If you're flying around Melbourne, Australia in Microsoft Flight Simulator, you might notice a rather peculiar 212-floor skyscraper - ludicrously tall and impossibly narrow. No, Australia isn't building Kami's Lookout from Dragon Ball Z. It turns out a simple typo is responsible for the silly-looking building.
In Microsoft Flight Simulator a bizarrely eldritch, impossibly narrow skyscraper pierces the skies of Melbourne's North like a suburban Australian version of Half-Life 2's Citadel, and I am -all for it- pic.twitter.com/6AH4xgIAWgAugust 19, 2020
Thanks to the excellent investigative work by the Twitter community (and Engadget for the shout), the catalyst that would eventually create this strange phenomenon has been identified. About a year back, someone erroneously labeled a two-story building in OpenStreetMap suggesting it was 212 floors tall. Thanks to some unfortunate timing, developer Asobo Studio pulled that same data when they were building the vast world map in Flight Simulator, resulting in what would be the tallest building ever (if it were real).
So what do we do with this happy little (big) accident? Well, assuming it hasn't been patched out - which it will be - you should try landing on it. Thanks to the dedication of one Conor O'Kane, we know it's possible, and the views are breathtaking.
Microsoft Flight Simulator released on Thursday to mostly positive reviews. Our own Sam Loveridge called it "a high-end flight simulator for those looking specifically for that, but also a surprisingly zen, almost meditative digital tourism experience for others." For now it's only on PC - and you'll need some serious free space to install it - but it's coming to Xbox One at an undisclosed date.
If you're just taking flight, don't miss our Microsoft Flight Simulator beginners guide before takeoff.
