Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Twitch
    Game on Aus
    • News

      We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

      June 28, 2022

      GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably…

      ANZPL Season 4 Champions

      World Of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final: Champions Decided In Sydney Derby

      June 27, 2022

      The ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final is here. The Sentinels take on the Skorpions to find out who will be the Season 4 champions!

      Best Console Digital Deals of the Week 24/6/2022

      June 23, 2022

      PlayStation has released it’s Mid-Year Sale offerings along with a few great choices for deals to be picked up on…

      Sentinels vs Skorpions to clash in World of Tanks ANZ Premier League Finals

      June 23, 2022

      [This press release has been provided by Wargaming PR and is presented by the GOA team for your information] The…

      Fall Guys is finally available on all platforms…and it’s free!

      June 22, 2022

      The wildly chaotic, battle royale-like party game, Fall Guys, has finally launched on all platforms. Up until today, Fall Guys…

      View All
    • Reviews

      We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

      June 28, 2022

      GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably…

      The Quarry – The Review

      June 24, 2022

      OK readers, I have a secret to tell. And I might lose some of your respect after I tell you.…

      Necesse screenshot

      Necesse – the perfect blend of two iconic indie games

      June 23, 2022

      I really don’t know how to open this other than: more people need to be playing Necesse ASAP, it’s my…

      More D&D Monsters! A review of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters Of The Multiverse

      June 22, 2022

      THERE are a lot of sourcebooks for Dungeons & Dragons out there. D&D 5e (the current edition) has something like…

      SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless Gaming Mouse Review

      June 19, 2022

      DESPITE never being the hugest fan of MMO/MOBA games, largely due to my lack of patience and willingness to invest…

      View All
    • Podcasts
      game on aus logo

      Predators Beware!

      June 23, 2022

      Stormie’s not well this week so Pete and Jim carry on! The lads chat how many lootboxes you need in…

      Episode 245 Hero Card

      Episode 245: Summer Games Fest!

      June 17, 2022

      Catch up with all the news from a weekend of announcement at Summer Games Fest! Pete, Stormie and Jim talk highlights and lowlights along with games that are just too big!

      Episode 244: Diablows?

      June 9, 2022

      Pete has some things to get off his chest about Diablo Immortal and new Pokemon while Stormie and Jim nod…

      GOA Pod 243

      Episode 243: Happy Birthday Solitaire!

      June 2, 2022

      The gang talk about their cozy Bloody Good Game Of The Week thanks to Aussie Broadband, licensing music for games…

      GOA Pod 242

      Episode 242: The Richie Benaud Episode Number

      May 26, 2022

      Two… two four two. Yes, episode 242 is here and like the late, great Richie, it’s marvellous. Pete and Jim…

      View All
    • Categories
      • BY PLATFORM
        • Playstation
        • Xbox
        • Nintendo
        • PC
        • Mobile
        • VR
        • Retro
      • BY GENRE
        • Action
        • Action-Adventure
        • Adventure
        • Battle Royale
        • Fighting
        • FPS
        • Horror Games
        • RPG
        • Simulation
        • Sports
        • MMORPG
        • MOBA
        • Party Game
        • Platformer
        • Puzzle
        • Strategy
        • Survival
        • Indie
      • GOA ESSENTIALS
        • Esports
        • Conventions
        • Tabletop
        • Hardware
        • Furniture
        • Funny
        • Streaming
        • Win
        • Podcast
        • Video
    • More
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
    Game on Aus
    Home » Microsoft Flight Simulator update brings more detail Down Under
    NEWS

    Microsoft Flight Simulator update brings more detail Down Under

    Royce WilsonBy Royce WilsonFebruary 1, 2022
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    INTERNATIONAL (and domestic) travel is largely off the cards in real life, but that hasn’t stopped a lot of people (including me) taking to the virtual skies anyway in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

    The latest (and free!) update for the game focuses on Australia, and according to the Xbox Wire announcement, will let virtual pilots “soar over the renowned Great Barrier Reef, visit the vast regions of Western Australia, and marvel at the natural beauty of Mount Wellington. From the dusty red outback to shimmering coastlines and sugar white sand beaches, [and] explore the country’s most spectacular sights.”

    Melbourne-based Orbx Simulation Systems have handcrafted four airports (Longreach, Mount Beauty, Paraburdoo and Shellharbour) and reportedly added high-resolution detail to more than 100 others.

    The free update adds 94 custom crafted points of interest, as well as five “bush trips” (Tasmania, South-eastern Australia, Sea to Desert, Great Barrier Reef, and North-western Kimberly Coast), six discovery flights (Gold Coast, Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Melbourne, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park), and landing challenges for Brisbane, Shellharbour, Mt Hotham, Katoomba and Mabuig airports.

    Perth (where GOA is based) is one of the cities benefitting from the improved photogrammetry of CBD buildings in the Australia world update.

    Using data from Bing Maps, new photogrammetry data has been added for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay and Bunbury.

    I do enjoy a spot of flightseeing so fired up my copy of Flight Simulator on PC to see the new content, and while it was very much an improvement on the previous state of affairs, it’s still important to engage in a spot of expectation management.

    While the photogrammetry brings the CBDs, regions around the major airports, and the major landmarks/points of interest to life, the rest of the city and areas are still populated by generic buildings (albeit in the correct locations, as far as I could tell) – for example, I flew over a major shopping centre I visit frequently and while it was in the correct location, the building looked almost nothing like the real one.

    It’s not really an issue from 10,000 feet up, but it’s still important to understand the new enhancements don’t suddenly add Google Street View-like detail to the game either. Having said that, the Sydney and Brisbane cities looked really nice.

    The detail on some of the iconic Australian locations and structures is really nice, although I’m not quite sure why the NSW state flag is sticking out of Sydney Harbour here.

    As part of the update, a new aeroplane has been made available in the game’s marketplace – a Fokker F.VII Trimotor, with a number of liveries including the iconic Southern Cross (the first plane to fly across the Pacific from the US to Australia, and also the first plane to fly across the Tasman between Australia and New Zealand) colour scheme. Fun aviation fact: The real Southern Cross aeroplane is sitting in a display hangar near the international terminal at Brisbane International Airport.

    The in-game plane is not free, however – at time of writing, it costs AUD$22.45 – but it does look extremely detailed in the marketplace images and does rectify one of the criticisms I had in my original review (the lack of vintage aircraft in the game).

    World Update VII is available for free for all Microsoft Flight Simulator players, and the base version of the game (PC or Xbox) is included with Xbox Game Pass (PC or Xbox) which makes it even more appealing.

    Free content is always good, free content about Australia is even better, and free content about flying around Australia is a wonderful addition to an already amazing game.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleRe:Turn 2 – Runaway Review
    Next Article Sifu Launches on Feb 8

    Related Posts

    NEWS June 28, 2022

    We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

    GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably…

    ANZPL Season 4 Champions
    ESPORTS June 27, 2022

    World Of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final: Champions Decided In Sydney Derby

    The ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final is here. The Sentinels take on the Skorpions to find out who will be the Season 4 champions!

    Subscribe

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    Ads
    Advertisement
    Categories
    • ACTION
    • ACTION-ADVENTURE
    • ADVENTURE
    • BATTLE ROYALE
    • CLOUD GAMING
    • CONVENTIONS
    • ESPORTS
    • FEATURE
    • FIGHTING
    • FPS
    • FUNNY
    • FURNITURE
    • GOA
    • HARDWARE
    • HORROR GAMES
    • INDIE
    • MMORPG
    • MOBA
    • MOBILE
    • NEWS
    • NINTENDO
    • Open-World
    • OPINION
    • PARTY GAME
    • PC
    • PLATFORMER
    • PLAYSTATION
    • PODCAST
    • PREVIEW
    • PUZZLE
    • RACING
    • RETRO
    • REVIEW
    • RPG
    • SIMULATION
    • SPORTS
    • STRATEGY
    • STREAMING
    • SURVIVAL
    • TABLETOP GAMING
    • TECH
    • VIDEO
    • VR
    • XBOX
    Related Article
    NEWS

    We look at the new Sony PlayStation Plus premium service

    June 28, 2022Royce WilsonBy Royce Wilson

    GAMES subscription services have been pretty well established for a few years now in Australia, but Sony PlayStation were notably absent from the party.…

    Minsc & Boo
    TABLETOP GAMING

    My favourite cards from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate

    June 27, 2022ArlentricBy Arlentric

    Dungeons & Dragons lore and storytelling meets the world’s most popular collectable card game: Magic: the Gathering in the recently released card set Commander Legends: Battle…

    ANZPL Season 4 Champions
    ESPORTS

    World Of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final: Champions Decided In Sydney Derby

    June 27, 2022Darren 'Str8JaktJim' MacneallBy Darren 'Str8JaktJim' Macneall

    The ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final is here. The Sentinels take on the Skorpions to find out who will be the Season 4 champions!

    Game on Australia Logo

    Game On Aus is an Australian games publication working across written, video and podcast, and supported by an ever-growing community of content creators and fans!

    Copyright GameOnAus 2022. Privacy Policy

    CONTENT
    • News
    • Gaming Reviews
    • Podcast
    • Tech
    • Indie
    ABOUT GOA
    • About Us
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.