What simulator should I pick?
The first step you have to take is deciding what flight simulator you prefer. There are a lot of variables involved in this decision, so we will try to summarize the main points for you. But first, let's see what your main options are:
Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) is the most popular flight sim in the market at the moment. MSFS has brought a never-before-seen boom of popularity for flight simulation thanks to the accessibility that this sim provides, with freeware aircrafts and other addons powered by a very large community, and with how easy it is to start playing without needing to download or set up almost anything. With extremely attractive graphics and a ton of variety, it is the default option for newcomers and experienced simmers.
X-Plane currently has two active versions, 11 and 12, both are actively used by lots of users, but the most recent one and the one with active development from the developers is X-Plane 12. It is usually said that X-Plane makes up for what it lacks on the visual department with its physics and realism, but the visuals are slowly catching up to MSFS and the physics in MSFS are slowly catching up to X-Plane. This simulator also has a large community with freeware addons, extremely good default airports and a lot of experienced aircraft developers.
Prepar3D (P3D) was the defacto flight simulator for many years before the release of MSFS. Most major developers like PMDG, FSLabs, Aerosoft, etc, were developing for this flight sim. This made it the most popular one at the time, and therefore has a great variety of aircraft to purchase, but most developers have moved on to MSFS. The graphics and physics are falling behind the competition, and the amount of work needed to set it up compared to X-Plane and MSFS really puts it off for many players. But many simmers are still using it and it can be an attractive option depending on what you want out of it.
Here is a list of the three points that we consider to be the most important when choosing your flight simulator:
- Price: This is the a big one, right? Flight sims will always be an investment, but some investments are bigger than others.
- Accessibility: How hard is it to set it up? How much time do I have to invest in getting it running without crashes?
- Requirements: Flight simulation requires a good PC, but some sims require more powerful PCs than others, as well as other factors like the OS.
Now, with all of that out of the way, click on the picture/banner of the simulator you prefer to get more information about it and learn how to get started with it. Of course, you can always go back if you change your mind.
PS: There are other simulators that we have not mentioned as they are not very popular at the moment or because they run on other platforms like mobile (For now we will mainly focus on PC as a platform, with some help for Xbox as well).
This doesn't mean that they are not good and perfectly viable options! This include, for example, Aerofly FS4, Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Infinite Flight.