After its lengthy delay to stay synced up with the theatrical release of Top Gun: Maverick, the free Top Gun: Maverick DLC for Microsoft Flight Simulator is out now for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
As you might expect from Flight Simulator, this leaves the high intensity dog fighting to the film, instead focussing on the technical challenges that you need to fly an F/A-18E Super Hornet to its fullest potential.
There are three training missions for the Super Hornet that include unrestricted take-offs, split S manoeuvres, and low altitude, high-speed flight through complex terrain. That’s then matched with five high-speed, low-level challenges that will have you racing through canyons and just above mountain tops, and a carrier deck landing challenge, which is one of the most difficult things that a Navy pilot has to do.
There’s also a ‘never-before-unveilied’ hypersonic aircraft that can reach speeds of Mach 10 and altitudes of more than 150,000 feet, which will be put to the test in a mission to “roar into the stratosphere”. Reddit thinks it’s the Aurora Darkstar SR-91.
That will be the only new aircraft in the game, because the F/A-18E was actually bundled in with when Asobo released the Game of the Year edition of Flight Simulator last year.
Asobo has been very busy through the last two years, first releasing Flight Simulator for PC in the summer of 2020, and then following that up with the Xbox Series X|S release a year later. We reviewed Flight Simulator on console, with great things to say:
“Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox Series X|S is a remarkable achievement, and one which brings the flight simulator experience into your living room with emphatic effect. There’s no sense that this is a cut-back console port, but one that widens the genre’s influence into places it’s never conquered before.”
Source: Flight Simulator
