I went from FSX to MSFS 2020 to P3dv5 to XP12. Spent ton of money on each for addons. At this point in time I can't see me ever using msfs again. I still have all 3 installed and running well. Well there's a caveat there. Xp and p3d are installed and running well. I never know when I fire up msfs IF I'm going to get the same experience I did on the last startup. P3d never changes, xp changes subtly but msfs can change wildly and be unusable for days after a mandatory update. 

I will use p3d again as it has some of my favorite legacy planes. PMDG's 747-8, RealAir props and A2A beauties being my favorite. 

At the moment XP12 looks fantastic to me with map enhancement and sim heaven. Combined with that gorgeous weather I do not NEED a better looking sim and the interface to actually get me flying is hands down my favorite. 

Currently using the FF 777 range in XP12 and it makes me want to uninstall my pmdg triples in other sims. Every morning I get up early to do a flight on my current world tour with them. Oops it's that time already later folks... 

Edited April 19Apr 19 by sloppysmusic

19 hours ago, Lotharen said:

I just dread dropping more cash to get a collection of study level aircraft I was to fly and possibly wanting more add-on's for QoL reasons.

Why spend cash when you can keep busy with $0 aircraft of very high authenticity like Zibo's 738 (and by extension maybe the LevelUp 737s), the default A330, the default Citation X, the C90B Evo, Rotorsim's EC-135, Nhadrian's Yak-18T?

Edited April 19Apr 19 by Bjoern

@Bjoern  Thanks for sharing those freebies. I knew about the Zibo mod but I'm not great at airliners. I'll learn to use it but fly piston engine mostly. That Evo looks really nice and I will totally take that one up. I was meaning more something like a Cessna 182 and or a turboprop. Also, might want navigraph for updated navdata.

11 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

I went from FSX to MSFS 2020 to P3dv5 to XP12. Spent ton of money on each for addons. At this point in time I can't see me ever using msfs again. I still have all 3 installed and running well. Well there's a caveat there. Xp and p3d are installed and running well. I never know when I fire up msfs IF I'm going to get the same experience I did on the last startup. P3d never changes, xp changes subtly but msfs can change wildly and be unusable for days after a mandatory update. 

I will use p3d again as it has some of my favorite legacy planes. PMDG's 747-8, RealAir props and A2A beauties being my favorite. 

At the moment XP12 looks fantastic to me with map enhancement and sim heaven. Combined with that gorgeous weather I do not NEED a better looking sim and the interface to actually get me flying is hands down my favorite. 

Currently using the FF 777 range in XP12 and it makes me want to uninstall my pmdg triples in other sims. Every morning I get up early to do a flight on my current world tour with them. Oops it's that time already later folks... 

I just can't do MSFS 2024 anymore... It's SUCH a chore, I feel. Yes, it looks somewhat good (except default airports, useless default APC, that stupid Universal Tablet without which you can't plan a flight and it still doesn't load aircraft correctly OR communicate with ATC even if you filed flightplan)... but that word not allowed UI of theirs. That main menu where Freeflight is like an afterthought... The constant collaborations with things like Stranger Things, Dune, Orbx' new Jurassic Park thing... I just can't anymore. I still have it, but I never use it. It's XP12 for me and has been for a year and a half at least. Mind you, used 2020 as much as XP11/XP12. But 2024 killed it for me. Can't seem to enjoy it anymore. 

4 hours ago, Lotharen said:

@Bjoern  Thanks for sharing those freebies. I knew about the Zibo mod but I'm not great at airliners. I'll learn to use it but fly piston engine mostly. That Evo looks really nice and I will totally take that one up. I was meaning more something like a Cessna 182 and or a turboprop. Also, might want navigraph for updated navdata.

King air c90b blackhawk, and the evo g1000,  on the org done by pilots who fly the plane best freeware out there

 

Edited April 19Apr 19 by mjrhealth

The mandatory updating of ANY software is usually bad for consumers - just ask anyone using Windows 11 who woke up one day and found Microsoft had unilaterally broken their operating system with a faulty update. I'm not quite ready to ditch Windows (it's getting closer), but avoid products such as MSFS like the plague.

9 hours ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

The constant collaborations with things like Stranger Things, Dune, Orbx' new Jurassic Park thing

Wait, what???

I can kind of get the Top Gun thing when it came out, but these??

11 hours ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

23 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

I went from FSX to MSFS 2020 to P3dv5 to XP12. Spent ton of money on each for addons. At this point in time I can't see me ever using msfs again. I still have all 3 installed and running well. Well there's a caveat there. Xp and p3d are installed and running well. I never know when I fire up msfs IF I'm going to get the same experience I did on the last startup. P3d never changes, xp changes subtly but msfs can change wildly and be unusable for days after a mandatory update. 

I will use p3d again as it has some of my favorite legacy planes. PMDG's 747-8, RealAir props and A2A beauties being my favorite. 

At the moment XP12 looks fantastic to me with map enhancement and sim heaven. Combined with that gorgeous weather I do not NEED a better looking sim and the interface to actually get me flying is hands down my favorite. 

Currently using the FF 777 range in XP12 and it makes me want to uninstall my pmdg triples in other sims. Every morning I get up early to do a flight on my current world tour with them. Oops it's that time already later folks... 

Expand  

I just can't do MSFS 2024 anymore

Actually I missed a sim off my list. FSX to 2020 to P3d.... Then over last xmas got really curious as to how 2024 ran on ps5. I figured at the very least I could do some virtual sight seeing with a controller. So I purchased it. Never got past the first couple of tutorial flights trying to set controller sensitivities and failing so that trainer just handled like an F15. Tried a 737 figured I could at least use ap the whole flight. Resigned myself to fact without keyboard and mouse I could only fly it if I spawned in the air and flew it like.... An F15.. 

Horrible experience, I'm sure it's way better on pc but deleted after 3 or 4 hours 'play time' and started researching if it was possible to make xplane look good on pc. When I found out the map enhancement mod pro allowed unrestricted high res imagery at all altitudes with xplane as opposed to the recently crippled low res msfs version I had to try it out. Fantastic sim tailered to the user not corporate 'visions'. 

 

3 hours ago, GoranM said:

Wait, what???

I can kind of get the Top Gun thing when it came out, but these??

Each collaboration with a movie brought some elements in the sim, mostly a new free aircraft and new missions and related sceneries to go with it.

For Stranger things, we got a Huey and missions over sceneries that recreated some scenes from the serie. While the environment is purely fantasy, the flight model is still realistic so it brings some real fun and challenge to fly these missions.

For Dune, it's kind of the same principle excepted that the aircraft is purely fantasy. You had some missions localed in some deserts looking like the movie.

For Jurassic Parc however, it's a completely separate and payware addon, not free like the other two. The concept however is closer to Stranger things extension: you get a new scenery that recreates the island with the park from the movie. The park is populated with dinos here and there, and you just fly over them with any realistic aircraft you want. You can also land where you want and explore on foot with the avatar mode (same as in P3D, by the way) to take a closer look at these dinos moving around. In VR it's actually quite a thrill !

 

13 hours ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

I just can't do MSFS 2024 anymore... It's SUCH a chore, I feel. Yes, it looks somewhat good (except default airports, useless default APC, that stupid Universal Tablet without which you can't plan a flight and it still doesn't load aircraft correctly OR communicate with ATC even if you filed flightplan)... but that word not allowed UI of theirs. That main menu where Freeflight is like an afterthought... The constant collaborations with things like Stranger Things, Dune, Orbx' new Jurassic Park thing... I just can't anymore. I still have it, but I never use it. It's XP12 for me and has been for a year and a half at least. Mind you, used 2020 as much as XP11/XP12. But 2024 killed it for me. Can't seem to enjoy it anymore. 

I get that you didn't feel comfortable with it, but your description above makes it sound much worse than what it actually is.

The collaborations have absolutely no impact whatsoever on your flightsim user experience. Don't make it sound like it's a mandatory thing that we have to go through like an additional task or something. It's not. You're completely free to ignore it. At maximum, you'll see one more FREE aircraft in your hangar. How painful is that, eh ? 😄

The UI has its flaws, but saying things like "freeflight is like an afterthough".... yep there's a main menu and freeflight is one of the choices. What an absolute torture... 😄

8 minutes ago, Daube said:

I get that you didn't feel comfortable with it, but your description above makes it sound much worse than what it actually is.

The collaborations have absolutely no impact whatsoever on your flightsim user experience. Don't make it sound like it's a mandatory thing that we have to go through like an additional task or something. It's not. You're completely free to ignore it. At maximum, you'll see one more FREE aircraft in your hangar. How painful is that, eh ? 😄

The UI has its flaws, but saying things like "freeflight is like an afterthough".... yep there's a main menu and freeflight is one of the choices. What an absolute torture... 😄

Thing is... I don't want a free fictional aircraft from Dune... And I don't want to see any of that stuff. It makes me feel like that sim has completely lost the plot and if they feel the target clientele wants these things, it just shows you where the focus is. Yes, Freeflight IS one of the choices. And the size of the icon that gets you into it is way smaller than their Career Mode, Racing Challenge, or whatever all that other nonsense is. We can disagree. 

4 hours ago, GoranM said:

Wait, what???

I can kind of get the Top Gun thing when it came out, but these??

Yeah... I am not kidding. Here are the three links you'll enjoy. 🙂

Xbox and Microsoft Flight Simulator unveil Dune Expansion and Floating Controller - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: Stranger Things Expansion - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Jurassic World Archipelago - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 - Orbx

This is just not what I want from a Flight Simulator. I am sure the XBox crowd loves it. Count me out. 

1 minute ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

Thing is... I don't want a free fictional aircraft from Dune... And I don't want to see any of that stuff. It makes me feel like that sim has completely lost the plot and if they feel the target clientele wants these things, it just shows you where the focus is. Yes, Freeflight IS one of the choices. And the size of the icon that gets you into it is way smaller than their Career Mode, Racing Challenge, or whatever all that other nonsense is. We can disagree. 

I have some good news: if you don't want to see the Dune aircraft in your hangar, you can simply disable it.

I for one was very happy to see a free Huey reaching my hangar. Truth is, you're complaining about some of us getting more/additional/optional things than what you just wanted or needed, as if it were hurting your religious belief or something like that. It doesn't make any sense. It has no impact on you, it doesn't decrease your simulator experience, and you're free to ignore it. 

Lol, "I don't use MSFS because there's some free stuff and features than I can't tolerate". What an open mind...

5 minutes ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

This is just not what I want from a Flight Simulator.

Good for you.

5 minutes ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

I am sure the XBox crowd loves it.

Of course they do, just like a very big part of the PC community. It's just you who hates it mindlessly.

5 minutes ago, BostonJeremy77 said:

Count me out. 

For sure.

2 minutes ago, Daube said:

I have some good news: if you don't want to see the Dune aircraft in your hangar, you can simply disable it.

I for one was very happy to see a free Huey reaching my hangar. Truth is, you're complaining about some of us getting more/additional/optional things than what you just wanted or needed, as if it were hurting your religious belief or something like that. It doesn't make any sense. It has no impact on you, it doesn't decrease your simulator experience, and you're free to ignore it. 

Lol, "I don't use MSFS because there's some free stuff and features than I can't tolerate". What an open mind...

I am a customer and I have a right to like or dislike a product. I understand if some 3rd party company started creating nonsense content for a flight sim, but it's approaching the absurd and it decreases my appreciation of it because I am losing respect for the first party and dislike their vision of what the product is. There is a loss of identity and a focus... 

Let's imagine this... "Laminar Research is proud to present: X-Plane: The Nightmare on Elm Street Expansion. It features a free Ultralight that allows you to fly over the haunted neighborhoods tormented by Freddie Krueger and the hellish dreamscape he created." Sounds bloody ridiculous, but it's not a far cry from Dune and Stranger Things. 

Again, all this does is make me not want to use it, because the creators of this franchise have lost the plot. This is a sim that still has no weather radar that has tilt capability. Last time I checked it, dual jetways weren't a thing either. And their version of Scenery Gateway that they promised years ago is still nonexistent. Default airports still look abandoned and are still filled with things like jetways not attached to anything... just jetway sitting by itself and you spawn next to it! There are taxi lights all over taxiways. Sometimes randomly thrown all over the place. 

But sure, let's have the Avatar expansion next... I don't know why my opinion is so hard to understand. You don't have to agree with it, but THESE are some of the things I switched to XP12 for my sim of choice.