Paris (AFP)

The oldest existing video game franchise, Microsoft Flight Simulator will have made its fans wait for nearly 14 years before returning to the bins on Tuesday, in a new version entirely produced by the French studio Asobo.

Released for the very first time in 1982, Flight Simulator was one of the first software produced by Microsoft, which had not yet released Windows. The game, considered the most accurate flight simulation, was running on a less powerful computer than a current graphing calculator.

Expected by a community of tens of millions of aviation fans around the world, the game allows everyone to experience sensations as close as possible to a real piloting experience, taking the handle of more than twenty aircraft, from the small Mudry Cap 10 to the Boeing 787 via the Airbus to 320-Neo or the Pitts S2S.

To realize this new edition, the American group turned to Asobo, known in particular for "A Plague Tale: Innocence", released in May 2019 and awarded at the Pegasus, the César of video games. The studio based in the southwest of France, in Bordeaux, has also developed several games for Microsoft's Hololens augmented reality glasses.

Because beyond the market for computer games or its Xbox home consoles, Microsoft wishes to offer a version adapted to virtual reality, starting next October, when the immersive headset of the American HP, the Reverb, is released. G2.

In the meantime, it must convince both by the quality of its graphics and by the realism of the devices, in their reaction to the controls, the engine noises, the view from the cockpit ... These are all details to which lovers of the game are particularly sensitive. .

“Flight Simulator is a license that has played tens of millions of players, there is a community that has been waiting for many years. Microsoft therefore has no room for error. We will quickly know if the game has reached its quality objectives ", emphasizes to AFP Laurent Michaud, analyst specializing in the video game sector.

- Even virtual, piloting is not within everyone's reach -

With a successful first impression: passed into the hands of the specialized press before its release, the game was a resounding success, the jeuxvideo.com site even giving it a score of 18/20 which places it at the foot of the podium of the best existing computer games.

The depth, variety and quality of the landscapes, built on satellite images and generated in real time, literally reproducing the whole world, the weather changes and their impact on the flight of the devices, the accuracy of the latter seem to have convinced the testers , while waiting to see if they also appeal to the players.

These qualities are made possible thanks to technological tools, artificial intelligence and the power of Microsoft's servers, but which also mean that Flight Simulator is not within everyone's reach.

To play it, you need a machine that is also of a very high level, capable of supporting the demands of the game in terms of computing capacity and internet connection speed. The game is also better appreciated with suitable controllers: pedals, piloting joysticks and throttles.

A real flight simulation, as close as possible to the real controls and reactions of an airplane, Flight Simulator is also not accessible to the first comer and could quickly turn out to be difficult and off-putting for beginners who just imagined themselves having fun. to fly over their house or the place of their dream vacation.

The game has three versions, with prices ranging from 70 to 120 euros, which offer more or less planes.

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