Microsoft Flight Simulator has given France, Belgium and the Netherlands a dramatic makeover in its fourth World Update download.
Developer Asobo has created ‘hand-crafted’ replicas of Megève, Nice, and Rotterdam The Hague airports as well as introducing more minor updates to 100 other airports across Europe.
Significantly, it has also upgraded landmarks and points of interest such as the Eiffel Tower, Fort Boyard, the Arc de Triomphe, Mont Blanc, Kinderdijk’s windmills, Bruges’ Church of Our Lady, The Palace of Justice of Brussels, and Luxembourg’s Vianden Castle.
Players wanting to access the new content – which includes an “awe-inducing” Bush Trip over the Pyrenees and the Alps – should download the free FRBENELUX bundle from the in-game marketplace.
The fresh content comes weeks after Asobo released its World Update 3 that recreated versions of more than 70 points of interest in the UK and Ireland.
It follows similar updates to the US and Japan alongside work carried out and sold by independent developers.
The game allows players access to 37,000 airports around the globe and gives players the option to fly essentially anywhere in the world using one of up to 30 aircraft, from an A320neo to a Cessna 152 and Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental.
All planes feature accurate cockpits with realistic controls and instrumentation.
The entire simulated world is hyper-realistic – apart from a number of notable flaws that players have already pointed out – thanks to the use of Microsoft’s Bing Maps, which was utilised to re-create every corner of the earth in as much detail as the developers could achieve.
As time goes on, external developers now have the capability of designing add-ons to improve the geography of certain cities or regions, meaning the possibilities are endless.
Additional reporting by Hannah Dowling.
