From epic battles in the walls of Troy of mythological proportions, to exploring the world at an altitude of 30,000 feet in the air.
This time, I review the latest game in the series that currently holds a World Record of the longest running video game series ever.
Is this game as successful as British Airways, all this game be a flop like Concorde, and barely get off the ground?
Delta Golf Romeo cleared for takeoff on runway 7 chocks away, air brake disengaged. Please ensure that you leave your tray tables in the upright position, and fasten your seatbelt during takeoff. Please enjoy your flight!
(best enjoyed with headphones on!)
Since the dawn of humanity, it was our ambition as a species to fly, to explore the skies, out of curiosity.
Thanks to Wilbur and Orville Wright and their aircraft took to the skies for the first time on December 17, 1903, the dream of flight was made a reality.
Today, the aviation industry has a net worth of $2.7 trillion. As hundreds of thousands of people relying on air travel to to travel to foreign destinations for either business, recreation, or relocation. However, in recent years, the aviation industry has been in decline. This is due to environmental concerns, concerns over international terrorism. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe damage to the industry as a whole.as governments of the world respond to possible second spikes of the virus in their respective countries.
As I have said in the introduction of this review, Microsoft's flight simulator series currently holds the Guinness world record of the longest running video game series. The first entry was released in November 1982. 37 years ago!
To put things into perspective, EA's series of football games, FIFA was released in 1993. By my calculations, Microsoft flight simulator series is a whole decade older than FIFA.Take that EA!
Matter of fact, the developers of Microsoft Office added a game, ssimilar to Flight Simulator in Their Copy of Excel 95 (not kidding, guys!)
The previous entry in the series, flight simulator X was released in 2006. Here we are, in 2020 with a new entry in the series. This time around, the developers has been switched from Dovetail Games to Asobo Studios.
You can create a flight plan between 2 airports or airfields from an extensive list of 37,000. All of which are manually edited by the developers, or simply flying around The Earth at entirely at your own pace! In this game the world is truly your playground.
The accessibility scores are as follows –
Visibility 10.5
In terms of this particular category, the developers seems to take things very seriously. There are colour blind modes available in the menus.
However, the in-flight instruments do not reflect colourblind modes that you have decided to activate. To be fair, this is a simulation game. So, changing the colours of the flight instruments would lose a lot of authenticity. Hence the reason why I didn't marl the score down too harshly! Apart from that, and visually impaired players should be able to play this game with minimal to no issues!
Audibility 11
The Indian subtitles which can be activated in the options menu. Better still, the text that is displayed in menus and subtitles can be customised. So you'll be to play this game without the risk of getting eyestrain!
Mobility 9.5
In this game, you can use either a keyboard and mouse, or a controller to play this game. Better still, these controls can be completely customised.
The biggest criticism, however is that in order to activate a set of feature you would have to use a combination of three keys. For example, to allow your co-pilot to take control of the aeroplane, or regain control of it you have to press control, alt and X keys!
On the other hand, as I have said before, the customisation options can be a solution to these problems, so make sure that you pay a visit to the control section of the options menu so you can customise your controls to suit your impairment.
You can use alternative controllers to gain a deeper sense of realism of you being in the cockpit of an actual aircraft, for example joysticks, pedals and various other third-party peripherals. So a mobility impaired player can play this game with very few issues!
Gameplay 11
The realism of this game is unparalleled. The game can automatically sync up with Microsoft service, Bing to access real-time weather data which can be reflected into the game itself. For example if a thunderstorm were to appear over your destination airport in real life, this weather data is automatically and dynamically reflected in the game.
As I have said earlier on in the review, the choice of airports to fly from and to is extensive, the amount of aircraft you can fly in is very small. In it's current state, only 20 aircraft is selectable from the humble propeller-based aircraft, to massive commercial airliners for example, the Boeing 787 dream liner.
Graphically, this game is immense. The footage you do see in the video above is actually on the low preset!
As I have said earlier, you can fly to pretty much anywhere in the world or, build and follow a flight plan from one airport to another. So, you can fly around a ciry's airspace, or if you're in the mood for a real challenge, you can try to land on a remote airfield on Mont Blanc, which is located in the French Alps!
You can either play this game by yourself, or dive into an online world with other pilots, you can also tailor your flight experience so you can tailor the difficulty to suit your skill level (in my case, lack thereof!)
In summary,Microsoft Flight Simulator is like Marmite – you love it or hate it. If it was up to me, I absolutely love it! I do enjoy the true sense of freedom that this game has. Regrettably, this is the closest thing to actually flying an aircraft that I will ever get to! You can play this game for hours and hours on end, but never gets boring!
If I were to pick a game of the year for 2020, I would most definitely pick this game. Each and every airfield presents its own unique challenge. For example, Prestwick International Airport is a very easy airport to land. This is because the runways on there are the longest in Europe! Hence the reason why the airport itself is very popular for most aviation schools. One of the length of these runways measures at a massive 2986 m! This game is currently on game pass. Seriously, guys at least give this game a try! Seriously do it now!
OVERALL SCORE 105%
It looks as though the flight simulator series has broken yet another record – the highest scoring game in DGR History!
See you guys in the next review!
SpartanCommander1990 out!
Roll out, Spartan Company!
No comments:
Post a Comment