Microsoft Flight Simulator’s virtual world is getting a gorgeous new update, making the game’s Nordic region more beautiful than ever. World Update 5: Nordics for Asobo Studio’s flight sim gives some love and attention to landmarks and airports across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The update is free and available now.
Microsoft says that World Update 5 includes improvements in detail to “broad swaths of landscapes, enhancements to regional architecture, improved data for 100 airports and 78 carefully selected points of interest.” As seen in the gameplay trailer above, those points of interest include Lego House, Frederiksborg Castle, and the city of Copenhagen in Denmark; Uddevalla Bridge, Avicii Arena, and Sarek National Park in Sweden; Olavinlinna and the city of Helsinki in Finland; Flakstad, the Arctic Cathedral, and Holmenkollbakken in Norway; and Hallgrímskirkja, Jökulsárlón, and Hvítserkur in Iceland. Not shown: how much I’d really like to visit any of those places in real life right now.
Local airports — Denmark’s Bornholm, Iceland’s Ísafjörður, Sweden’s Stockholm Arlanda, Norway’s Svalbard, and Finland’s Vaasa — have all been “carefully replicated by hand for maximum realism,” Asobo Studio said in a post on the Microsoft Flight Simulator website, which names every new point of interest. The update also includes localization in Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is available now on Windows PC and is coming to Xbox Series X on July 27. A Top Gun-themed expansion for the game is planned for later this year.
