Microsoft Flight Simulator for Xbox Series X / S: 5 things to do first

Date:
Tue, 27 Jul 2021 11:45:30 +0000

Description:
Microsoft Flight Simulator hits Xbox Series X and S consoles today. Get in
the cockpit, and try these early-flight tips.

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Its one of the most impressive games on PC at the moment and its worthy of the same accolades on Xbox. Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on Xbox
Series X and Xbox Series S today, bringing the entire world (yes, you read that correctly, the entire world ) to your TV, ready to be explored from high in the sky.

Its a ridiculously ambitious feat, harnessing the power of the new consoles and cloud data services in tandem (not to mention a huge amount of Xbox storage space ), and Microsofts Asobo Studio has pulled it off with aplomb.

But its also quite a daunting game, too. With the entire world at your fingertips, and the minutiae of dozens of aircraft to get your head around, where is best to start?

Our Microsoft Flight Simulator guide for Xbox below will walk you through
your first few hours in the game, getting you up in the sky and ready for the more challenging flights in the weeks ahead as you earn your wings. The best Xbox Series X games available Where to buy an Xbox Series X PS5 vs Xbox
Series X: Which should you buy? (Image credit: Microsoft) Complete Flight Training

This sounds like an obvious one, but youd be surprised how many people skip the tutorial and just jump straight into a game as first timers. With Microsoft Flight Simulator, thats a bad idea. There are lots of complex controls to learn and flight instrumentation to understand. Itll quickly become second nature but without an early guiding hand youre going to struggle.

There are eight scenarios in flight training to complete, taking about 30 minutes to work though, and covering everything from camera control to take off and landing. If youve only access to a control pad (remember, Xbox consoles can accept keyboard and mouse input, too), its particularly
important to run Flight Training, as some controls may not be instantly obvious. (Image credit: Microsoft) Turn your Xbox pads sensitivity down, and turn Assisted Yoke off

You cant do much in terms of tweaking the controls while youre in Flight Training, but once youre out of it, youve free rein to reassign inputs,
change assist levels, and mess with sensitivity levels.

That last one is super important if youre playing on Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S and are limited to a pad, as the default sensitivity level is incredibly high, making fine-tuned landings a bit difficult to pull off.

Its also worth heading into the menu and changing at least one of the in-game flight assists. While some are pivotal for keeping a newbies plane in the
air, wed encourage you to switch off Assisted Yoke. Thats whats in charge of pitch (altitude) and roll and, seeing as thats where youll be doing the most silly, fun in-flight moves, you want control over that once youve settled in. (Image credit: Microsoft) Change your call sign

Theres in-game air traffic control in Microsoft Flight Simulator, as youd imagine, and as you fly around youll get little radio calls letting you know about those in the skies around you. You can tweak your tail number to give your plane a little personalisation (pop your name on your tail, why dont you?), but its the call sign that has a more profound effect on radio messaging.

If you edit your call sign, air traffic control teams will use that to identify you on the radio, using the Phonetic Alphabet (alpha, bravo,
charlie, etc) to speak to you. If you pop a short word into your call sign though, they may use that to call you instead. Its a nice little touch that makes you feel part of the bigger gaming world though dont bother messing with profanities, as itll just ignore them and replace them with something generic instead. (Image credit: Microsoft) Do a fly-by past your home

Youve got your wings, youve got the whole world to explore and yet the first place you want to check out is a birds eye view of your home right? Yep, us too.

You can quite easily find your house by flying around from a nearby airport, providing you have the patience and a decent sense of local geography. But here are a few tips to make sure your fly-by goes off without a hitch.

If you just want to appear in the sky directly above your home, you can click anywhere on the World Map / Free Flight mode that isnt an airport and select set as departure. Youll appear high above the location at a cruising speed though, so youll speed right past if youre not careful.

If you want the exact coordinates, pop your address into Google Maps and
right click on the red pin that appears on the location that top string of numbers that appears is the exact coordinates of your home! Copy them into
the World Map search field and youll be able to set it as a starting point or destination. Its more fun to fly to it from a local airport, though, so look up some nearby runways and set one as your takeoff location. (Image credit: Microsoft) Find a herd of animals

Remember the Microsoft Flight Simulator trailers that looked more like an Attenborough documentary, complete with herds of grazing animals to fly over? That wasnt just marketing rubbish they are actually in the game, but can be quite difficult to find just aimlessly flying.

To make it a bit easier, type in fauna on the World Map search bar, which
will bring up a list of locations for different species, from flamingoes to elephants. Once youre up in the air relatively nearby, hit pause and bring up the Assistance tab. From the navigational menu youll then want to turn the toggle for Fauna Markers on. Youll then get a heads up marker making it way easier to spot the little (or large) critters. Microsoft Flight Simulator review : a truly next-gen simulation



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-flight-simulator-for-xbox-series-x-s- 5-things-to-do-first/


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