One of the biggest obstacles to playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is how taxing it is to run on your platform of choice, both in terms of performance and storage. For the next game in the series, Xbox and developer Asobo Studio are making it just a little easier to run.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be around 30GB smaller at installation than its predecessor: 127GB versus 157GB. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was one of the largest games around, and even prompted some people to purchase more powerful hardware for their PCs. And that installation number doesn’t even include all the extra content you could buy. While 2024 will still be quite big, trimming it down will make it easier to install on your drive, which probably wasn’t that big to start with if you have an original Xbox Series X/S.
Asobo did this by only loading in environments and textures that you need for your flight path. The game also utilizes the cloud to store all assets, textures, and other pieces. “Now, we integrated everything into the cloud, and it is all streamed and kept into a rolling cache on the hardware. You don’t have to install any new World Updates; they’re just streamed seamlessly,” Asobo CEO Sebastian Wloch told Xbox Wire.
The game’s November 19 release date was announced at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available for preorder at the Microsoft Store, although it’ll also be on Xbox Game Pass on day one for compatible plans. All players who get their purchases in early will receive a De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting craft. There are four editions available, ranging from $60 for the standard edition to $200 for the highest tier.
New additions to 2024 include a career system that allows you to build up your piloting skills. You can begin at one airport located anywhere in the world, and will learn about real-world pilot skills like preflight procedures and logging flight paths. Then, you can use your training to unlock missions like commercial flights. Once you’ve raised enough money, you can learn how to maintain your planes, helicopters, or whatever else you own.
Asobo will also be making improvements to the environments. The game is already known for its attention to geographical detail, but it’ll be upping the specificity of the environments “by a factor of 4,000.” There are also new “soft body simulations” for hot air balloons, which, yes, have a parachute system.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.