As an homage to the pop culture classic film Top Gun and its upcoming sequel Top Gun: Maverick, Microsoft Flight Simulator has added in Tom Cruise’s character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell into an upcoming expansion, due to release this fall. Players will be able to sit in the cockpit of Mav’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, which he’ll fly in the upcoming sequel, and pull off maneuvers that hopefully don’t lead players to the same fate as Goose.
Microsoft Flight Simulator remains the gold standard for practical simulation games, especially given its ability to mimic real-world conditions in real-time anywhere that a player chooses to fly. The simulation is so advanced that it’s not unheard of for pilots to learn to fly almost exclusively with the game before receiving a pilot’s license. As such, it’s been consistently updated and upgraded with each new release since 1982, making it the longest-running Microsoft product in the company’s history, predating Windows by 3 years. The game has gotten so expansive that steps have had to be taken to reduce Flight Simulator‘s install size, but that doesn’t mean that new expansion packs are off the table, especially now that the most recent installment in the series will be taking it from PC to the Xbox Series X/S on July 27.
At today’s Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase for E3, developer Asobo Studios showed off some of the stunning gameplay and graphics that the powerful Xbox version of Microsoft Flight Simulator will be boasting, and players will be excited to note that the game’s notoriously wonky water effects seem to have been fixed. But a footnote to the gameplay trailer opens up on a carrier ship in the open ocean, ostensibly the now-decommissioned USS Enterprise, or possibly the USS Abraham Lincoln or Theodore Roosevelt where Top Gun: Maverick has been filmed, and shifts to a F/A-18 Super Hornet with Mav’s call sign emblazoned on the side, with the man himself at the controls, wearing his familiar flight helmet. Tom Cruise’s face is never shown in the trailer, and likely won’t be in Flight Simulator itself due to licensing, but that’s hardly a deterrent to fans of the film, especially considering that the expansion will be free. Check out the full gameplay trailer, along with the Maverick announcement, below:
Some fans of the game may argue that Microsoft Flight Simulator doesn’t need a gimmick to stay relevant, especially considering that with the pandemic, it’s currently the safest way to travel, although other fans may argue that a gimmick or two certainly wouldn’t go amiss. It’s also the first time these two children of the 80s have met, despite having similar thematic elements, so even without the dog fights, a Kenny Loggins soundtrack, or any canopy mishaps, it makes sense for the two properties to meet.
The best part is that the expansion, thus far untitled, is free, and when Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on Xbox Series X/S on July 27, anyone with an Xbox Game Pass can pre-install the game now, and play it on day one. The expansion will follow up this fall, in line with Top Gun: Maverick‘s release in theaters.
Microsoft Flight Simulator lands on the Xbox Series X/S on July 27, with the free Maverick expansion following in the fall.
