Microsoft Flight Sim Bugs Hint at Terrifying Alternate Earth

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By Michelle Ehrhardt
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Has Melbourne always had an obelisk reaching to the clouds?

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft Flight Sim released yesterday, giving quarantine-stricken players an opportunity to explore a complete 1:1 scale Earth in real-time from the comfort of their homes. The Bing Maps-powered illusion is usually pretty seamless, but some players are now finding bugs that feel like “glitches in the Matrix.” Like viewing into an alternate earth, these point to what are certainly Eldritch secrets sitting just beneath the game world’s multi-petabyte surface.

Take this obelisk Twitter user Alexander Muscat found towering over Northern Melbourne during a flight. Definitely not present in real-life, this impossibly narrow skyscraper certainly isn’t there to take part in any demonic rituals, no sir. 

Here’s some night shots, courtesy Michael McMaster.

And if you’re brave enough to touch it, Conor O’Kane shows that you can land on it.

Meanwhile, Redditor u/thallada found some innovative highway construction in their game. Spider-Man, eat your heart out.

In all seriousness, the amount of detail and freedom in this game is simply stunning, so it’s easy to forgive the occasional map bug. To be honest, I kind of hope Microsoft keeps them in. Who knows? Maybe the dark tower has existed all along, and we’ve simply forgotten until now.

That said, Microsoft posted last night that it is aware of issues players are having with the game and is working to fix them. Rather than the world map, though, these mostly apply to long installation times or even installations failing to complete. These problems are somewhat understandable, given the massive 150GB of data the game needs, though some Steam reviews are upset given that the long installation time makes it impossible to get any game time in underneath Steam’s two hour refund window.

Michelle Ehrhardt
Michelle Ehrhardt

Michelle Ehrhardt is an editor at Tom's Hardware. She's been following tech since her family got a Gateway running Windows 95, and is now on her third custom-built system. Her work has been published in publications like Paste, The Atlantic, and Kill Screen, just to name a few. She also holds a master's degree in game design from NYU.

5 Comments Comment from the forums
  • GenericUser
    These problems are somewhat understandable, given the massive 150GB of data the game needs, though some Steam reviews are upset given that the long installation time makes it impossible to get any game time in underneath Steam’s two hour refund window.

    I had to check what these Steam reviews said, since it's a 2 hour play time window within a 2 week ownership window for where you can still be eligible to receive a refund. I didn't see how you can burn through the 2 hour window just downloading the game when you aren't even playing it, but apparently you download a launcher that downloads the game. And of course, the launcher itself is the "game" in Steam, so just keeping that open for the download counts against your time.

    Maybe most people like them, but I've never really been a fan of launchers for a variety of reasons.
    Reply
  • nofanneeded
    Stupid boring game , I can understand fighting jets simulators with missions and dog fights and bombings and etc. but sitting there waiting to fly from airport to airport is utter waste of time.
    Reply
  • digitalgriffin
    nofanneeded said:
    Stupid boring game , I can understand fighting jets simulators with missions and dog fights and bombings and etc. but sitting there waiting to fly from airport to airport is utter waste of time.


    And this is why you aren't a pilot. Those who are pilots (armchair and otherwise) might disagree. It's like saying you never dogged a car to see what it can do.

    There's challenges to being a good pilot: System failures, bad weather, busy traffic patterns, weaving around high mountains to land on a small short runway. (Anchorage and Denver are good examples with short drop runways surrounded by mountains) Then there's stunt flying.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    nofanneeded said:
    Stupid boring game , I can understand fighting jets simulators with missions and dog fights and bombings and etc. but sitting there waiting to fly from airport to airport is utter waste of time.
    While sitting back at cruise altitude between airports may consume 'most' of the time, there is a LOT more involved.
    Reply
  • salgado18
    nofanneeded said:
    Stupid boring game , I can understand fighting jets simulators with missions and dog fights and bombings and etc. but sitting there waiting to fly from airport to airport is utter waste of time.
    You know, there's always the Ace Combat series for those who want action.
    And some past air combat games are still good.
    You don't actually have to play this one, really.
    Reply