Microsoft Flight Simulator fills our game-less gap this August

Microsoft just revealed we’ll finally be getting the new Microsoft Flight Simulator this August — meaning we’ll not only be taking to the skies again very soon, but we’ll actually have a game to play in mid-August after everything’s been delayed.

It’s been six years since the last release in the series — fourteen if you don’t count the Steam release of Flight Simulator X. In case you’ve missed any of the pre-release info, the flight sim is the most detailed we’ve ever seen, with every major airport in the world lovingly recreated. It’s every fussy thing you’ve ever wanted from a sim game, with a day/night cycle, real-time weather, and animals roaming the world. It looks pretty stunning from what we can glean from the trailers.

There is some confusion with regards to the special editions of the game. According to Microsoft’s own words, they included in the game every airport on Earth and yet the chart of what’s in each edition of the game seems to imply that ten whole airports will be somehow exclusive to the deluxe and premium editions combined. Eurogamer, apparently caught in the same confusion, asked Microsoft about it and got the rather baffling answer that, while each airport will be in the game regardless, but they’ll be somehow more detailed in the premium editions. I have no idea what that means, either, but I’m probably going to get the basic edition, so I leave it to others to find out.

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Even if Microsoft Flight Sim doesn’t sound like your thing, if you’re anything like me and game a lot, then you might want to keep it on the “maybe” list if only because it’s the only game coming out in the mid-August release bracket.

Once Ghost of Tsushima comes out later this week, actual new games are kind of thin on the ground. There’s really not much on the horizon between Fast & Furious Crossroads at the beginning of August, and Wasteland 3, which comes out at the end of August. Originally the game that might have dominated the middle of the month was New World, an MMO and one of Amazon’s ambitious attempts to break into the industry. But New World‘s been delayed, and not without good reason — I doubt most people had even heard of it, and it’s only a few weeks away from its original release date.

Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on PC on August 18, and you can pre-order it starting today. The Xbox One release date has yet to be announced.