Has MSFS 2020 met your initial expections?

[FlyIce 354]

Beyond my expectations. Literally a dream comes true. 

Of course that is not saying that it doesn't need improvements, but I thoroughly enjoy the sim as it is.

[Armchair Pilot 261]

Yes. It has met my expectations of being a game encapsulating the world of flight. Out of the box aircraft have more built in functionality than previous microsoft titles, folks will say "but x-plane..." and yes, austin at laminar runs an amazing simulator too. Both sides have drawbacks and both sides have winning points and as a consumer I'm just happy that at the confort of my desktop I can appreciate  a hobby that in the real world would set me back thousands of dollars in training and limit me to a single engine prop or multi engine prop if that rating was on the table. The game does well, has worked for me out of the box and the only things I have had issues with personally has been of my own learning curve with the sdk. It can only improve.

[RaptyrOne 1,475]

I’m a big YES. I have been on the lucky team. Not a single CTD since day one and I have around 80 hours in the sim now. Admittedly some of that was unattended while I did a couple cross continental flights on AP in real time. Longest flight so far 6 hours. I get it that others have not been ‘lucky’ and that frustration creeps in big time as this is a hobby, a passion, so people are passionately mad when they can’t fly.

Of course we also create our own luck to some extent. I created my luck (my opinion) by formatting my PC, reinstalling Windows and putting the sim on a fresh uncluttered machine. But that is not for everyone. 

I never expected to be able to run this level of graphics scenery on my current PC - at a mix of Ultra and High and fluid movement. Yes the sim has it bugs but they are being worked out. Yes Asobo has added bugs too but they are all over the sim and pumping out updates and now, hotfixes too.

They have made it easy to generate near study level out of the box - just look at the B36 Turbo and A320NX, the G1000 mods as three examples. And... for those that say the SDK is nowhere near an acceptable level for study level aircraft.... well we now know that simply is not true. Regardless, Asobo are working closely with the study level guys to make it easier for them to develop their systems, enhancing the SDK all the time.

I owned FSX and P3D (theoretically still do but they are not installed). Neither of those sims came close to this on launch day in terms of avionics and neither offered study level aircraft. Neither did they get frequent updates where the developer was so involved with the community with almost weekly progress reports and video Q & A’s.

‘This sim is leading where others will follow. Every time I fly, I am blown away by cloud formations, terrain and general out of the box ability of this sim. To those that say you cannot practice proper instrument flying and approaches, I say nonsense. I have done several full IFR flights and procedural approaches to the book in various part of the world. 
 

It’s a massive Y. E. S !
 

[Armchair Pilot 261]

2 minutes ago, RaptyrOne said:

They have made it easy to generate near study level out of the box - just look at the B36 Turbo and A320NX, the G1000 mods as three examples. And... for those that say the SDK is nowhere near an acceptable level for study level aircraft.... well we now know that simply is not true.

Always found that part funny when 3PD teams choose to say that but have made nowhere near the level of effort as the 320nx team. Sure i guess they cant port their own systems in as previously done in every older title but thats just being lazy porting stuff over rather than learning from square one and to charge nearly as much as they used to has no justification. Then again it is completely their choice how they do business, just a lackluster response blaming the sdk.

[scotchegg 4,343]

A yes here too, although my expectations had been managed by the alpha experience and the knowledge that it was being forced out early.

Shows every sign of being able to grow into the flight sim I’ve been dreaming of since FS9.

[Chock 17,770]

Yes, it has met my expectations, but then again these were always tempered with the knowledge that it might initially not be the panacea which many touted it as. Nevertheless, the performance it manages on a relatively modest computer means that one can hardly fail to be impressed by what it achieves. Less sparkling is the situation with a fully rounded out SDK for TPDs being part of the mix, but this too will come eventually and when it does, it will deliver everything which it promised.

[anuk 1]

how msfs2020 could not meet my expectations?, if at first I didn't have any.
This "game", simulator, proyect came from nowhere one year ago, I didn't expect a 2020 release, even less in august.

Of course there's a lot to achieve and fix, thats natural in ANY software.

I really believe in Asobo's commitment and dedication, I hope from Microsoft the same level of support because when i hear "this is a long term project", I have to say, Aces Game Studio had a project too, that's my only concern.

fixes? enhancements? sdk? 3th party developers?, If there is something I had learn in this 15+ years of sim experience across many 32 bits platforms, ctds, poorly graphics and fps is to be patient.

thats it. 

[Car147 2,322]

Yes, it has been a bit frustrating at times, but i see a great future for it ..... every sim has had serious issues from launch (some of the X Plane and prep3D seem to forget this fact )

In for the long run here.

[OSM 683]

YES! My statement based on 30+ years of flight simulation experience. 😃

[Fielder 3,886]

Oui !

[flying_w 58]

Yes it has, with the caveat there's a lot of opportunity to improve.  My simple yardstick is I find it hard to quit and go to bed at night.  A couple of highlights are Asobos post release engagement and the wealth of freeware being produced.  To balance that with a couple of low lights, I'd like to see the default aircraft work to the fullest extent that Asobo intend for them and more resource put into Simconnect not only to make what we already have actually work but expand to service the new features of the simulator.

[BillC 135]

I'm a YES and particularly because I didn't expect it to even run on my ropey PC! 

My expectations as a 30+ years simmer were:

1. A very pretty default world that would need 3rd party enhancement to be perfect. That's what we got.

2. Default aircraft that wouldn't be up to the mark for IFR especially the big tin. Tick there too.

3. GA VFR aircraft that could be flown VFR but weren't close to RealAir, A2A products. It's already my Go To VFR sim. Huge tick, far better than I expected.

[coastaldriver 941]

I will be brutally honest. NO. It shows how take what ever is dished out to you we are getting. At law it is not fit for purpose simple, it does not do what it was advertised to do, except that it complies with the pretty pictures and oh gosh factor only, because it is not a flight simulator it is a fancy game! I think the marketing and sell has been misleading and if one looks at the history of MS with their changes to OS it has been the same story, new product full of problems subjected to never ending updates and patches and just when it is sorted they stop and do another rendition. My simple view Caveat Emptor! I have gone to a proper sim elsewhere where at least I can use the models and scenery I have with minor work just fine. As for aircraft addons - another story altogether I do not expect any worthwhile additions for at least a year and for a lot of stuff - never. Not to bag what is there sure it is really nice if you like 10 year old bing data and they have done some really good work in areas such as textures and atmospherics but given all that it is not even DX12 compliant say what? Nuff said. Come back in 2 years may be ok then!

[Wobbie 948]

It has been forgotten, already, that it has only been 2 months since the game was released, & obvious that there will & are issues due to the diversity of the thousands of different hardware setups that are being used. 

If only the complainants had waited a couple of weeks before rushing to get the sim... Reading reviews would have helped, and yet there are also thousands that have no complaints.

So, well done to Microsoft when they saw that Asobo were doing, & who took them on board, & well done to Asobo, for their vision & for their ongoing & quick support for fixes & complaints. This is quite unique in the industry, where the devs are really listening to the users.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,799]

Absolutely. It met my personal expectations 100% and I am having great fun.

Though MSFS does suffer from the fact that previous sims were so awful at VFR that the community as a whole instead became enamoured with the whole virtual Airline Captain thing, subscribing to real time weather services, live ATC servers and spending hundreds of dollars to get elitist "study level" aircraft and building multi thousand dollar virtual cockpits all whilst rarely looking out the window of the plane. That is all well and good if that is your personal thing, but MSFS is at least a year off supporting that sort of thing.