And what improvements do you see in Free Flight mode? I struggle to find any and it’s the only game mode I use. ATC is still the same, you still can’t connect more than one jetway, AI planes spawn where your plane is parked, pushback system is still the same, icing accumulates in unrealistic weather conditions, still no turbulence when flying through clouds, AI planes cruise at wrong altitudes using local barometric pressure instead of standard one, transition level is 18,000 all over the world, helicopters still spawn with engine running on helipads…
These are the issues I can list from top of my head, there are many more.
We can’t fix major flaws in the core game with 3rd party addons.
Yes, you can fix a lot of issue with 3rd parties, I use BATC for Traffic and ATC so I don’t have issue with AI plane spawning over me. I used GSX for pushback. no issue.
The rest of the issue you pointed out like Helicopter spawning as running on helipad or the ground effect with helos are real issue and they will be fix in time.
Tell it to Xbox players. They will be delighted to hear this.
are you on xbox ? I am sorry to hear that.
Just want to add that the rumors of the Next Xbox is going to be a PC hybrid running Xbox Os so allowing Steam and other store to run game natively on the “console” if you want to call it that. So, one could hope that it would allow all of the mods that we have on PC.
If you are really into flight sim, moving to PC is the right way to go. There is so much more options to improved the experience.
Personally I don’t want to either, I also support FS being more accessible and not being restricted to top end hardware. This whole franchise is undergoing a transformation in order to become a mainstream series. It’s good for the future of the industry.
I have, and will continue to support a tiered release.
More features and more capabilities for a higher cost of entry.
Less features and less performance for less money.
Many software companies do this, and it’s quite successful.
Any loss of revenue that occur as a result of writing higher-end software for higher-end (less market share???) computers could be offset by charging more.
People with high-end computers have shown that they are willing and able to spend more money to get a premium simulation experience.
Pray tell, how is a career mode “arcade”? I’ve been an avid simmer since FS2002 and I cannot understand certain subsets of this community!
Even in Free Flight mode, I find it absolutely pointless to fly without, y’know, a career add-on like A Pilot’s Life. I mean, what am I even doing without some sort of context? What for? I want to experience a career of some sort so I feel like there is a purpose to what I am doing. A Pilot’s Life gives me just that. And I am happy people on Xbox or people who don’t want a third party add-on like APL can also have some structure to their flying.
I am also part of the sim racing community, and in that community career modes are seen as a must-have nowadays, whether it’s the career structure built into iRacing or a mode on a sim like Project Cars 2. Assetto Corsa EVO will have a career mode.
It’s 2024, folks. Career modes are not “arcade”, they are an important feature no matter how hardcore you are. I consider myself to be on the hardcore side and I look at career modes as a must-have, whether as an add-on (like the aforementioned APL, but we also have things like OnAir) or as a default feature like the one on MSFS 2024.
Asobo/MS just needs to improve it so it doesn’t feel undercooked as it currently does. It has nothing to do with “arcade”.
There is nothing I cannot do in 2024 that I was not able to do in 2020. The simulation part of MSFS has not gone away at all, it’s not a zero-sum game just because they added the career mode.
It’s a fair review. If it wasn’t for the launch issues and bugs it would be a 10/10. I would rate it a bit less due to the scenery texture tiles and AI tree generation as these were better in 2020.
The career mode was their main new feature and it has exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be more hand-crafted missions but instead leans heavily on the randomly generated missions which are quite challenging to get right when there is no possible way to test them all. Some simmers are fine with the sandbox idea of make your own mission but so many players want at least some guidance and progression. Do points make it a game?
But the real good stuff in MSFS 2024 is behind the scenes and more subtle but will become more obvious when 3rd parties start releasing new content. Just wait for the best developers to utilize more complexity.
When you take the time to get all your controls the way you like them and the graphics settings in a balance between performance and looks, the sim does live up to the hype. If you’re unlucky and your favorite activity is marred by bugs, that sucks and you may have to wait. But some areas like gliders and bush flying have seen very big improvements. If there is one constant about flight sim, it’s that things are always changing, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad.
Here’s another one I agree with 100%. I especially like at the end where he says “what we want now is not system updates, world updates or enhancements but rather fix what is broken.”
I realize that not every programmer on the team is qualified to work on these fixes, ie. scenery builders, sound editors, etc. But I’ll tell you what every one of them can do, and that’s PLAY THE SIM.
Take them off whatever project they’re currently working on and make every one of them a beta tester. And don’t forget to give some of them Xboxes with only a controller or a PC with a VR headset.
I don’t support this at all, even though I have a (relatively) high end PC. The listed features should be accessible to all.
By gamification we mean simplification of the gameplay, not enhancements to the engine. Gamification is tries to make things fun. For example, it takes just a touch-go and just another simple thing to complete the ATPL certification in career mode. Gamification is when things are made to be super easy for the masses. Because winning at a game is fun. Learning a full ATPL course just wouldn’t be fun and it would against Microsoft’s ambition to make MSFS mainstream.
I am so much experiencing a deja-vu right now… we had these exact same woes with 2020, the exact same arguments…
2024 is not “broken”. In fact it is in a far better state than 2020 was when it launched. There is no reason why Asobo should stop improving the sim overall.
Career mode, sure. It is meant as entertainment. Free flight is a different thing. I am still flying Fenix exactly the same as I was in 2020. There is no change whatsoever, except that in 2024 I have better performance and notably no stutters.
It’s not the users complaining about the bad game they made that is killing the genre, it is the fact that they made it a bad game.
Arcade like or serious sim…it don’t matter as long as people use it, enjoy it and spend money on it. That’s what keeps the genre alive.
Build a great product and people will embrace it.
People should stop blaming US and rather hold THEM accountable in hopes that they will do better.
Wouldn’t that negate the need for anything better than a chrome tablet? Seriously though, if the genre grows, better hardware will always be needed, and consoles lock you into a hardware snapshot for years.
I take it you don’t use a mouse for freelook? One of the most basic features of gaming for the past 40 years and one month post-launch it’s still totally unusable.
I wasn’t around for the launch of 2020 - I didn’t get it until 2022. So I’ll take your word for it.
But in my opinion, some of the new features such as photography mode and animals could have been added at some later date and those resources redirected towards insuring that the basic function of a flight sim, ie. flying, worked properly at release.
For Pete’s sake, some things are still totally inaccessible. I’ve seen many VR users (I’m not one) complaining that the menu bar isn’t available at times.
And one thing I did confirm for myself out of curiosity is that certain sections of the UI cannot be accessed with just an Xbox controller. The control bindings is one of them. There is no free cursor available for screen navigation as there was in 2020. All you can do is tab between menus. But there is no tabbing to the command lists in the controller settings screens nor any way to scroll up or down. You can’t get there from here.
This renders the sim more or less unusable for anyone trying to play with just a controller, as Cloud Gaming is limited to. I’m not here to argue the case for or against trying to play with just a controller, but there are people that do and they paid the same amount for it as you and I.
So adding more critters or worrying about whether the moon appears too small can wait. Let’s get this thing playable for everyone first
I do, all the time. Flying the Fenix I am constantly using my mouse to freelook in the cockpit. I have no issues with it. Is this an Xbox issue?
I cannot comment on the Xbox or controller issues, as I am not using them. I agree, though, if the issues are as you describe, they need to be fixed as soon as possible. If there is anything that I have learned about Asobo during the last four years and 2020, it is that they will do it and I am 100% sure they will be fixed. People just need to be patient, it has been out just a month now.