Pro:
1. It says '2024' – so now you can flex on those peasants still stuck on 2020. Progress, right?
Cons:
1. Not a new sim: It’s basically MSFS 2020 after a spa day – same but with slightly better posture (handling) and a new outfit (visuals).
2. Weather wizardry: Apparently, Asobo and Meteoblue are working together to ensure you always have unrealistic, immersion-breaking weather. Want realism? Buy a window instead and stare out of it.
3. Aircraft Meh-chanics: Default planes are like showroom models – look great but handle like shopping carts. Encryption ensures third-party devs can’t fix them, so good luck flying anything but your dreams.
4. Cloud-powered CHAOS: Streamed textures, assets, maybe even the handling model means Earth looks like an impressionist’s fever dream while your aircraft looks like it was made out of mashed potatoes and watercolours.
5. Control binding adventure: Want to reconfigure your joystick? Prepare for a mini-game where overlapping controls battle it out. Spoiler: You lose.
6. Console-first UI: The new interface screams, 'You're holding a controller, right?' For PC users, it’s like trying to pilot a 747 with an Etch-a-Sketch.
7. Career mode spawn roulette: Ready to kick off your aviation career? Plot twist: Your plane spawns upside down on top of a hangar or clips into a terminal building. But don’t worry, the game’s got your back—you’ll still get penalised for its mistake! Check ride? More like check out before you even leave the gate as it aims for the skies... literally.
8. Silent skies: Aircraft sounds are optional, apparently. Sometimes it’s dead quiet, like a post-apocalyptic flying experience. I suppose this could be a pro, too, since it would go well with the impressionist Earth and watercoloured aircraft textures.
9. Career bugs galore: Even the devs play-tested the first aircraft and noped out. Switch planes and you’ll find more bugs than in a jungle canopy.
10. Outdated satellite imagery: The world beneath you is so outdated in places, it could moonlight as a vintage map collection. Bing Maps might have fresh data, but Asobo seems to have gone for the “it’s good enough” approach—flying through history, quite literally. After all, the community wanted historical weather, right? Instead, we got a historical map.
11. AI Traffic failures: Real-world airline traffic spawns like budget Halloween costumes – half done and missing detail.
12. Ground vehicle vanishing act: Want just the immersive ground traffic? Sorry, this sim just Thanos-snapped that feature out of existence.
13. Blinding Bloom: The cockpit bloom at night is so intense it’s like staring into a nuclear reactor. Want to adjust or turn it off? Too bad! Asobo says, “What are settings?” You’ll need to wear aviators at night just to protect your retinas and maintain any semblance of night vision. Hope you like flying blind.
14. Control Feedback Mysteries: Want to check your joystick’s input curves in real-time? Nah. Asobo replaced that with the exciting new "Trial and Error" simulator.
15. Cookware Ready: While you wait for the sim to load from the cloud, your GPU will double as a frying pan. At least you’ll have snacks.
16. Camera controls: The “Neck Cramp” Edition: Want to set up close-up camera views for all your flight deck systems? Nope, you’re limited to just 9 views, and you’ll be grateful for them. Moving forward or backward to adjust your viewpoint? Enjoy the bonus feature: the camera also tilts up and down. Guess your neck muscles aren't as strong as you thought they were. And God forbid you aren't in straight and level flight, it gets even worse then. But don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of practice on that spontaneous head-banging routine, courtesy of MSFS 2024.
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Now, about that flex on the 2020 users?
Surprise! They’re already cruising at 30,000 feet in their bug-free, custom-tuned aircraft, surrounded by real AI traffic at fully operational airports. Meanwhile, you're still grounded, stuck in an upside-down plane half inside a terminal hangar, squinting through the nuclear bloom lighting, desperately Googling “fix for MSFS 2024 mashed potato textures,” all while your GPU simulates an impromptu cooking class. But hey, your fancy avatar standing on the tarmac, looking perplexed at you, must really justify that $70 asking price, right?
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These are the thoughts that came to mind based on my brief encounter with this product. Want to dive deeper? Google, Reddit, and AVSIM are your next stops—if you’re in the mood for endless discussions, troubleshooting tips, and enough opinions to make you question all of reality.