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Features Microsoft Flight Simulator’s installation process is the worst thing ever designed by a human.

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by bit-tech, 28 Aug 2020.

  1. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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  2. Paradigm Shifter

    Paradigm Shifter de nihilo nihil fit

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    If the DVD version doesn't require online, a Microsoft account and all the other tomfoolery that is now considered "standard" with modern games, I could see the point.
     
  3. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    How would you get the high-res textures needed to run the game? Or the live weather and flight data? Yeah, not going to happen.
     
  4. Theophilus_Field

    Theophilus_Field If all else fails... use the surfacing tools

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    So I've been into Flight simulator for most of my life from FS98 onward and obviously I was super interested & excited to see Microsoft's latest offering with the incredible Terrain scenery technology & the massive graphical leap over FSX.

    Looking at the prices & the initial complaints about installation & especially the fact the game's installer counts as running the game on Steam (thereby making sure you can't request a refund by the time you've even downloaded the game) I decided to use the £1 Xbox pass offer to try FS2020 before committing to such an outlay.

    Other than the size of the download my installation seemingly went well and even managed to resume after a couple of shutdowns and/or pauses that I had to make.
    The music can indeed be turned off by muting FS2020 in the volume mixer but that on its own was a red flag for me. Even FSX had a nice mute icon on the launch window to get rid of the music, no messing required. And to expect that users will be fine with it playing for the entire time the game is downloading is an oversight that makes me question the design of the entire launcher (which I agree with the article, reeks of Microsoft).

    Of course, once I had finally downloaded everything I ran the game & jumped into the menu's to set up the graphic's options as you do. Again, like the article said, the UI design of the main menu is great and makes sense.
    I then quit the game to go and update my graphic's drivers & wait until I had time to fly.

    BAD IDEA

    After starting my PC, excited to play, and launching FS2020 after 1min I got an 'ok' style text box telling me that FS2020 was currently updating.
    "hang on" I thought "It was fully updated yesterday and I launched it. What's going on?"
    So I opened the Xbox app expecting to see some sort of progress bar or 'updating' notification. Nothing.
    I open Microsoft Store to look for a progress bar or notification. Nothing.
    I look in app updates. Nothing.
    I try to launch the game again and get told its still updating.
    I leave the PC for an hour and when I come back and launch, guess what, still updating.
    I look around the task manager for a process. Nothing I can see.
    I restart, exactly the same problem.

    Do I follow the troubleshooting steps & re-install the entire game?
    Uninstalled & requested my £1 refund.

    It's such a Microsoft thing to do to create a superb game and then place it behind the most un-intuative, clunky and buggy installer/launcher you can imagine and I won't be touching the game with a barge pole until I hear MS have patched the hell out of the installer. I just feel sorry for those people who've paid through the nose for the game and then are stuck with a broken installer & game they can't play yet.
    I'm sure MS will fix many of these issues in time & some bugs are always going to be present at launch but selling a game that doesn't work at all for lots of people due to its installer and essentially bypassing the Steam refund policy is a terrible first move to make.

    Again, I 100% blame Microsoft as the publisher and probably the architect of the installer. As far as the YouTube videos are to go by, the game itself that the Studio made is incredible.
     
  5. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Yeah, guess I'll skip the game due to the installer/launcher issue. Plus, I don't want to create an MS account.
     
  6. Paradigm Shifter

    Paradigm Shifter de nihilo nihil fit

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    I dunno - it's 10 DVDs... using dual-layer discs (8.5GB a pop), and using a format which is compressible I can see having "reasonably" high res terrain data on there. As for live weather and flight data? If you want that, great. But other great flight sims have managed without.

    I was simply stating that I could see a point for a DVD release if the always online component wasn't necessary - not that that was, in fact, the case, or whether Microsoft had done it, or, indeed, whether they had done something sensible regarding it.
     
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  7. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  9. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    Wow.

    First patch sounds like just as much of a cluster biff as the initial launch.

    Go team!
     
  10. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Yeah, MS did a big whoopsie with that installer. They haven't really learned not to integrate stuff too much into their OS, have they?
     
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