A long series of completely legitimate and extremely serious complaints about MSFS

When I first heard a year ago that Microsoft was going to develop a new simulator that would use satellite photography, terrain data accurate down to a square foot, and ground-breaking AI to build a new flight simulator, I couldn’t believe it was possible. When I saw the trailer videos and screenshots, I couldn’t believe they were real.

So I guess it turns out that it was possible, and the trailers were real. But that was then, and this is now. Because actual reality is now the benchmark for this “simulator,” I need to set out all of my very legitimate gripes and complaints and explain why none of this ever should have seen the light of day.

Let’s start with Missing Airports: First, tens of thousands of airports are just missing. Take, for example, Meigs Field, where I always take off and land in MSFS 2.0 (the last truly great simulator). In MSFS 2020, it’s just a big pile of grass. Everyone at Asobo needs vision tests.

The A320neo: This plane is not realistic at all. I should know, because I’ve spent thousands of hours flying this aircraft as a Frontier Airlines Lifetime Prairie Dog Elite Midwestern Services ™ Member. Not to mention all the missing functionality. When friends and family ask if I could actually land an A320 if both pilots eat the fish, Robert Hays misses the flight, and Otto fails to inflate, now I have to truthfully answer “no.”

Trees: Trees are totally wrong. For example, the tree at the end of 17/35 at KAZO is obviously a winged sumac. But the simulator has a skunkbush sumac. Sigh. Just sigh.

Too Expensive: The game is costing me $1/month of my hard-earned money (for the first three months at least, which isn’t enough time to think up all the reasons why MSFS is terrible). This is an absurd amount of money to charge for a game…I mean simulator… that cost millions of dollars to develop, and took countless sleepless night for a massive team of talented and devoted software architects, modelers, etc. Given that there isn’t even a 737 included, the game should be free.

Deluxe Edition is a Rip-Off: M$ is charging that $116 basically for a 787. This isn’t fair. I know the 787 is awful, even though I haven’t even flown it yet. But I can’t publicly criticize it until I buy the Deluxe edition. (Or can I…?) $116 is too much to spend just to have the right to complain.

747-8 “Experience” (Warning: NDA violation!): The 747-8 experience is totally downgraded. In the Alpha, they served Chateau Mouton Rothschild in First Class. In the release version, it’s Yellow Tail. I demand a refund and also additional compensation. I understand that we’re in a recession, but come on!

Terrible Support for Peripherals: Like tens of other people who bought this game, I spent $148,388 on my home cockpit. (Don’t tell my spouse, who totally believed me when I said I took all those dials and gauges out of a mothballed 727 on our family vacation to Pinal.) How can MSFS not support my custom hydraulic system out of the box?

Bribing Reviewers: A 10/10 from IGN? Seriously? They clearly only gave this score because they were bribed with a free copy of a revolutionary next-generation software product.

My House: My house does not have vinyl siding, Microsoft. It is brick. And I sold the car parked out front last month. I know you’re relying on satellite maps and terrain data, but there are other solutions. Both my kids are learning remotely now, and they’re bored. They’d be happy to start measuring and photographing buildings for you. They’re willing to be paid in Xbox achievement points. I bet there are millions of other kids in the same situation. Think about it. You can bring the world up to date in no time.

I know this is a short list, but don’t worry, I’ll think of more.

Very Extremely Sincerely,
CurdledTree18

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Nearly got me :joy:

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Meigs Field was completely removed back in FSX and the airport was operational until 2003. So no one needs vision tests my friend.

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Ohhh you sod you. I saw the bolded text about missing airfields and nearly sharted.

You got me good.

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Nice one. You got me too… :rofl:

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This is excellent :joy:

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Great post! Lol… certainly sums up the attitude of a few. I got so tired of the whining during the alpha/beta. But hey, there will always be the self entitled who demand perfection for free.

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:grin: The flight sim world needs more of this satire.

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Got me :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:.

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Lol. You complain about a tree on the end of a runway?? You sound like you’re bay ■■■■ crazy.

$100k on a sim cockpit? Geez man. Just go fly the real thing.

I’m upset about some compatibility issues, but you’re off the deep end of reality.

This whole post made me laugh my ■■■ off.

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Excellent!! :sweat_smile: :joy:

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I said, Oh no not another one. But, absolutely frick’n hilarious. :joy: You owe me a new keyboard as the coffee from my nose landed on it. sumac … haha

Well done. Bowing to greatness.

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I started rolling my eyes until a few lines in. Well played, and so accurate…

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Absolutely fantastic. And I haven’t even got the sim yet. You should set up a blog. Hilarious. :joy:

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Wow you totally got me :sweat_smile: :joy:

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Cute post, but the problem is any organization is going to have a confirmation bias. MS/Asobo has undoubtedly worked very hard and everyone wants positive feedback.

The more we marginalize legitimate issues with the software thus far, the less they will have motivation to iron out the wrinkles, and wrinkles it does have.

When complaints that are less than accurate come in, it would do the community well to welcome them and offer explanations as to how they are wrong. When complaints come in that are accurate, we need to make sure they are elevated and visible.

We may have 1 million people complaining about performance issues, game breaking bugs and incomplete, unusable or missing features, but I’ll bet 90% of the target demographic on early release bought it, further reducing MS/Asobo’s motivation to make it right.

I strongly suggest we band together and politely insist relevant and legitimate barriers are fixed, because every single day that goes by it gets less likely.

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Cute post too - but you may be over-reacting to a very funny post? It’s a very long road ahead and humour is the butter to any hard landing we may have just witnessed.

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The game’s entire survival is now based on the GaaS monetisation. They fix it or they die. That’s it.

Frankly this is a long time coming, and with the offerings from P3D and X11, MS could have literally pressed a turd onto 10 BluRays and sold it for £200 and I’d still consider it due to how god damned awful those two product lines have become.

I’m willing to see the teething problems out here with some levity, because the Civil Aviation offerings on the table before this release were frankly appalling.

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Nice trolling. These two people that randomly appear in the cockpit while I’m flying also seem amused by the joke:

Which probably explains why the autopilot keeps pitching up and down, and not maintaining altitude, and randomly tries to fly the airplane into the ground. I mean how could it work properly, when all the displays are blank, and all the knobs and switches on the MCP and the overhead panel are missing:

But no, this was not rushed at all. We are just nitpicking, and the simulator is beautiful and works perfectly.

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He was missing an /s at the end of his post.

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