Aircraft used: ATR, LVFR 320, PMDG 738
Live weather: on
It feels like I’ve been waiting an eternity for Spain’s fourth busiest airport to properly appear in the sim. I used to briefly live a few miles down the road and spent many an hour at the perimeter fence, camera in hand.
DETAIL
I must admit, I was concerned about the level of detail when I saw that the file is a less-than-300mb download. Fine for stability and performance, perhaps, but how can we get much fine detail into what is a relatively large airport at such a tiny file size? I’ve no idea, but MK have worked the sort of magic that was once exclusive to Pyreegue…
The detail is incredible, from the impressive new part of the terminal (and its interior) to the enormous amount of custom GSE cluttering up every available nook and cranny!
Let’s begin with the terminal, which is basically comprised of two parts: the original concourse (with its two short piers) and the new extension — which together now form one huge building. Both parts have been beautifully recreated, right down to the ornate roof of the newer portion, and the intricate detail in the windows of the original building. Both sections feature full interiors, complete with animated passengers (bear in mind, a <300mb download!), however the original structure seems to have received more attention. It’s exactly as I remember it as a very young man in the mid-nineties — even having the awful pink vinyl flooring going up/down to each airbridge!
Moving airside, the ground markings are generally excellent, though there are some areas where the texturing doesn’t bond together brilliantly (see image no. 4 below). Still, it’s a very minor criticism and most people likely won’t notice it.
The custom clutter airside is worthy of note since there’s a tremendous amount of it. Some of it isn’t done using the highest resolution textures but, again, it’s not really noticeable and has no doubt been done on purpose to maintain stability and performance.
The landside areas are mostly custom modelled and generally look really good, save for a few patches here and there that are a bit untidy. The elevated roadways look particularly impressive and you can see that a lot of work has gone into them. Many of MK’s previous airports feature an abundance of default satellite imagery landside so it’s great to see the extensive custom modelling here, even if it is a touch rough around the edges in places. There’s some decent custom clutter to be found, including TUI and Jet2 tour buses, plus the now almost obligatory lower-res parked cars. Much of the road signage is also lower-res but, again, no doubt to alleviate stress on the Xbox’s hardware. For how often you’re going to be seeing these signs close up, it’s immaterial.
Away from the terminals the high level of detail is maintained, from the military and commercial complexes to the south and west, to the cargo area north of the main apron. The only major disappointment is the omission of the huge San Miguel brewery at the airport’s entrance, but this has now been added (for PC — Xbox to follow). Also missing (and not yet addressed) is the Iberia-liveried DC-3 at the aviation museum, which should be visible next to the Kar-Air Convair (which HAS been modelled).
Worth a mention is how great the airport looks by night, with the tower being illuminated in green and the canopy of the new concourse in pink. Also present are the red lights atop many of the taller airport structures — the only issue with these lights is that they’re way too prominent from distance, but this appears to be a sim limitation rather than anything MK have done wrong.
PERFORMANCE
Despite the small download size concerning me regarding the level of detail, it did boost my confidence with respect to performance and stability. And that confidence proved well founded as both are flawless. I can count one one hand the number of incidents of (very minor) stuttering I’ve experienced, and I’ve tried everything to get it to black screen/crash… without success. It doesn’t matter what aircraft you use, or how frequently you use the drone… it just doesn’t falter! I’m truly astonished how they’ve managed to get a large, highly-detailed airport running on console, in a package that downloads at less than 300mb!
VERDICT
MK’s Malaga has jumped straight onto my ‘top 3 Xbox airports ever’ list. It really is that good. Yes, it has a few rough edges here and there but nothing that’s gonna kill immersion. Besides, some of those those ‘rough edges’ are quite possibly what’s keeping it so stable on console.
Almost everything looks absolutely fantastic and as someone who knows the airport well, I can say for certain that they’ve managed to perfectly capture the essence of the place.
Credit must also go to Asobo here for the quality of the photogrammetry on the Costa del Sol — it’s quite possibly the best in the sim and stretches from Gibraltar in the west, right the way to Alicante in fact, halfway up Spain’s eastern coast! Flying the approach to either of the two northerly-facing runways has you passing low over various retail outlets, including Makro (modelled by MK), Ikea and the Plaza Mayor shopping centre. It all looks great and really adds to the experience of arriving at Malaga! The icing on the cake is that MK have listened to customers and swiftly released an update adding the famous San Miguel brewery — we just have to wait a little longer for the Xbox update, and hopefully in the meantime they’ll work to add more of the detail currently missing on the airport approach road.
To conclude, this is about as perfect as a MSFS airport on Xbox realistically gets. MK are now undoubtedly one of the sim’s premier devs and I very much look forward to their next project.
IMAGES
