Anyone with acrophobia or aviophobia might not want to go near the upcoming newest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Based on pre-alpha footage of the game posted by NVIDIA GeForce UK on Twitter Monday, it could be scarily close to the real thing.
The series of Microsoft Flight Simulator games has a long history, with the first entry appearing on IBM PCs in 1982. However Microsoft received the rights to use that simulation from the subLOGIC Corporation, which had been developing versions of the program as early as 1979 for the Apple II.
A "next generation" version of the game was announced during Xbox's 2019 E3 conference with a vague 2020 release date. The Xbox website promises the game will feature "highly detailed and stunning aircraft[s] in an incredibly realistic world," as well as simulations for daytime and nighttime flying in different weather conditions.
The Xbox website currently hosts a number of screenshots and two videos (one of which being the E3 announcement trailer), but none of it feels quite as visceral as the pre-alpha footage from November posted by NVIDIA — A company which has been creating products like graphics cards since it was founded in 1993.
Long gone are the days of chunky, pixelated graphics that defined the Microsoft Flight Simulator games of the 80s and 90s (as impressive as those were for the time). Now the world around Microsoft's simulation has the potential to be something spectacular to behold - Particularly in real-time 4K, which the original E3 trailer wants players to know is possible in its first second.
The graphics do not look quite perfect yet. Immersive moments in the tweeted gameplay video are intercut with scenes looking out of the plane's side window at environments that feature the kind of chunky facsimile of rooftop textures one might expect to see when zooming in on Google Maps.
But these kind of rough edges are to be expected from pre-alpha footage. Snippets of the video, specifically one where the plane is descending onto a runway while cars idly pass on a nearby road and another watching the plane circle around a foggy cityscape, are mesmerizing in their realness.
No doubt Microsoft is focusing their energy to capitalize on the current zeitgeist of idyllic, time-killing, and realistic simulation games. They have exploded in popularity over the last decade thanks to titles like SCS Software's Euro Truck Simulator 2 from 2012 or GIANTS Software's Farming Simulator series (which has released new versions almost yearly since 2008; the Call of Duty of agriculture).
However there's an argument to be made that Microsoft helped create that style of relaxing game thanks to the popularity of its flight simulator series. Time will tell whether they can reclaim the glory through this new, ambitious-looking venture.
Microsoft Flight Simulator will be available in 2020 on Windows 10 and the Xbox One. It will also be available through Xbox Game Pass.