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The gaming world erupted recently with news that Microsoft was bringing back Flight Simulator, one of its most interesting and successful franchises, with a reboot worthy of 2020, including high-definition landscapes, new planes, and live weather. The end result is, to put it simply, superb, a visually stunning and fun-to-play masterpiece that will keep you entertained for hours.
The thrust of Microsoft Flight Simulator is, as you would imagine, flying: you're given a range of different planes across various different classes and can fly them in different weather conditions, during the night, and with ever-changing atmospheric conditions. It's as close to flying as you can get while sitting behind your PC.
Microsoft has really stepped up how Flight Simulator looks with the 2020 release, rendering over 37,000 airports, 1.5 billion buildings, and two trillion trees, mountains, roads, rivers, and other features. It's a serious level of attention to detail and has really paid off, with a game that constantly surprises with new, incredibly detailed locations.
There's three different editions of Flight Simulator on offer – Standard, Deluxe, and Premium Deluxe – all of which have their pluses and minuses, detailed below.
Microsoft's Flight Simulator prices
As the name suggests, the standard version of the game is the cheapest, clocking in at $59.99/£59.99, and features the more barebones selection of things: 20 planes and 30 "handcrafted" airports. You can still fly to the 37,000 airports on the map, but only 30 will include detailed rendering. But it's still a hell of a lot of fun.
Microsoft's Flight Simulator Deluxe Edition prices
The middle-tier version of Flight Simulator, costing $89.99/£79.99, has everything in the standard tier (naturally) but adds five additional planes from Diamond Aircraft and Textron Aviation and five additional airports: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Cairo International Airport, Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport, O'Hare International Airport, and Cape Town International Airport.
Flight Simulator Premium Deluxe Edition prices
You may now be sensing a theme: the Premium Deluxe version, costing $120/ £109.99, delivers what the other two have but with the addition of 10 new aircraft – including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner – and 10 new airports in the US, UK, Dubai, and Germany. While this is the most expensive version, it does also come with the most detail, which might be important if you're looking to spend a lot of time in-game.
