To help promote the new France/Benelux map update for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the company is giving away an unusual PC for French customers, shaped like a bisected jet engine - complete with a turbofan on the front of the case. The competition is running on Twitter in partnership with two PC component makers, Aorus and Nvidia.
The 2020 edition of Flight Simulator is notable not just for high-end graphics and physics, but for letting players fly around the entire world without loading screens. Most scenery is extrapolated from satellite imagery, but some select regions and airports have been given more detail. Microsoft has been gradually expanding this detail over time; for instance, a recent update enhanced America's National Mall. Europe has been the focus so far in 2021, since a prior update targeted the U.K. and Ireland.
The contest, hosted by Xbox France, asks that entrants follow @XboxFR, retweet the contest post, and comment with the hashtag #MicrosoftFlightSimulator. Microsoft hasn't shared when the contest will end, or even the PC's exact specifications. It is however equipped with a Z590 Aorus Elite AX motherboard, an Intel Core i7-11700K processor, and a Gigabyte-branded RTX 3070 video card. Nvidia's 30-series RTX cards have proven hard to come by since launching in 2020 - on top of pandemic-related supply chain issues, the cards are often snapped up by Bitcoin miners, leaving gamers and others empty-handed.
The Z590 Aorus Elite AX is equipped with Wi-Fi 6, three USB 3.2 Type-C ports, and support for standards like Bluetooth 5.0 and PCIe 4.0. The i7-11700K processor is normally clocked at 3.6 GHz, but can turbo-boost to 5 GHz, which may well be necessary given Flight Simulator's demanding system requirements at high detail. The game is nevertheless headed to consoles, even the Xbox One. That system will have to dramatically scale back detail to remain playable, since its technology is over seven years old.
The France/Benelux update, out now, includes a new elevation map for France, and focuses on detail not just there but in three other countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Pilots can, for example, check out the battlefields of Waterloo, Rotterdam, the Hague Airport, the Canadian Vimy National Memorial, and improved sights around Paris like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Scenery has also been improved in the territory of French Guiana, which is actually located in South America. Hopefully Asobo Studio continues its work in making Microsoft Flight Simulator one of the most robust simulation titles on the market.
Source: Xbox France