As we headed into the end of the year, there was reasonable excitement for Microsoft and the Xbox Series X/S. After all, the company was releasing not one, not two, but three big console exclusives within proximity. Heck, two of them – Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl – were launching within 24 hours. But that’s not what actually happened.
Instead, Asobo Studio’s highly anticipated sequel to the 2020 breakout flight sim, which put the franchise back on the map, ran into a snag. This “snag” effectively made it impossible for most players to log into the game. Many reported long initial loading times, while others reached 97 percent in their loading before it stopped. Those who could get in reported a rather shoddy experience, and given how cloud-reliant the title is, even more so than its predecessor, the only hope was to wait until the servers were fixed.
In the meantime, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 earned an “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating on Steam, with many expressing their disappointment and outrage. The development team quickly followed up with a launch day update, revealing that one of the services responsible for handling Career Mode and other missions had effectively overloaded due to the sheer number of requests. The problem was resolved, and players were brought in at a “steady pace.” Note that this didn’t mean everything was fine and dandy – just that the gates were slowly yet surely opening.
Server issues for online titles, regardless of the genre, are nothing new. Some of us assumed it would quickly gain its footing and the initial negative reviews would quickly turn positive (or cease to be relevant). Of course, with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 also launching, attention shifted to its various issues and bugs, including – but not limited to – the completely broken A-Life 2.0.
Contrary to expectations, however, Flight Simulator 2024 hasn’t bounced back. It’s still sitting a “Mostly Negative” rating from its current 6,122 user reviews – only 38 percent of them are positive. Thus far, players have pointed out issues with loading times, stuttering, and crashes (with a patch released to address the same). One review points out how they spent roughly 25 minutes loading through everything to experience about 10 minutes of flying for a single mission in Career Mode, though to be fair, five minutes were spent loading into the certifications menu.
Those ten minutes were also far from optimized with, to paraphrase, several assets missing, half-built airplanes on the tarmac, and the overall setting resembling a “post-apocalyptic wasteland.” And as some have pointed out, all that loading conveniently eats into the time allowed for refunding a game on Steam. While most certainly not intentional on behalf of Asobo or Xbox, it’s still a terrible look.
If you head over to the game’s subreddit, you’ll spot numerous other bugs. Passengers hanging out on the underside of an aircraft, a mission to fly from Florida to Spain – a distance of 4300 miles – using an aircraft only capable of 800 miles of flight, planes stuck in buildings and preventing tests from being taken – the list goes on.
There are clips of planes spawning onto runaways in Free Flight without their landing gear out, people hanging out on a plane’s wing, and a grey brick instead of what I assume was meant to be a plane, just taxiing along without a care. That’s in addition to complaints about the user interface and how it feels unintuitive, horrible AI voice acting in Career Mode, cheesy passenger dialogue, and more.
And yet, all of this is only a handful of tales about the game. Others tell – and show – a gorgeous title with exceptional attention to detail and an extensive range of fun things to do. We praised the visuals, physics model, and new features like World Photographer in our review. Even on the subreddit and Steam, you’ll find plenty gushing over the game’s realism and discovering new things like wildlife as they explore the world. Comparisons between real life and Flight Sim 2024 are also starting to circulate, and the latter matches up quite well.
The underlying message here is that when the game works, and there aren’t any (or at least minimal) issues, it’s quite an enjoyable experience. And really, that’s all fans want, especially when asked to put $70 after spending several years with its predecessor, which is not only in a better place technically but offers way more features and content for $10 less.
The problem with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is that the issues are far from minimal. Is it impressive that we managed to run the game on PC at 4K and almost all settings on Ultra with DLSS Quality enabled despite falling short of the ideal requirements? Yes, but even as it hovers between 30 and 45 frames per second, it’s difficult to ignore the stutters.
The performance is more stable on the Xbox Series X at 30 FPS, but there are still a few drops. In both versions, loading into and out of maps doesn’t take very long, but they’re beset by these bizarre transitions that almost feel like a crash is coming. When loading into a map, the game stutters heavily before finally stabilizing.
But don’t just take our word for it. One of the positive reviews highlights the lack of exporting controls from the previous game, a bug after landing in a mission which indicated they had arrived at the wrong airport and that the correct location was 6500 kilometers off. The aircraft also made no sounds (which necessitated a quick workaround).
Also, remember that just because your experience has gone relatively smoothly, doesn’t mean there aren’t some game-breaking bugs. A quick peek at Asobo’s Known Issues list reveals a potential crash or the game becoming unresponsive when using specific large plans near “large custom airports.” And while nearly 8000 add-ons have been converted from the previous game’s Marketplace, some are causing issues that prevent the game from loading entirely. The team is currently in the process of validating all of them.
The tech will most likely be optimized over time, and as more bugs are squashed, players should be able to get to the fun faster. Even if some of the hardcore don’t consider the absolute most realistic sim on the market, there is certainly some fun to be had in just cruising through the clear skies in a snow-covered region. It’s also wonderful to admire the sunset off the coast of a major city with all the gorgeous reflections in the water, or even just get out of your plane and appreciate the different details and the flora and fauna of a biome.
It’s certainly all there in what’s one of the biggest games ever made, but having to deal with so many issues to finish a simple mission or just dive in for a Free Flight is off-putting at best and immensely frustrating at worst. The kicker for this is that polish and optimization are only the start of the journey. Even after Asobo implements fixes and ensures things are running smoother, it must deliver add-ons and updates to surpass its 2020 title. Regardless of all the positives and potential, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will need more than its fair share of time to shine.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.