Today, Microsoft had quite a few releases to share for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and they shared some goodies with MSFS 2020 fans as well.
First of all, we finally get the official release of Sim Update 3 for MSFS 2024, which has been held back quite a bit compared to its predicted release date on July 29.
That being said, the update brings some pretty massive changes to the simulator, including the highly anticipated ability to manually download and install content that was previously just streamed.
This provides users basically with the best of both world. If you are short on storage space, you can let things stream from the cloud, while if you have plenty, you can download and install the content you use the most, tailoring the installation size and streaming option to your needs.
You can find the full patch notes on the official site.
Next is the release of the Local Legend 21, which is also the four aircraft provided for free to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 users to make up for the rocky launch.
It’s the Eurocopter EC135, and you can see what it looks like in the trailer below.
It’s worth mentioning that the “make good aircraft” operation is limited to MSFS 2024.
The City Update 12 has been released for both simulators, including photogrammetry for seven German cities: Augsburg, Bremen, Dresden, Leuben, Kiel, Leipzig, and Münster.
Unlike the Eurocopter, this is available at no additional cost to users of both sims.
It’s also rather appropriate to celebrate Gamescom. Its current location in Cologne was already added before, but Leipzig is actually the original site of the Games Convention, which was Gamescom’s predecessor.
You can check the cities out below.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is also available for PC and Xbox Series X|S, and Microsoft Flight Simulator is also available for the same platforms. If you want to see the massive visual difference between the two, you can enjoy our video and screenshot comparison.
If you’d like to read more flight simulation news, you can find plenty in our latest roundup article from yesterday.
If you want to go further back, we have a handy overview video of the major flight simulation news in the past week. You can watch it below.