I had to guess
@themightyant
You might try the career. There you can learn the ways of the planes. Otherwise , try activities. There you will find the same tutorials that you play in the career.
OR you can put the settings to full assist , and you can switch on on screen guidance with every step.
It is all such a mess in the menu’s. 2020 was clear , easy to use .. I have no idea how to bind buttons without a step by step instruction video on YouTube
@Sol76 @16BitHero Thank you both, that's appreciated. Feels like the UI needs a rethink if you have to ask on a forum how to do something that should be shown in game.
I love just exploring the world, revisiting places I have been and visiting a few I never have. It really is incredible. But i'd love to do a bit more with the guided tasks and get better.
And the streaming tech seems to work well in 2024. I've taken a couple of test flights from A->B on both versions and the pop-in doesn't seem noticeably any worse (it still pops in a lot). I still need to do a bit more testing, I was going to make a video of each to compare, but would love to be able to delete the old version as it's 160+GB now with all the updates.
Is this really a 100% cloud-streaming-only game that doesn't even use local rendering hardware, or does it still use the local hardware? For a game that includes VR support, cloud-streaming-only is a REALLY questionable decision. Even weirder that they partnered with Pimax for the official VR which is a very high res platform, which would make cloud streaming only with compression even more dubious.
@Sol76 You were flying Boeings weren't you? That's all part of the accurate detailed simulation, nothing is wrong with your game.
I have enjoyed the few hours I've tried so far. It's not perfect (still loading too slowly with poor resolution until it loads). My biggest issue is the downright awful dialogue. I would rather have a proper script read by real actors, even if the dialogue was limited. This HAS to be AI (mainly the guests on flights in missions) and it's just horrible, the dialogue itself and the voices.
It's gameplay and organization of missions is good. But the asset pop-in is extremely embarrassing to the point it is a LEGIT PlayStation 1 quality models. Maybe even worse.
I was unable to play at all on day 1. On day two it worked, no issues. I did the initial career mode license then the next flight was 45 mins long. Didn’t have time for that, but didn’t see any other option. I did a free flight to my house. On 2020 they made a 3d building of my home. On 2024 it is just the roof image smeared on the ground. Doesn't seem like an upgrade.
@LaurenceJ1987 Haha! I noticed the dialogue last night for the first time. I got my PPL license and did my first guest tour around Manchester 🤣 The dialogue was certainly weird for sure, it had a very robotic sound. Is there a way you can turn it off?
@RetroMan71 I did my first tour around Manchester, then Salford. I had a quick look through settings and couldn't see any way to turn it off, but I think after I play a bit more ill be wanting to check again.
"I think I can see my house from here. Yes."
"Oh I think I missed that"
I've heard that too many times already. And that's one of the less annoying robot phrases.
@BearFut_1800 I was not hearing much engine/aircraft noise when in the cockpit view. From the outside (3rd-"person") there are engine and air noises. Could be a bug.
I've had some basic performance issues on PC, other than that, I haven't no issues logging in and starting a flight or challenge.
I lost patience when it was taking more than five minutes to load the starting area, so I uninstalled and will wait for the full download option to be released. Looks amazing, but 1GB internet and a 2 year old Nighthawk say otherwise. I'm actually quite disappointed.
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