AirportSim Hands-On Preview: An Informative, Extremely Buggy Good Time
Amid an avalanche of quirky simulators that ask us to do everything from drive bus routes to powerwash dirty grills in the backyard, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to discover the upcoming AirportSim just straight up had me work a job at an airport. And yet, this seemingly benign 9-5 shift put me through a whole host of emotions, from wondering if I’d been tricked into doing someone else’s work to laughing hysterically when everything went horribly wrong. Although this early look at a game that’s still not finished sometimes made me wonder if it was tragically broken in the worst kind of way, it also provided more than a few moments where the clouds parted to reveal a potentially awesome new sim game. After more than a dozen hours sorting luggage and scraping jetways against the sides of commercial planes, I can honestly say I learned a lot about airports – namely that I should never be allowed to work at one.
If anything is true about AirportSim, it’s that unless you already work at an airport or are an aviation enthusiast, you’re going to learn a whole heck of a lot. As an aircraft neophyte with an inexplicable attraction to realistic simulators, I don’t think I was quite prepared for the three hours worth of tutorials that schooled me on everything from how to refuel different kinds of planes, to the merits of guiding pilots in a “follow me” car. At times, taking it all in and trying to remember all the complicated steps involved could be exhausting, but that uphill battle was actually my favorite part of my time in various virtual real-life airports. Even when wonky controls and tons of glitches disrupted an otherwise good time, at least I felt I was gaining something from the whole process.
It’s worth giving a
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