Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are the latest countries set for a dramatic makeover in Microsoft Flight Simulator’s fifth World Update.
The improvements will include landscape enhancements, improved regional architecture, five new airports, improved data for 100 airports, and over 78 new points of interest.
There will also be one new bush trip for each of the Nordic countries, and five new landing challenges focused on Denmark’s Bornholm, Iceland’s Ísafjörður, Sweden’s Stockholm Arlanda, Norway’s Svalbard, and Finland’s Vaasa airports.
Developer Asobo also said it will launch two more World Updates this year followed by an additional six in 2022.
The company also this week revealed new details about how the sim will transfer to the Xbox games console when it’s released on 27 July.
A new Flight Assist option aims to make the game more accessible to non-aviation enthusiasts by allowing players to select a point of interest and have their AI co-pilot take the controls so they can view the sights.
Other new options allow players to land anyway and more help for pilots who get in trouble.
Last month, World of Aviation reported how a new modification for Microsoft Flight Simulator allows players to listen to voiced audio tours of 9,000 points of interest.
The sound is AI-generated and has been created by the website Bushtalk Radio, covering locations from the Chrysler Building in New York City to the Galapagos Islands.
Its smart tech means that the tour automatically starts playing when a player flies near one of its designated locations, and is updated each month.
The sim has been designed to allow external developers to upgrade its cities, as well as improvements released by the original development team Asobo.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was released last year and from launch featured 37,000 airports around the globe. It 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.
So far, four World Updates have been released to upgrade cities, while Microsoft has allowed independent developers to release their own upgrades.
