Microsoft Flight Simulator launched with some monumental anomalies

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is already one of the biggest hits of the year, offering a whole world for its future pilots to explore in a year when travel has been otherwise restricted. With such a large world to build, MFS2020 relies on algorithms to generate most of it, which has resulted in some interesting new benchmarks.

In one case, the simulator downgraded the Queen’s home, turning Buckingham Palace in London into a pretty dismal apartment building. While The Shard and the O2 Arena in London have been modeled and added manually, it looks like Buckingham Palace hasn’t received the same treatment.

Likewise, while Sydney Harbor sports a love recreation of the Opera House, the iconic Harbor Bridge has been replaced with a much more generic highway bridge.

Reddit players have racked up a number of similar landmarks, such as the ancient Roman arenas of Nimes, which also have a few terrace buildings at its center for good measure.

The tallest statue on the planet, the 182m Statue of Unity in India, has also been replaced by… well, nothing much actually.

The golden Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar is barely recognizable in the game, and more strangely enough, a number of green-roofed pagodas surrounding it have been turned into huge apartment buildings.

While it is perhaps understandable that MSF’s global building technology has been a bit confused by some of the world’s most unique monuments, it also seems to tend to place buildings where they don’t belong, such as on a football stadium, or even an airstrip.

And then there is … anything.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is available now for PC through Steam or the Microsoft Store for $ 60, or through Xbox Game Pass. Check here if your PC will be able to handle this gigantic game.