I still remember that Flight Simulator that Microsoft gave us in the 80s and with which I started in the exciting world of flight simulators. And it is that some of us overcome the myth of Icarus before the impossibility of fulfilling the dream of being a pilot (for various reasons including monetary) by taking flight with this video game that is today the oldest franchise of the software giant.
They were different times… In the midst of the 8-bit era, the game offered little more than an expanse of green land and blue sky, with gray strips representing the runways and some black and white blocks for the buildings. Of course, no control, no joystick, no levers, no pedals, the vast majority of us played with keyboard and mouse.
Microsoft continued the series with a dozen more titles, but ended up shelving it with Flight Simulator X. Fortunately, the series was recovered in 2020 with an outstanding video game. Created in partnership with French developer Asobo Studio and leveraging mapping work from Bing 3D Maps and data and technical guidance from aircraft and avionics manufacturers to ensure the flight experience is as realistic as its graphics. And with advanced techniques such as “deferred” rendering that -lowering the graphic quality- allows it to run on machines with medium-range hardware.
Free flight simulators and let’s fly!
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a spectacular game and has undoubtedly opened a new chapter in a very special genre, encouraging new players to enter a market niche that is surely unprofitable for video game producers and that requires high-level hardware and special controllers to play them at ease.
Good games are also necessary… And there are. If you are a lover of these simulators you already know them. But if you want to get rid of the bug and get started in an exciting world of heaven and earth, we leave you with some titles that you can try for free.
FlightGear
An open source simulator that has been with us since 1997. It was originally developed for Linux and has gained a large community that brings updates, mods and plugins. The game offers a vast fleet of planes to fly, up to 400 different ones from small single-engine planes to large commercial planes. It uses detailed and accurate flight models, allowing it to replicate realistic flight dynamics and behaviors. It also has a good number of airports and modeled terrain to fly over.
FlightGear is cross-platform, open source, and free, with versions for Windows, macOS, Linux, or FreeBSD.
Google Earth Flight Simulator
Google Earth/Maps is the best geographic information system on the consumer market. And you can do a lot with them, from visiting Mars, getting satellite views of any part of Earth, to walking the streets with Street View. But it also has a flight simulator built into the desktop app. The graphics aren’t the best and it’s little more than a mini-game, but it works in real time since the maps are generated from data from Google’s satellites, so you can fly over different parts of the world and explore . The mechanics are simple and the controls very intuitive. It’s not a deep sim, but it’s accessible and fun to virtually fly around the world.
Google Earth for desktop is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Digital Combat Simulator World
If you like aerial combat, this game offers quite a realistic simulation of military aircraft, with missions that also include ships and ground vehicles. Although it can be difficult for new players, DCS World offers detailed tutorials for beginners, covering each plane and its mechanics in depth. And it is necessary because the development of this series of video games is conceived to be a simulator specialized in a single specific military aircraft. In any case, it can be customized a lot depending on whether you want the game to focus more on action or simulation with stricter mechanics.
The game is free-to-play for Windows with in-app purchases, but it’s free to start with and you can also try the open beta if you’re looking for a multiplayer experience.
GeoFS
It is the only one on this list of free flight simulators that can be run directly in a web browser. Taking this into account, it must be said that the graphics are quite good, the mechanics are realistic and refined, and the weather is displayed in real time with a dynamic day/night cycle and global satellite images. The controls are simple and easy to handle after a short time of use. It features navigation charts, 30 aircraft, and a multiplayer experience.
GeoFS is free with ads, which are not really intrusive. If you like the game, want to remove them or get high resolution images (from Microsoft Bing Maps), you can go for the paid Pro version.
Aces High II
Set in the two great world wars, this game is halfway between simulator and combat. You can also use battle tanks, boats and other vehicles. The gameplay itself is quite simple; you can just fly quietly or participate in a battle with hundreds of players in a multiplayer environment. Neither the graphics nor the simulation are the best on the list, but the world war fighters are very well designed.
Aces High III for Windows is available on Steam as a free trial as well as a paid one.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
We leave for last the best video game you can buy in the genre. It has a number of highly detailed aircraft in a realistic world, changing weather conditions in real time and dynamic scenarios, with its own flight plan that will allow you to go anywhere on the planet day or night. Includes a whopping 36,000 airports and 1.5 billion buildings, real mountains, roads, trees, rivers, traffic and more, with 3D data from Bing Maps. The game uses the technique of “deferred rendering” and components such as lighting, reflections, shadows and others are rendered locally in order to bring it closer to the general public with resolutions up to 4K and support for HDR.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is available for Windows PCs on Steam and the Microsoft Store. It is paid, but we include it because you can try it for free thanks to the Xbox Game Pass where it is included.
