Before I begin, I want to say that I don’t intend for this article to be a list of complaints and bashing of the product. If that’s what you are expecting to see, you’ll be disappointed.
I will mention what’s bothering me and what is disappointing to me, though. And it’s not just about the launch.
This is not a review, mind you. I don’t want to do that right now. I don’t consider the sim to be in a state that warrants me to go through a proper review only to have to revisit it later. It would probably give me some extra clicks, but that’s not my goal.
The fact that I am not writing a review right now, should be a clear indication of my thoughts on the sim: I don’t think it’s quite ready yet.
Having that said, let’s get started. Before I move on, I just want to add that the copy I am using was provided to me by Xbox. I highly appreciate and thank them for their kindness.
From the top
Installing the sim was not a huge deal to me. It downloaded and installed in a few minutes, so all went well here. Running it for the first time did take some time and I got the 97% issue. If you are unaware of what that is, it’s a problem where the sim got stuck at 97% and it just stayed there.
As Microsoft recommended, I rebooted my computer and started the sim again. Problem solved.
That first load took its time, as Microsoft predicted, so, all good. I browsed around the menus. I am a fan of the new design, although I know a lot of folks aren’t – we all have our tastes and preferences.
The first issue
I tried to fly the H125 around for a bit and the flight dynamics feel nicer than in MSFS2020. I tried the landing challenge again. I had tried it back in the Grand Canyon and I found an issue when trying to land the helicopter on the lighthouse.
As I approached to land, the H125 was being thrown out of the helipad, violently. I tried it several times back then, to confirm the issue. It was there. I talked to Sebastian Wloch about it, and he said it could be an issue with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
The problem persists, which means there probably wasn’t enough time to take a look at it, considering how close we were to release back then.
I was disappointed, although I believe it will eventually be addressed. I was hoping that would happen before the release, though.
The second issue
Filtering aircraft by type caused the sim to Crash To Desktop (CTD). I had 2 CTDs throughout the lifetime of MSFS 2020. Total. I got one during the first 15 minutes of using MSFS 2024. Ouch.
No worries. There’s a bug here. Annoying but bearable.
I restarted the sim, and I found…
The third issue (and this is a really annoying one)
The sim took about 13 -14 minutes to load. I am not exaggerating. I timed it. It takes 10 minutes to get from 9% to 17%. 2 minutes to get from 6% to 9%.
I tried rebooting my computer and I hoped the patch that was released meanwhile would fix it. No go. I lose almost 15 minutes every time I want to get into MSFS 2024.
I tried the aircraft filter again, and, with that, I had to get into the sim twice. I lost 30 minutes just looking at the loading screen.
This alone is preventing me from getting into the sim more often. My simming time is quite limited and having to wait 15 minutes shave what is, very often, half a simming session for me. I sometimes only have 20-30 minutes to do a quick flight, test stuff, and try new features. It’s not much but it’s enough to get a better picture of the sim.
With 15-minute loading times? I can forget these “power sessions”.
Career mode (seriously?)
One of the things that I was more excited about was the mission system. Not so much because of the progression side of things but because I realized that it was the only way to access the new features: sling loading, firefighting, etc.
At the Global Preview Event that was held at the Grand Canyon, I realized that to access helicopters, I had to get the PPL first. I voiced my concerns to the person that is in charge of this feature, David Dedeine, and I told him that it made no sense to me that someone who only wanted to fly helicopters had to go through fixed-wing aircraft. There’s a PPL-H after all.
The sim forces us to take an initial flight in a fixed-wing aircraft, then either go through the lessons or just take the exam. Which I did, directly. And I did enough to pass it. My score was terrible, and I don’t care. I did it on purpose as I just wanted to get it done and move on to helicopters. I took no pleasure in doing either of the flights. It was a chore, and it was frustrating.
But now I am done, and I can move on to helicopters.
Or so I thought.
Taking a look at the helicopter certification (which is the commercial pilot license), I found it was locked. I had to do a couple of missions to unlock it.
A couple of missions with, you guessed it, a fixed-wing aircraft.
I did a couple of missions, completely ignoring everything else, I admit. You’ll understand what I mean in a minute.
Got them done. Another chore. And I unlocked the certification. Got into it, and checked the first lesson, because I was curious about it.
Well, the lesson was bugged and although I got all the tasks green, it never ended. More wasted time. All right let’s just get into the exam.
It was disabled.
To be able to do the exams we need to have in-game credits. No, no, no, don’t worry, we don’t have to buy credits with real money. Fortunately. If had to, I would quit on the sim, honestly.
But the thing is that we need to fly missions to make credits. And I did fly a couple of them. The thing is, we can skip parts of the flight – like taxi, flying to the location, etc. And I did that because, again, I don’t want to fly fixed-wing aircraft. So, the quicker I get rid of having to be forced to fly these missions, the better.
So, I didn’t earn a lot of credits. Which prevents me from getting the certification.
I’m done. I give up.
I am perfectly fine with the fact that Microsoft and Asobo implemented the system for those who like that. But I am not fine with having a wall in front of the ability to perform missions. I don’t want to be forced to fly fixed-wing aircraft or even helicopters, to “earn credits” to progress.
I don’t want to play the game. And I am not using the “game” expression in a derogatory way. I have no issues with the gamification of some parts of the sim. That’s what a lot of people asked for and that sense of progress is certainly a cool thing if you are into it.
I’m not. I just want to fly helicopters and do those missions. I have no interest in having a virtual career, earning points, or anything like that.
I don’t even mind going through the certifications to progress to new mission types. But I don’t want to have to be forced to play missions to unlock certifications or earn credits. It makes no sense to me. At all.
I understand this system we designed to help guide people into virtual aviation. I’m not one of those people. So, no, I don’t have to follow career mode.
Except I do, because there’s no other way – at least that I could find – to play the missions I was so excited about.
That is beyond annoying.
Edit: there is a thread in the official forums, asking for a sandbox career mode. Go check it out, upvote and comment if you agree and if you'd like to be able to access missions more freely.
World Photographer
This is the feature that I talked about previously which I thought was pretty cool. I still do. It has a few cool places for us to fly to and enjoy.
I still wish we could have the option to take off and go back to. I also told Asobo about that. It would give me a better sense of achievement than just starting the flight in the location, entering Photography Mode, and hitting space.
Granted, there are a few other things that we can do to earn the extra stars – which can be nice and allow us to get nice screenshots, but I would like the ability to do a full flight. Again, as an option.
My first conclusions
MSFS 2024 feels like a chore to me right now.
It’s not the case for a lot of folks out there and I realize that. A lot of you don’t have issues with loading, and couldn’t care less about helicopters (if you are reading this, chances are you do care about them), free flight is enough for you and the graphics make your day.
I’m also OK with free flight, mind you. I have been using it for years and it has always scratched my virtual aviation itch.
But we do have a new product, with great new features, on paper, that is not delivering what I expected it to deliver, even after the community spoke about it. I wasn’t the only one mentioning the career mode being too punishing and not logical. A lot of people out there think the same and, honestly, from a technical standpoint, I don’t see any reason as not to have a button on the settings or an option in career mode to ignore locks and credit costs.
That would be a start. I hope someone comes out with an addon to remove those constraints.
Right now, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is not fun for me, and I don’t see myself spending a lot of time in it – mostly because most of that time will be spent looking at the loading screen.
I hope this will change soon. Even if I can’t access helicopter missions, World Photographer and the new scenery system would pull me into the sim. Well, I can access helicopter missions. I just don’t want to because it feels like a chore, and I take no joy in going through that process.
First things first.
Microsoft and Asobo have to fix the infrastructure problems. Then, I hope they will start addressing the rest and listening to the community, which is something I know they do. The reaction time may be a bit longer than we’d like to, though.
I’ll be waiting.
