MS Flight Simulator on consoles: Finally, a next-gen game for Xbox Series X/S

MSFS's path to console isn't arcadey at all

In terms of new, console-minded content, MSFS doesn't approach something like Pilotwings, let alone arcade flight games like Ace Combat or Crimson Skies. Think of this game as boring, grown-up business—there's not much here for little kids to do. (Not even old issues of Highlights Magazine? C'mon, Asobo.)

Would you like to take off from any runway in the world, fly as you see fit, and then eventually land on any runway in the world (or, with the right plane, a patch of grass or open body of water)? Go right ahead. If you're uneasy about the takeoff process, start a flight from mid-air, either via the handy "Discovery flights" menu or by picking a landmark in the game's full-globe map, and fly around until you'd rather quit outright than bother trying to land.

That's pretty much all you do in MSFS, even though those basic activities are spruced up with a few modes lifted from the PC version. "Landing challenges" fast forward you to the final descent towards a tricky runway somewhere on our planet, and you get roughly 60-180 seconds to adjust your speed, aim your craft, and land as smoothly and quickly as possible. "Bush trips" ask you to repeatedly take off, land, refill your gas, and repeat over the course of a long, scenic journey. And the game's "flight school" has been expanded with more tutorials about the basics of flight, and these largely resemble the basics you might be taught while learning to pilot a real-world Cessna. (One tutorial focuses on massive airliners, but it's painfully superficial. Don't expect to get up to Boeing or Airbus proficiency with that one.)

I'm bummed that Asobo didn't add arcade-like challenge options as part of the series' first console version. I understand not adding a fully fledged "adventure" or "quest" mode, and I appreciate the game's scenic series of Discovery flights—especially since they can be paired with a bunch of "flight assist" toggles for anyone more interested in gorgeous visuals than they are in accurate flight modeling. But why not let players fly through some mid-air rings, Star Fox-style, in a score challenge? What about single-player "time trial" races where players must take off, fly through a series of gates in order, then land (players could then compare results via a leaderboard)?

Conforming to the PC version means some weirdness

In better news, since the PC and console versions' codebases are unified, some add-on content on PC can also be purchased, downloaded, and accessed on the console version. Sadly, as of press time, this only applies to first-party add-ons. The third-party MSFS marketplace includes a bunch of additional precisely crafted objects to slap onto Asobo's default package, and these range from aircraft to retouched real-world locales, but they all have "PC only" tags as of this review. We hope these find their way to MSFS's console version soon. When that happens, be warned, MSFS newcomers: flight sim add-on packages are expensive, usually coded with utter realism in mind, and they're well beyond what you'd pay for a cosmetic outfit in Fortnite.

Speaking of, you'll get the feeling every step of the way that you're playing a PC game on your Xbox, because the interface is full of small text boxes, tiny sliders, and systems that seem better suited for a mouse pointer at all times. (In fact, when you first boot the game, a mouse cursor appears for a few seconds in the top-left corner, as if to nudge you into plundering your PC peripheral closet.) Asobo, to its credit, has put some decent gamepad-compatibility measures in place, including one that turns your left joystick into a mouse cursor whenever you click it down. And basic flight is truly doable with only a gamepad. The control mapping is good enough for taking off, checking a map mid-flight, and landing, especially since the "bumper" buttons bring up additional commands in a pinch.

But if you want to put the "simulator" in MSFS, you'll want no less than a USB-connected keyboard and mouse attached to your Xbox Series X/S, and chances are, you already own some that'll work on modern Xbox consoles. If you only have one spare USB slot, I say choose a mouse over keyboard; it's central to menu navigation and makes it easier to access things like mid-flight menus and manually toggled buttons on your virtual cockpit. Adding a full keyboard gets you into fuller cockpit-shortcut territory, and each toggle and mid-game function is easy to search for and rebind.

Peripheral compatibility, meanwhile, boils down to whether the device you own has Xbox-compatible firmware. I only have a Windows version of the Thrustmaster T-16000M FCS handy in my current home, and sadly, it hasn't received any kind of firmware patch to make its buttons, POV hats, joysticks, sliders, and rudder pedals visible to my Xbox consoles.