Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: PlayStation 5 Review

When I heard that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was arriving on the PlayStation in December, I marked the date on the calendar and planned coverage. As a primary PlayStation player, my admiration for the game (and series) has always been from afar. Can I really fly a plane over my home city? Can I explore the African wilderness, take on the Grand Canyon, soar through New York’s skyscrapers and then land in Central Park to smell the roses? While aviation in general is interesting, my focus has been on taking flight and viewing the world from above. Was there a barrier to free flight, and would it take me 1,000 hours before feeling like a competent pilot? My questions were answered within the first hour. I took some of the training modules, figured my understanding of games could be enough to hit the skies, and was soon soaring over Melbourne as the sun rose on the horizon. There’s Marvel Stadium, a place I’ve been to countless times this year to watch my AFL team play. There’s a track I’ve walked recently. There’s the Bolte Bridge, which I used to drive across every day for work. This instant feeling of recognition then clashed with the wonder of exploring places I’ve never been to, taking photos in a range of modes. Lowering my helicopter near the Egyptian Pyramids, following the Great Wall of China, taking photos of giraffes eating leaves across the landscape. There is plenty here, but there is also a limitation to the detail of the world and a barrier to casual gamers. Let’s dive in.

This is not a new game, released last year on Xbox and PC. The game takes a flight simulator approach, much like Gran Turismo but for the skies. The offerings off the bat are career mode, free flight, challenge mode, world photography, adventure and more. As I’ve stated, most gamers not hyper-focused on the realism/simulation of being an aviation expert will want to quickly navigate the skies of interesting locations. The fact that the whole world is open to explore is, at first, mind boggling. Any airport, any location, rendered through Microsoft’s mapping system in Bing. You can even land anywhere, get out of your plane and walk around in first-person. Now, I will delve into the limitations and issues within this process, but the sheer number of things to do means this is a game that should remain on your home screen for as long as possible if flight is your jam.

Firstly, gameplay. Flying. The game encourages you to either take the tutorials or enter career mode (which includes those tutorials). Each module is about 5 minutes long, with the first modules teaching you about the parts/functions of the plane, how to turn the engine on, how to take off and land, how to manoeuvre in the skies, and much more. Let me be straight: my first flight was rough. So were the next fifteen. I couldn’t work out how to keep straight without constant corrections, every turn sent me cannoning back down to land, and I would forget the button mapping. The only way to master the art is to put in the hours. Once you’re in the sky and have tucked a few successful flights under your seatbelt, flying straight and making small turns to change direction is relatively natural. Even lift-off is easy when space permits – turn off the brakes, gather enough pace and pull on that yoke until you have enough altitude. Landing, not as straight forward. Keeping the plane on the ideal trajectory, speed and alignment with the runway can be a challenge. The career mode ensures you are generally close to a landing spot, but if you’re free-flying you’ll likely need skills and navigation to pull off a safe arrival. To fly well, you must fly frequently. Career mode turns into business mode, and may be a draw for those wanting to step through growth in flight skill, understanding and depth.

With such an open slate of activities, knowing which (or where) to tackle caused me to dabble in a bit of everything rather than learning the full extent of aviation practice. As stated, landing and walking around appealed greatly to me as a fan of open-world games. Explore the whole world on foot? See animals? Moving traffic? Count me in. While the game’s map is generated realistically, zooming in shows all the blemishes. From great heights, the moving cars and light across buildings looks fantastic (especially at night in popular cities). Zoom in either with the camera or through movement, and the buildings take the form of blocks or mounds. Walking through my street was like navigating a post-apocalyptic town. I’ll admit, it was still highly entertaining. I would advise not expecting too much from the landing and walking around component (which can be done in third or first person). Of course, some places have more detail than others and there is every chance the launch update will improve the foundations here (and perhaps highest speed internet). But the draw of this game is simulating flight and travelling across the world in a wide assortment of aircrafts. And when you’re competent? Enough challenges and locations to last a lifetime.

One aspect that did cause minor frustrations was the load times. Mapping a whole world takes power and time. Even getting to the home screen takes a few minutes on average. Then, post-flight or loading into a flight can also take a while. After just completing Ghost of Yotei before this, noting they are completely different games, requirements dictate a difference in load times. Once you’re in the skies, this is not an issue aside from minor glitches. This game is one to be taken slowly and carefully outside of some of the high-octane challenges. Load times are therefore more forgiving in the process and would sit cleanly alongside aviation’s prepping and planning.

My back-and-forth through different modes saw me settle for the most time in World Photographer. There is a large list of different types of locations, with rather quick access to renowned monuments, natural wonders, animals and mountains. I first tried the pyramids of Egypt, hovering over them in a helicopter and snapping away. Next, I tried Mt. Everest and bathed in the stretch of snow in every direction (using a speedy jet). I then switched to my own country, taking in Uluru and then snapping some kangaroos bounding on the ground. Each challenge/location was clear, rather fast and visually stronger than just choosing random locations. Soaring over Angkor Wat in Cambodia, a place I hold distinct memories, is an activity only this game can really provide. While the career mode is for the simulation lovers, I’m not sure my patience extends to 100s of hours in learning and mastering flight. But give me locations to capture in photo mode, limited only by my knowledge of the world, and I’ll be filling up my PlayStation capture folder into the future.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 brings its aviation simulation to the PlayStation for the first time, providing access to so many players that have wanted to dive into the world of flight. The game is not without its glitches and does provide some longer load times, but the rewards are there in the form of learning flight, surpassing challenges and seeing your favourite locations across Earth. Flying isn’t easy, nor should it be. But typing in a city, changing the time/weather, lifting off and viewing the rendered landscapes from above has some highs that really can take the breath away. There is so much to see a do here, even if the roadmap and length is dependent on the individual’s focus. Now, time to check out Antarctica.

Pros