Go fly Xplane…Then come back and rewrite your article.
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Hats off to the OP, as he has bravely suffered through 9 months of apparent torture playing this. I mean, I could not have done the same.
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Is this game perfect… no. I do look forward to updates and they are actively working on them, so I am not worried at all.
For me the game has been a pleasurable experience both graphics and sim wise. I enjoy exploring the world and planes and find it very relaxing.
I’m surprised that photogrammetry works as well as it does. Yes, I can see my house! 
I give it a solid 4.7/5 money well spent.
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I deleted my post because of the old and annoying disscusion what are the better simulator is. I don’t want to involve anymore in this disscussion.
I said I will continue to Love MSFS, i can enjoy both platforms…I have spent 1000s like many have, and continue to enjoy it. I will continue to support 3rd parties such as FBW…but its not 100% with IFR at the moment, IMHO.
First and foremost, can we PLEASE drop this “fanboy” reference? Simply one of the most derogatory terms on this forum and completely unnecessary. Every user has different expectations and some look past the pimples and warts and see the big picture, while others cannot ignore even small errors in detail.
Every complaint is valid from some perspective while every supportive statement is also valid from another perspective. So, just drop it.
I find the original post is portraying the classic missed expectations and the grasping comparisons to “reality”. Puffy clouds only appear at what altitudes?
I will allow that singular cumulus clouds seldom form much above 6000 feet, but the higher cloud we see is not always as defined as the textbooks. Jump in a cockpit and traverse the 'spheres and you can see puffy white clouds whisping just under your wings when climbing through 30000 feet. Those altocu’s can easily be mistaken for their low altitude brethren.
Arbitrary comparisons to reality need to be tempered to what is actually seen out the window of an aircraft.
We could do without the continual complaints about the sat imagery as well. The data we have is what is provided by mostly commercial sources. If you would like to pay a premium for custom satellite and aerial imagery updated annually for the entire globe, then you can complain that the style of roof on your local farmers market is poorly represented. Until then we get what is out there and enjoy the best image processing that BlackShark AI can provide us. It is what it is with today’s technology.
That brings me to trees. There is some cutting edge image/data processing software out there being used for forest management and agriculture that can determine the species and age of almost every permutation of foliage that grows on our planet. If BSAI had access to that tech, I am fairly sure they would create autogen trees that would match the real world counterparts. I am equally sure that we would have paid significantly more for our sim. Again current technology and economics determine the data that can be utilized in a public entertainment title.
3rd party software is available in huge quantities compared to where we were 20 years (or so) ago with the release of MS sims of bygone versions. Do they all pass muster? No, of course they don’t. It is the nature of this hobby that some truly despicable “developers” are going to take advantage of the voracious appetite for add-ons. Do they care if it works properly? Are they going to provide support? Do they care if you bash them in the forums? It makes it difficult for users to decide what to buy and where to get it. Some will tell us that there are consumer protections for software quality and representation. Do those that take advantage care?
Official Marketplace adds are still not MS’s responsibility. Or Asobo’s. They are the responsibility of the developer. Anyone producing adds for a “work in progress” piece of software has to know that fundamental changes are going to happen that will render their title useless. It is the nature of the game. Users that do not understand that and pour hard earned cash into add-on after add-on will undoubtedly be dissatisfied at some point. It took years before adds for FS9 were fairly reliable. Then out came FSX and we started all over again. Most didn’t provide free upgrades. The FS9 version no longer is supported and if you want to keep using the next generation, buy it.
Most of the complaints in the original post are due to an expectation that this sim would be different from all others. From a technological standpoint it is. From a concept standpoint, it is the same as every other sim ever produced. Technology of the day could make the sim way better, visually. That would make it unaffordable. Some add-ons are going to be rip-offs. Know that going in. Just because it is available in the Marketplace does not mean it is going to be any less of a dog. Buy it. Try it. Delete it. That is the way of every mod for every moddable game ever.
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With a lot of this kind of airing of grievances it often boils down to the old…glass half full or glass half empty.
I am a glass half full kind of guy despite the many shortcomings. I simply love the sim (it is not a game, a game has narration, purpose ending, solution, competition)
I have absolutely no problem waiting 9 more years for a 95 pct sim…
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I find it an amazing yet flawed piece of software. I love exploring the world, have played for thousands of hours, but can’t really recommend it because of its many flaws.
Sure, it has my house, or rather a generic building (that looks nothing like it) approximately in the right place on blurry ground textures next to a hilly river. That’s on Bing maps (crystal clear on google maps) but it’s there! I landed next to my house a couple times last August, been back later to see if things had improved (they had not but my house changed to a different generic model) and never visited again.
There is amazingly beautiful scenery to be found, but there are more places that look rather horrendous. Victoria falls, a world wonder, don’t go there. Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, the sat data there is so low res you can’t even find any trace of the canyon. Antarctica doesn’t exist, above 85 degrees or so there is nothing at all.
However what drives me to not recommend FS2020 are the long standing bugs and updates that keep introducing more bugs. Every update is a struggle, then finding new workarounds and fiddling with settings again. Flight planning is broken, ATC is broken, AI pilot is broken, Bonanza altitude hold is broken, the servers are unstable, the installer is worse than trying to install GT6 on ps3 nowadays, and so on.
I love it when it works, I still love it when I can get around a new problem with a bunch of workarounds. But I can’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t want to put up with the ratio of flying vs trouble shooting this game is still at.
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In general I find MSFS without alternative. That might change when XPlane 12 comes around.
While MSFS had many flaws from the beginning, and still after one year has many of them, there has been much progress made. And while many many people might find that the progress is not fast enough, we should never forget that MS/Asobo are basically starting from scratch after a 15 year absence from FlightSim development. Laminar instead has been continuously improving upon the XPlane 10 basis until today for about 10 years now. And being honest, most people will agree that XPlane 10 was far from perfect, and even XPlane 11 had some major bugs when it was released.
And while I agree that MSFS still has some deep flaws, I consider most of the stuff listed by the topic author as minor, cosmetic or even nitpicking. But I guess it’s all a question of expectations. And in a world that always emphasises that everything has to be faster and better all the time, and in which products have to be 100% perfect, I guess patience, gratitude and perspective for the big picture are virtues that have gone out of style
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Now go and play P3D and XP11 and come back and write a 2 stars again…LOL
When you fly on those two simulators above you have no good scenery even the ■■■■■■ one on MSFS is better than what you see out there. Give these people a break. They have a 10 years project. If the do a perfect sim on day 1 what are they going to do in the next 9? LOL…
Now seriously coding is a headache. As a Computer Science Major I can tell you how much codes you have to put to make a car moves etc. Covering a whole world is a pain since the scenery changes , the airport altitude change , the road change , etc. It is not that easy. To me those things are candy stuff that you basically don’t see anywhere in the flight sim world. I think things are improving. Just be patient and keep flying XP11 until the sim mature. But 2 of 5 stars I think it is an exaggeration.
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Or maybe we could drop both. Do we really need a label? How about “user”?
I guess I am just getting really tired of the apparent need to bash anyone that sees things differently. Pretty sure the vast majority here are adults. Would be nice if we could communicate like adults.
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Well if we are rating it as a “game” these are just some of the issues:
- too much attention to elitist fine details and not enough attention to silly stuff and fun
- the aircraft tend to sometimes fly like real ones rather than the Hollywood version a game would want
- there are not enough side quests and the main quest line is totally missing
- the PvP is awful
- you have trouble even seeing your pilot character and the customisation options are minimal you only get to choose from a limited range of pre-done avatars, where is the option to change the physical appearance of your pilot and dress him/her in various flight jackets, aviators, headsets etc
- you cannot “level up” your gear, there are no achievements that let you, for example, upgrade your headset for better sound
- you cannot purchase and equip your own hangar with appropriate tools benches and posters of half naked girls/guys lounging on a Reno P51 or a Lancair or something
- there are no achievements you can unlock to improve your aircraft
- there are no collectables, at the very least hand built airports should have a postcard you can collect and pin to the notice board in your hanger (see above)
- you cannot visit other peoples hangers and see what they have done in the way of decorations
- you cannot see other pilots avatars and get to comment on the their custom outfits and kit
… there are numerous other issues, too many to mention.
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What? does this mean?
Well, why are there no 3rd party traffic software available or letting 3rd party weather. Aerosoft do not currently have access to the weather system, thsts why there is no weather radar on the CRJ…I maybe wrong. Also I was flying with PF3 ATC…kept telling I was at the wrong altittude, which is another bug with Asobo.
I maybe completely wrong. Maybe its totally down to difficult coding. Like I say I am no expert.
Maybe I am impatient, but for me traffic is very important, for a Sim.
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I can only imagine that there are some specific areas of the sim that are integral to the base sim. Having 3rd party software mucking about in the core sim is just a really bad idea.
The sim is ported to accept specific classes of modifications. There is very little that is off limits to third part development. A significant investment in partnership agreements with both weather and traffic providers also creates some hurdles.
MS/Asobo have been very upfront about the future potential for outside developers to create add-ons for the sim. Just as it has been with previous versions, there will be copious amounts of stuff to spend your money on, eventually. This sim is creating new challenges for those 3rd parties with new languages and API’s. You stated you know nothing of coding. I suggest do some reading and you will find that creating new, quality content for the sim is not a weekend project.
Patience is going to be required. We are years away from the warehouse full of add-ons worth buying.
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Appreciate the answer, but I do enough reading…coding and programming is definatly not on the agenda 
. I realise its not a weekend project, the hours and time it takes to develop, one reason I pay for all the freeware out there, for their tim and effort it takes to produce a product to make the Sim better.
Too many avionic manuals to read, as well as work stuff.
Hopefully they will get a few issues fixed…like I said I do love this Sim, otherwise I wouldnt of invested soo much money into it.
It’s telling that most of your comments relate to scenery and/or superficial detail rather than actual flight simulation.
Flight dynamics, meteorology, procedures, IFR…not a mention.
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Thanks for your thoughts. I’ve got 2300hrs real world time mainly in trainers and fighters (T-37/38/F-15E) and I will tell you that this simulation out performs many of the simulator software platforms I’ve experienced in the $12-20 million dollar USAF sims for around $100. The simulator in VR is not perfect but nonetheless incredibly immersive and highly enjoyable. I flew FS95 back in the day when I was in flight training and while not a suitable replacement for training sims it did help with honing procedural skills etc. Taste is relative but MSFS 2020 is a game changer in my view.
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Thanks for the laugh. 
Well said.
In my 70 plus years, I’ve flown, or flown in, a pretty wide range of aircraft and I reckon this sim in both 2D and especially VR is mesmerising now, and can only get much better.
Heck, I only found out this week that in addition to ridge soaring, we can set up cloud formations that produce entirely usable thermals in the sim, without using external software, and this way before Asobo has implemented gliders officially. And I do it in an excellent free glider too (soaring enthusiasts are welcome on the MS Flight Simulator Gliders group on FB, by the way, from which this image and info comes…it’s not my screenshot).
OP doesn’t like the trees? There’s a great mod for that from bijanstudio that I can recommend. Heck, he even took the time to get my home state of Tasmania right, let alone the UK.
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