Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Review (PS5)

Once the exclusive domain of the PC, demand has seen hardcore sims like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 land comfortably on consoles like the PS5.

This particular venture into Sony airspace arrives approximately a year after it crash landed elsewhere, with dev Asobo Studio bundling in all of its various bug fixes from the past 12 months on day one here. It’d be polite, therefore, to tip your aviator glasses at the beta testers on other platforms.

But while the experience is undoubtedly improved, this is still an undeniably ambitious effort that creaks under the weight of its own scope.

No one could question the scale of this package, however, which comes in a number of guises spanning $70 through $200.

The primary difference between the bundles is the number of aircraft and modelled airports included. To be fair, if you start on the Standard Edition you’re able to upgrade at any time, so you can get a feel for the experience and decide later if you’d like to add more content.

Even in its most basic format, though, this is a robust package.

We’ll start with the Career Mode, as this is probably where you’re going to spend the bulk of your time. This doubles as a tutorial for all of the content in the title, with your first objective being to obtain a Private Pilot License.

Beginning in a Cessna 172, you’ll start at a small airport of your choosing and work your way through a variety of drills, ranging from pre-flight preparations to taxiing to take-offs and so on.

This being an aviation sim, it’s much more involved than other games in this genre we’ve played, like Train Sim World 6. Most modern locomotives tend to drive themselves, so your input revolves more around speed management and stopping patterns.

But in MFS24 there’s a much greater emphasis on skill, as you’re tasked with meticulously massaging the yoke to get the plane to do what you want it to.

Even after over 30 hours of play, we’d be lying to you if we said we’d got a handle on how to best manage our altitude and speed, but we understand the concepts and so the release’s tutorials are effective in that sense.

Personally, we think the UI could use a lot more information, particularly in the format the game is intended to be played on console. For example, from a first-person perspective, key details like RPM can only be seen on your plane’s display, and this information can be almost impossible to observe when sitting on the couch at a normal distance from your TV.

The controls don’t perfectly map to the DualSense either. There are a lot of combinations to remember, and while we appreciate that many of the more tedious aspects have been streamlined – you can trigger a quick start for each craft in your catalogue, for example – the analogue stick doesn’t always have the exactness required to gently guide the yoke.

After all, that’s effectively what flying a plane is all about: those subtle gradients you position the vessel into, in close collaboration with the throttle, to climb or level out or turn.

We should note if you want to take your experience seriously, the T.Flight Hotas 4 from Thrustmaster is compatible with the game, and available for around $100 new.

This will give you a lot more fidelity over your flights, and when paired with the PSVR2 support planned for 2026, will likely prove the most immersive way to play.

Nevertheless, as you complete various tutorials and unlock licenses within the Career Mode, you’ll gradually unlock new missions which take you from a fledgling flight hopeful to a full-on piloting professional. It’s quite fun seeing your reputation improve as your skills develop.

The only real criticism we’d level at the campaign is that you need to want to learn how to fly planes, and you’re also going to have to deal with some horrific AI generated voice acting.

But don’t worry if the tutorials aren’t to your tastes, because the game also boasts a Quick Flight mode where you can effectively pick a spot anywhere in the world and take flight. Even better, if you don’t select a specific airport, you’ll be dropped in mid-flight.

This will allow you to observe the stunning scenery, with some parts of the world rendered in jaw-dropping detail. The iconic skyline of Giza, with the pyramids lurking behind the Sphinx, is a highlight – but so too is the urban playground of Tokyo and the rustic corridors of Paris. If you enjoy virtual tourism, then there’s genuinely never been a better game.

Now, while breathtaking in many ways, it’s worth noting that MSF24’s presentation isn’t flawless. Much of the world is relying on satellite data to realise its geometry, and while it works from a mile high, it looks rough under scrutiny.

Similarly, those locations that have been hand modelled suffer from frantic pop-in on a base PS5, with many of the assets being pulled in from the cloud while you play. The tech keeps the file size low, but it does have plenty of obvious shortcomings, including long loading times.

The game does a great job of making sure you actually see its most beautiful locations, though, with an excellent photography mode that almost plays like a puzzle game.

Here you’ll not only need to position your craft in the perfect location, but you’ll also need to consider time of day in order to get the optimal shot of a landmark during a sunset or at daybreak.

Outside of all this, a Challenge Mode sees you competing against rival pilots to set hot laps in military grade aircraft and to land passenger planes. You’ll be scored based on your performance, and will either get promoted or relegated each week depending on how well you do. The tasks will then rotate.

There’s a lot to the game, then, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention some of the bugs which impede it. For example, we’ve had situations where we had to reboot our console in order to load into our cockpit – or flights where we’ve started out post-tailspin, grounded through no fault of our own.

Similarly, we don’t think enough has been done with the PS5’s unique features.

While we appreciate this is ultimately a Microsoft product, a more tactile use of the DualSense’s haptic feedback could have been implemented, and while the adaptive triggers are leveraged by the rudders, they don’t really have the kind of texture we’d like.

The sound is also scruffy, and we reckon a lot more could have been done with the PS5’s 3D audio to really embed you into your surroundings. When you consider just how much work has gone into the visuals, the sound lets the presentation down.