Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Review (ZoraSlade)
100+ hours playing this simulator and it has tested my patience to the breaking point.
Firstly, Free Flight mode works fine and most 3rd party aircraft work without incident. If that's your bread and butter, by all means have fun.
If you are wanting to play Career mode, don't buy this game until this feature has been fixed. My attraction to this version of Microsoft Flight Simulator was mostly for Career mode; an awesome feature that we haven't seen in a Simulator yet, putting aside using a 3rd Party plugins as a substitute.
This feature is plagued with bugs which will not only frustrate the hell out of you, but bring you seldom satisfaction when it actually works. Some of these are:
1) Aircraft weight and balance doesn't work when adjusted from the UI. A keybind must be used to adjust fuel load. Also, the aircraft are never fueled enough for the trip being flown
2) Mission objectives can misdirect you to land on the wrong runway. Hold Short locations are also oddly placed and impact immersion
3) The game penalizes you for actions you did correctly or didn't do at all. For example, stopping at Hold Shorts and asking for Taxi clearance will sometimes penalize you for moving when you are completely stopped
4) Aircraft spawn locations at the start of missions can be in odd places, making it risky to taxi without "Crashing" the aircraft. I have had my aircraft spawn in a building or against a tree many times. Skipping to Taxi can get around this
5) Some small airports and landing strips are misrepresented with paved runways when they should be grass/dirt. If you fly in Australia like me, you will notice most dirt strips are paved. This can also penalize you as the runways are the width of a taxiway and ping you for have a wheel off the runway or even a runway excursion
6) Passive Income is random or non-exsistent. Even after flying missions, some days you will get $0 income. I have 5 companies; each with their own aircraft with Crew toggled ON. I've so far gone 3 days without any passive income, but got charged for Insurance per flight hour.
7) Aircraft Insurance doesn't pay out, completely useless at this time.
8) Real weather and turbulence affects on the aircraft are exaggerated. Even with small winds of 2-5kts, the aircraft can seesaw on its yaw axis the entire flight.
9) Some Aircraft like the TBM 930 are completely broken and cannot be used. Others have some exaggerated behaviors such as tipping over a low speeds and yawing/dutch roll moments.
10) The icing on the cake is progression. Long-haul flights are especially risky to attempt in Career Mode as the game will hit you with Unexpected Errors at anytime during the flight, ripping you of any progress made. The last straw for me was my second attempt of a 4hr long Cargo flight that resulted in my aircraft "Crashing" at the end of the flight on the taxiway due to a pit in the terrain that wasn't visible. This not only wasted 4hrs of my time, but also destroyed my aircraft which insurance did not pay out on.
As pretty as this Simulator is, my main buying point was Career Mode as it gave me more purpose for flying. Until this feature is fixed, my only other options is to go back to MSFS2020 and use OnAir or FSE for this feature. I have been burned too many times and I'm not investing anymore time into this feature until it is stable.
I honestly wanted to give this game the benefit of the doubt and try to have fun with the feature I was looking forward to. It's a great disappointment that this game was released in such a state. I have hopes that Asobo/Microsoft will fix these problems and make this into a great experience. But, we will have to wait until then.