PC World - USA (2020-10)

OCTOBER 2020 PCWorld 73

sure how much you’ll notice taking off or
landing, the baggage carts and other details
scattered around the recreation of LAX, for
example, certainly add validity to Microsoft’s
recreation of the world.
Clouds...look like clouds. I really want to
go hunting for some
big, lazy
thunderheads, but I
haven’t had time
quite yet. Are Ayers
Rock, Machu
Picchu, and the
Pyramids all visible
from the air? What’s
the weather like
flying through a
hurricane? Are there
updrafts over the

Sahara? I don’t know,

but the world’s there

for me to find out.

I can’t really speak

to performance, as

Microsoft doesn’t

appear to make a

frame counter

available. Microsoft

recommended that I

play the game on

“high” settings,

though I turned down

the resolution to

1080p for the

gameplay stream. I played on a Surface Book

3 (Core i7-1065G7/32GB RAM/GTX 1660Ti

Max-Q), and I’d have preferred a faster GPU.

Recording video does rob a few CPU

cycles from gameplay, but you’ll probably

want a desktop or a dedicated gaming PC to

The only thing Microsoft Flight Simulator needs is a dedicated photo mode,
though the “Showcase” feature as part of the external camera mode helps do
the job, Microsoft says.

Flights begin with a closeup of the aircraft.