This summer I got into Microsoft Flight Simulator and it turned into a bit of an obsession. I don’t think I necessarily wanted to go through proper flight training and get a license, but I wanted to know the ins and outs of flying an airplane to a degree that I would know what to do if I had to fly the real thing. After watching me play for hours, my fiancé offered me a real flight experience for my birthday.

Flight Simulators

There are a bunch of flight sims out there, but in terms of graphics, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is the best one hands down. I remember watching YouTube videos from E3 2019 while it was still in development and being fascinated by the life-like graphics the game presented, so I immediately went on Steam to check it out. The graphics were even better than I remembered, stunning visuals throughout. Thanks to the use of photogrammetry and Bing Maps imagery, the game simulates the entire planet from topographical data. The world around you looks incredible, the ground has huge amounts of detail, so much so that you can actually fly around your hometown and recognize it from above.