I have to say that I am tentatively excited for MSFS 2024, even if the announcement did come as a surprise. Part of the reason that I found the announcement surprising, is that with MSFS, from Alpha and Beta, right through to it’s current version, there has been this constant drip feed of updates which gives the feeling of a product that is still evolving, and the process of updating can even be quite disruptive of just getting enjoying out of the sim. Now don’t get me wrong, I think it is incredible how much has been added and improved with MSFS, it’s just that where it differed in experience to other flight sims is that this is a live service product, and you have to update it, it doesn’t matter if you are sitting down to play it for the small window of time that you have available on your weekend, you are going to have to empty your community folder, download the update, download the marketplace updates, purge the rolling cache, check that it all works and that your setting haven’t changed, then add back in your addons, and finally you are good to enjoy the sim, if you have any time left.
Three things that I hope to see in this new product, which will make me happy to buy it on release :
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Keep the main goal of working towards a high fidelity, realistic flight simulation top priority
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Follow through with the promise of an engaging career system (which so far looks brilliant)
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Find a way of making the continuous feed of updates a smoother experience, that allows players to just enjoy the game for what it is, with the time that they have available