I expected to get a software title that would work, would give me a good incentive to upgrade my ancient PC and would revive my interest in flight simming after 15+ years (since my FSX days). I met the last two goals admirably. It failed miserably on the first one, as since March the entire MSFS experience has been transformed into CTD upon CTD. By far the most unstable, erratic and buggy game I’ve experienced in the last 35 years.
It’s not what I had hoped for, but I love it nontheless. Stability is the only shortcoming. I expected that in the beginning, but I expected it to be sorted out after 8 months. (And it was, for a time.)
Exceeded.
“…a wonderfully immersive, visual extravaganza.” — chatdorange123
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It is bundles of fun… except when it isn’t.
How’s that old nursery rhyme go?
When she’s good she’s very very good, but when she’s bad she’s awful.
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Yup it’s everything I expected for almost a decade we’ve dreamed of a new modern graphics flight sim world in virtual reality and now we are finally here!
RIP to all of the flight simmers who have passed away and weren’t able to witness nor experience this evolution.
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It has exceeded all my expectations, I didn’t think I’d be able to run it but I can and in VR at that.
For me this is the best thing that’s happened to flight sims ever, don’t get me wrong though, I still go into X-Plane and fly there too as I have a couple of great planes I like to fly which aren’t in MSFS.
Looking forward to the future as, hopefully it can only get better, for everyone I hope. 
It’s not. I got sold on the idea of exploring the world and the amazing videos of landmarks and photogrammetry.
The game is far from achieving that idea also performance wise it got long way to go.
Almost one year later we are still playing a beta version of how the game should be.
But I still enjoy playing it from time to time but they definitely pulled my leg with their marketing.
Honestly I would love to see a simulator work with Google data. You would have thought Microsoft with all of its budget could have worked together with Google maps with this one.
Otherwise have had a lot of fun in the game but was it what I expected… definitely not…
Sounds like there are two different versions of the sim by some accounts.
Answers: YES, exceeded.
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It’s a way ahead of my expectations
We certainly have to be playing a different sim version then…
This is the most beautiful night photogrammetry scenery experience I’ve ever had!
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Yes. When I first heard about this sim, I actually thought it was not going to be possible to put a sim out with the entire globe being accessible. Even with the issues that need to be addressed, this sim has blown the lid off!
I have lost count of the places (I guess I could look in my logbook 
) that I have explored. As an armchair historian, I have spent countless hours ( right, logbook again ) looking for, and finding, historical battlefields, overgrown WW2 pacific airfields. Many of those places I could not have found without the footpaths and villages nestled in the jungle or the landmarks of Europe.
I also was sold on the idea of finally being able to explore the world through the cockpit window rather than just IFR between airports. What I bought; exactly what they sold me.
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It’s definitely better than I expected it to be. The last flight simulator I played was in 2002 though…
Nicely said.
It’s slowly dawning on me that the world updates are exceeding my ability (time I have) to explore them. I’ve just been awestruck by the beauty of the Grand Canyon area (as seen from the left seat of my Cessna CJ4) with the ‘new’ US world update. I’m heading for Europe next. I haven’t spent a single moment in the skies over Japan…
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No. Didn’t meet my expectations at all. It’s actually several times worse than what I initially expected. Even 4-5 months after release I wasn’t really complaining too much because I expected Asobo and Microsoft et al to continue working on the “flight” simulation aspect of the product, but now it is apparent (unless Microsoft, Asobo et al prove me wrong using deeds and not words) that they are treating the core-simmers, hardcore simmers and real world pilot communities like a minority, and their sole focus right now is on Xbox and their video-gaming community.
I have nothing against video-games and video-gamers, and I myself play several video games when I find the time for them. I play games like GTA 5, Metal Gear Solid etc, but when I paid £110 for MSFS 2020, I was under the impression that I was paying that amount for a “flight” and not “scenery” simulator. I thought I was paying that money for a “flight” simulator where the flight model, systems, automation and avionics would be as truly next-gen as advertised.
Before paying for MSFS 2020, I did read the store page description where it states (and still does): “highly detailed and accurate aircraft”, “face realistic, challenging weather conditions”, “plus 10 additional highly accurate planes with unique flight models”, all of which is totally false, and I now feel like I fell victim to false advertising.
I was told by MSFS’ head producer Mr. Jorg Nuemann that Asobo, under the direction of Microsoft, won’t be making study level aircraft, and that they will help third parties like PMDG, A2A, FSLabs, Majestic, Leonardo, RXP etc to make and sell them to us. 8 months later none of that happened, and even Aerosoft, whose aircraft are like children’s toys, are having problems with the CRJ’s automation and flight model, and in their forums they blame Asobo and the MSFS SDK for the issues. Not to mention that 8 months after release, there’s not even a single aircraft from PMDG, A2A for MSFS yet. I can forgive the half-baked default aircraft if there are some complex, study level avionics and aircraft from established 3rd parties like RXP, A2A, PMDG, FSLabs etc for MSFS 2020, but none of that exists, and all we got so far is the Aerosoft CRJ which is worse than the default aircraft in many aspects.
I no longer use MSFS and buy addons for it, and I tell my friends and colleagues not to believe the deceptive advertisements. Suffice it to say I’ll never buy another Microsoft product or believe what they say. Before release, Jorg and his colleagues said many times in the public things like: “look we made a mistake with FSX and MS Flight and we are sorry, but give us another chance”. We the core simmers did give him another chance, but now it looks like he took our money and ran, just like they did with MS Flight.
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Indeed I love history and geography!
Tonight I plan on exploring this city in Brazil called Três Rios.
I happened to be flying some VFR in the region and spotted it below.
I immediately paused the sim and found this location and began researching it.
It’s just so fascinating there are millions of little towns and cities around the globe and this is just one tiny spec on the earth.
and yet… here you are.
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May I simply direct you to the following thread. Seems far more in line with your post.
MSFS far exceeded my expectations. With the scale of what Asobo has done and where it is going, there are bound to be hiccups. I understand how some people are frustrated especially with the performance issues lately but after watching Twitch Live Dev Q&A streams with Jorg, Sebastian, Martial, and Jayne 
, I feel the sim is in good hands and they are listening to our feedback. I was absolutely stunned with where they set the bar back when this first was release and was further amazed when I switched over to VR recently. Since transitioning to VR, I don’t think I can go back.
Again, there is a lot of work to do but I think the MS / Asobo team are up for the challenge along with 3rd party developers partnering with them.
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The alpha test could have given you a quicker decision on the state of the sim and a feel for it’s direction generally long before you made the decision to purchase it.
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