Reviews are out… and the verdict so far is overwhelmingly positive.
I’ll post more reviews as they appear.
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Well we can finally say it is a game now its on a console 
I’ll be more keen to see if they have made significant improvements to the PC version.
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Review scores are starting to trickle in to Metacritic. 94/100 at time of post.
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“Essential” rating from Eurogamer
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Omg here goes my night… reading reviews haha. Thank you so much for sharing!
Many of these reviews are focused on the X, would be interesting to read one focused on the S.
The first link above has three screenshots about half way down:
Caption on the last one shoild have also included the words “…because we forgot to turn photogrammetry on”
Duh!
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A YouTube review
Seeing these screenshots (and the caption) made the decision wether or not to read the article very easy!
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But while its console port is a technological triumph, it might still be too boring for a lot of players
As a lot of us said from some time, MS/Asobo will have to implement something fast to keep console players playing (subscription $$$)
one of the comment in a review that seems to have quite a lot of people already agreeing with
This is exactly what Games Pass is for. I’ll play the game once, show my wife the graphics (she won’t care) and then I’ll crash into my house. Game completed.
Game Pass is great for this. I recently loaded up a ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ game which cost me nothing (other than the sub) and it was total trash. But I got to try it, risk free.
Many will show off the graphics, crash into their house and that will be that.
But there will also be those that find they love it. Even a small percentage sticking around is a giant boost to the MSFS user-base.
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I agree. I just hope they’re working on something to make that % even bigger
Great news for PC and Xbox simmers alike I think. Not quite sure how they managed to pull it off but well done to them.
As others have already said, I think ASOBO is going to have to somehow keep the interest going if it is going to be a long term interest to console users. Activities, missions, challenges and career addons could be the way to go.
I agree. The reviews made comparisons to other simulators such as Euro Truck and Train Sim World where a career mode exists or a job system. This i presume wouldn’t be too hard to implement - even a simple job system would give console players something to strive for after the novelty wears off.
That being said, hoping that many stick around with the joy of flying
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Many Xbox games/simulators (whether it be Farm, Driving, even Goat simulators) have ‘gamification’ - a structured list of things to do, even if those things are just more of what people were doing anyway, people do love to check things off.
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Even though MS believes the console version will get a lot of new gamers hooked on flightsim, I highly doubt it. Please don’t shoot me for asuming that a lot of console players, use X-box/ Playstation or whatever, for action and shoot em’ up. And after trying MSFS on gamepass and tried crashing into buildings or each other, and realizing there’s no GTA or ways to shoot other planes down, they’ll try it a few times and then put it aside and never play it again. Sorry if that sounds negative, but I think console players will just see it as another beautiful, but not so interesting game. I think MSFS is more for the aviation geeks that have owned all the previously flightsims, and realize that flightsims like MSFS is the closest they will get to the real thing… I’m a aviation nerd myself, but haven’t bought MSFS yet, and don’t know if I ever will, but it won’t be on a console if I do.
@Radegund1983 @gordongreig I’d like to see some high resolution screenshots at a proper render scaling, instead of 81k jpeggies
The only video I’ve seen that shows full resolution on my 1920x1080 laptop screen is the official trailer.
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Assuredly some will see it that way. But up to now, cost (an expensive PC) has been a barrier to entry. How many from Xbox will embrace MSFS remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t take a large percentage to hugely impact the current user-base. (I also enjoy the action / shoot 'em ups, but I am not defined by them) 
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I’m a big sim fan but have been put off by the cost of a pc fit enough to run MSFS. I know plenty of console gamers who feel the same.
I’m sure there will be a market for this game.
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Haha I’m a sucker for this! I love checking things off. If you think about it, gamification is all around us… credit card or frequent flyer miles is an example… you gain “points” for completing activities. Games do the same, using systems such as XP (experience points). They do this because it keeps people engaged and coming back.
I would love a pilot XP system where you gain XP the more flying you complete, similar to the Driver mechanic system in Train Sim World.
Many people who fly in real do so for a reason… either being a career where you ‘rank up’ or the experience you gain from every flight. I love flying, but console gamers may need a little more as evidenced by some of the review comments.
Hi all,
Yep, that was indeed in offline mode, a fact that went over my fellow staffers’ heads when I showed them these very issues and asked for their thoughts. We regret the error–caused apparently by my Xbox pre-release test setting off a flag in my PC build and knocking it offline–and have since posted a correction (along with a much better comparison image of the PC version flying over Seattle). Hit me up at Ars with any other questions, as I don’t track the MSFS forums very often.
Best,
Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica
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