The world of “simulation” is a fascinating section of the gaming industry. These games often consist of repetitive and banal activities, which are wrapped in fancy packaging, and sold by the millions around the globe. They range from farming, train, and truck driving simulators, to more niche subsections of human activity, like lawn mowing, power washing, and even surgery. 

But, there is one long-running series that is the king of simulation gaming, and it goes by the name of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The most recent edition, released in 2020, is aptly named Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is the eleventh game in the series. 

It was my Grandad Keith who first introduced me to the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. We would eagerly make the two-hour drive to Granny and Grandad’s house in Timaru, burst through the door energised by Mcdonald’s soft serve cones (with a flake if we were lucky), speed through our hugs, and crash on the computer chair.  

“Grandad? Can you get the plane game for us?” 

He would look to his shelf, and pull out the CD with the giant “X.” I now know this to be Microsoft Flight Simulator X, the tenth game in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. 

I’ll never forget the feeling of sitting on his lap, feet dangling and kicking against his fake leg, pushing and pulling the joystick with all of my little might. 

“No not down! You’ll crash!” he’d say. 

I would laugh as I plunged into the ground. He’d chuckle. It was a challenging game, we would always need his help. 

But that was Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Why, you may be asking, did they decide to name the latest edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator: Microsoft Flight Simulator? Why not something eye-catching? like Microsoft Flight Simulator 11?

The answer is simple, really, because Microsoft Flight Simulator is the definitive Microsoft Flight Simulator. 

The hook of Microsoft Flight Simulator is simple. You can fly anywhere on Earth. Anywhere. From Paris, France, to Gore. Your wildest dreams of aviation, discovered. They achieve this extraordinary feat through a combination of AI and satellite imagery, which recreates the Earth’s cities and nature to a mind bogglingly accurate degree. The World is streamed to the user’s device through the cloud; a whopping two petabytes of data ready to be streamed at any time, that is 2048 Terabytes for you Terabyte heads, or 2,097,152 gigabytes for you gigabyte fans. The map updates every twenty-eight days, so you can be sure you are to trot the latest version of the globe wherever you decide to fly! 

Grandad loved his aircraft, he had an extensive model aircraft collection on his computer shelf, standing proudly in front of his children’s wedding photos. He had a variety of aircraft, some premade models, some do-it-yourself kits which he carefully painted himself, and some that he never got around to painting. He would point to different aircraft and tell us everything he knew about them, which often took some time! None of it stuck, I didn’t understand any words longer than five letters. But, it was always a treat to look at them with him, especially the Spitfire. 

I adored Grandad growing up. Sometimes I wonder if I’m a clone of him. Being named after him, I wonder if my parents always had a sense I would turn into a goofy man like Grandad. We had infinite laughs together. Once, when I was nine or ten, I bought two miniature aeroplanes from a boy at school. I must have spent at least $5 on them, big money for me. I remember telling Grandad all about them, excited to start my own collection, just like him.

There are twenty, carefully crafted aircraft in the base edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator. If you’re willing to fork out the cash, you get an additional five aircraft in the Deluxe edition of the game, and an additional five aircraft on top of those in the Premium Deluxe edition of the game. These aircraft range from historic aircraft to modern-day commercial airliners, and everything in between. Their interiors are meticulously detailed, with true-to-life controls, instruments and switches. Tireless work went into tuning the physics of each individual aircraft, the weight of taking off in a Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental contrasts drastically with the lightweight Robin DR400-100 Cadet. If these aircraft are not enough for you, there are hundreds of extra aircraft available through third-party developers, easily accessible from the home screen (for a price!).

Grandad wasn’t just into his flying simulators and model aircraft for the hell of it; he was a pilot himself. His first flight in a Piper Cub, when he began his rigorous training to achieve his dream career in top dressing. He made it, and flew for 24 years. It was a dangerous job, 60 fellow pilots were killed in his time flying agricultural aircraft and helicopters. He came close himself, a crash in 1984 ending his career, putting him in hospital for seven months, and giving him a lifetime of recovery. 

I often reflect on our time playing plane games together, and the glee I found in crashing. What was mental health support like in 1984? 

Graphically, Microsoft Flight Simulator is a sight to behold. While the recreation of planet Earth is impressive on its own, the game implements a dynamic weather system to simulate any and all weather. Flying through a thunderstorm not only looks stunning, but there is a tangible effect on your aircraft handling. You can pick and choose the perfect weather for your flight, but you also have the option of picking weather based on real-time data, meaning if you want to experience the dreary day that your friends in the Grimsby are midway through, you can! Extra attention was also given to the formation of clouds, which are rendered with incredible detail, and behave correctly when hit by sunlight and moonlight. Flying around the world as the sun sets, creates a stunning picturesque sheen on the clouds. The experience is nothing short of magical. 

On June 9, 2019, developers Asobo Studios announced Microsoft Flight Simulator. The trailer showed off these astonishing graphics, and the somewhat incomprehensible idea that you could fly anywhere on Earth. “Coming 2020.” 

I was beyond thrilled. Not initially for the game itself, but for the opportunity to show Grandad the trailer. The next time we found ourselves in Timaru, I waited patiently for him to make his way to the table, and presented him with my laptop, trailer ready. It began. 

Captured in real-time 4k. 

Powered by satellite data and Azure AI.

And then gameplay, almost indistinguishable from reality. 

Perhaps a little too indistinguishable for Grandad, who seemed confused as to what he was watching. 

“You know those flight simulator games?”

“Yeah.”

“This is one of those!” 

“Oh! So that’s a game is it?”

“Yeah! And you can fly anywhere on Earth!”

“Oh! Very good.” 

It was a hard sell. But, I knew that showing him the game rather than the trailer would convince him of how “very good” it actually was. It was probably the first trailer for a video game that he had ever seen, so I can’t blame him for his confusion. 

Just over a year later, Microsoft Flight Simulator was released on PC. Grandad’s PC was in no state to run the game, it could barely run Google Chrome. The only person I knew who had a PC that could run it was my cousin (on the other side of the family) Caleb. He said that he could easily bring his PC around to my house the next time Grandad made it to Christchurch. So, that was the plan.  

In the meantime, Caleb and I got to boot up the game for the first time together. The game was getting ten out of ten from gaming journalists, and everything that the game promised to be, it was. A mind-blowing experience. We took off at Christchurch airport, and suddenly all of my flights in and out of my hometown came flooding back. We found our houses, our friends’ houses, our schools, our football grounds – all so real. I was just about ready to look out of the window and see our plane flying overhead. While we had a blast flying circuits around our home city, we had our fair share of crashes – most of which were unintentional. 

Microsoft Flight Simulator was made with everyone from beginners to veterans in mind. There is a wide range of control options, from keyboard and mouse for casual players, to enthusiast options like joysticks, HOTAS (Hands on Throttle-and-Stick), and yoke controls. There is also a wide range of accessibility options to aid beginners, such as assisted take-off and landing, an AI co-pilot, and auto checklists to guide you through your flight. Even with these extensive options, the game can at times feel like it has a massive learning curve. This cannot be truly faulted, as it is after all a simulator, not an arcade game. While it may be tempting for a new pilot to jump in and fly immediately from Christchurch to Timaru in a commercial airline, you will be restricted by the physics of the craft. There will be no barrel rolls or loops without consequences. Sometimes, you will have to settle in for a long time, not a good time. 

I sat with a soft sadness as I flew around Granny and Grandad’s Timaru home. It was the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and Grandad was finding the long trips to Christchurch increasingly challenging. The prospect of getting him to see the game was waning. 

But, I was given hope, as Microsoft announced the game would be coming to their new consoles, the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. This was my opportunity. So I did what many financially responsible students did during the pandemic, and used my student allowance to buy an Xbox Series S. 

The game was released for Xbox on July 27, 2021. Over that year of patient waiting, Grandad’s health had been declining fairly rapidly. He had a heart attack or two, pneumonia, and found himself in and out of rest homes to give Granny some well-earned time off. 

Among these health scares, his dementia lingered. We had known about it for some time, but it had begun to show itself in more obvious ways. Our conversations became a little less lively. He seemed tired. 

The performance of Microsoft Flight Simulator on the Xbox Series S is impressive, to say the least. It runs at a solid 30 frames per second, which while not the silky smooth 60 frames that you can find on the more powerful Series X, is still impressive considering the scale of the game, and the price of the hardware ($550 NZD). Compared to the PC version, textures and resolution are lowered, and some details of the world do occasionally pop in to frame, which can be distracting for even the most experienced pilots. Small details aside, you are guaranteed the same incredible package, wherever you can take your Xbox! 

Soon after the game was released on the Xbox, we planned to visit Granny and Grandad for the weekend. I carefully packed my Xbox, triple checking for the correct cables and controllers. Grandad was now permanently living in a rest home, and due to the pandemic, it had been a while since I had seen him. So, we decided it would be best to visit, scope out the room, and bring the Xbox another day. 

My dad Darryl, my younger brother Fraser, and I headed in to visit him separately from the rest of the family; both due to the pandemic, and to not overwhelm him with so many faces. Michele, my mum, told me before seeing him that he might ask where he is, and when he gets to go home. I had never been so nervous to see someone I have so much love for. 

Retirement homes are never nice places to visit. This one was especially grim. He had a room to himself, that much was well. But, it presented itself as a room in a hospital, with no attempt of disguise. The room was large, with a mechanical bed in one corner, and a mechanical chair in the other where Keith sat and watched us enter. The walls were blank and bleak, and the stench of disinfectant pushed up against my association of visiting grandad and home-cooked meals. 

On the wall opposite his chair, a lone tv hung. I don’t remember checking it to see if the Xbox could connect. 

We sat and spoke for a short time – rugby, golf, university, the easy things. 

It was almost possible to see through how unwell he was, until he asked the question, 

“So where am I?”

Dad answered.  

“Oh, so when can I go home?”

I was shattered. 

Before long, we had to leave. I shook his hand and said, “great to see you.” We went on our way. 

I think if I had known that was the last time I was going to see him, I would have given him a proper goodbye. I sometimes wonder if I knew deep down that it was the last time we would speak, and I gave a general goodbye in the hopes it would change that fact.

It was impossible for me to speak at his funeral. Instead, I wrote my thanks, and my goodbye. It read, 

Hi Grandad, James Keith here.

Thanks for lending me your name.

I was initially upset when all of the grandchildren huddled around and I drew the short straw. 

But I’ve grown to love it.

A lot of my memories of you are of your pain – your battered body. The heart attacks, pneumonia, and that damn pain of a leg.

So, if I had to pick the thing I love most about you, it would be that you didn’t let any of that take you out.

For a while there it seemed like nothing would. 

Because you held on, I got to live for twenty-one years with you in my life. Thank you. 

I will miss your handshakes whenever we visit for the weekend.

I will miss your golf analysis, I think I’m coming around to it.

I will miss you going “oh!” whenever I ask you a question. Mum does that too. 

I will miss whacking your leg, how do you not feel that? 

I’ll miss you being a cheeky bugger, glad to have inherited that.

I’ll miss playing plane games with you on your computer.

I’ll miss you failing to steal my food.

I’ll miss you singing me The Five Pennies.

I’ll miss your smile, 

Your laugh,

Your comfort,

Your safety,

Your kindness,

Your heart,

Keith. 

I only ever played four or five hours of Microsoft Flight Simulator. To be honest, I didn’t really care for it much.