There are few inventions in recent gaming culture as hilarious as “Twitch Plays.” Ever since someone figured out how to control Pokemon via Twitch chat, other clever programmers have set this technology loose on other games, resulting in a degree of gameplay chaos that can only be achieved by up to thousands of players trying to control the same game all at once. So it was only a matter of time before people started getting the idea to try it out on Microsoft Flight Simulator.
It’s not much of a shock that the Twitch Plays community set its sights on this year’s hit entry in the sim series. Between its focus on realism, attention to detail, and in-depth controls, it demands precision from players attempting to use Microsoft Flight Simulator to recreate real-world flying situations. That makes it an obvious choice to see how well the game can fare when put to the ultimate stress test that is a crowd-controlled playthrough.
Already, a few people have attempted to let Twitch play Microsoft Flight Simulator, with the latest being indie game developer Rami Ismail. Over the past few days, Ismail has given his Twitch subscribers free reign to steer several planes on autopilot via the usual chain of chat box commands, and for the most part it went about as well as one would expect. Aside from multiple flights ending with the Twitch collective crashing the plane, there were plenty of instances of bungled take-offs, landing brakes being deployed randomly, and even the occasional close call.
But if a Twitch chat can somehow beat Dark Souls with enough time, then it’s possible for it to do the same with a flight in Microsoft Flight Simulator. That’s just what Ismail’s subscribers were eventually able to achieve, as somehow they managed to get a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner to take off from Kosice, Slovakia, fly around for an hour, and circle back to land at Kosice International Airport without crashing the plane (they did land a bit short of the runway, but still).
All things considered, this is a resounding success. It takes a great amount of patience and luck to endure the hot mess that is a typical Twitch Plays playthrough. By doing so, Ismail and his subscribers have made it so Microsoft Flight Simulator can now join Pokemon and other games that have been beaten by Twitch chat, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, and Tetris.
It just goes to show that players have been able to make their own fun with the game, in addition to its built-in content, as the Godzilla mod for Microsoft Flight Simulator can attest.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is available for PC, with an Xbox One version in development.
Source: Twitch