Recent reviews by Dwardu

Bro idk how this hasn't topped Fortnite and all that qallus yet

This is probably the closest flight sim to reality, although it is far from perfect in many aspects.

In the past, if you had to choose between older versions of X-plane and P3D/FSX, I would have suggested P3D/FSX as X-Plane's market in general was much smaller and the sim was plagued with other problems, nowadays X-Plane 11 fixed a lot of these issues and is overall more realistic.

Pros:
-X-Plane's flight model simulates a proper airfoil, you can actually find videos of the developer trying to get recordings of airflow over the wings in different scenarios.

In other simulators a "lookup table" is used based on one point of the aircraft, X-Plane actually takes into account the entire shape of the aircraft and doesn't just use generic values, this makes the aircraft feel alive and not like it's on two pieces of train tracks in mid air.

-Runways and terrain are actually sloped, this makes landings and takeoffs way more realistic.

-Default Scenery is actually pretty good, makes GA flying a lot easier, they even went as far as adding a relatively unknown heliport in my country!

-The Night enviroment in this sim is something else, I used to use ORBX back in P3D and it still didn't compare to how beautiful this sim looks at night. The lights are actually modelled properly and aren't just a half-hearted static image, even with default scenery it's just fanatastic.

Speaking of lights, you actually have to be careful when entering clouds with your strobe lights on, like in real life they can dazzle you if you leave them on, the flash that's generated can be pretty annoying!

-Performance wise, it runs near-perfect (lowest is around 30 which is fine for sims), a bit of fine tuning to the graphics settings is required obviously but overall it's way more optimized than other sims. The newer version of X-plane will be using a Vulkan rendering API which is showing to be even smoother.

Cons:
-Default weather is painfully over-exaggerated, with just a 5kt wind a light aircraft begins to enter this "side-to-side" pendulum yaw motion which only gets worse with higher winds, some users report having a B737 flip over with just 15kts which is far below what that aircraft can fully handle.

Speaking from experience, in real life, a 15kt wind barely rocked my school's P2002-JF Tecnam, let alone a B737!

To remedy this, you need to limit "turbulence effects" to light or by purchasing a 3rd party weather addon which completely replaces the default weather.

-Whilst runways and terrain are sloped, they are sometime sloped wayy too much for some airports. What doesn't help is the contact points for slopes tends to be a 50/50, they're trying to fix this in the coming updates.

-The Market for airliners is rather low, some of the long haul aircraft (B777) have an outdated model from X-Plane 10 which isn't as realistic. This might be a deal breaker for some, but it doesn't mean the airliner market is dead! There's a really good B757/767 and a FREE PMDG LIKE Boeing 737 made by someone called Zibo.

-Default ATC is not good, don't even bother using this. It is way worse than P3D/FSX and vectors you left and right with no plan in mind, just stick to online networks or buy an ATC addon.

Beta tested this thanks to a friend of mine, not a massive step up from F1 2018 but an improvement nonetheless.

Career mode so far has gotten a better introduction thanks to the F2 program that you can now take (I recommend doing this since it takes away a lot of the fun if you just skip it), it doesn't last too long but your rival remains with you in Formula 1 which is a bit better for the long term. The problem? The F2 section is very short and there are no more cutscene interactions after it, quite underwhelming to be honest.

R&D seems to be using data from F1 2018 which is going to change on release. Everything else seems the same, a bit disappointing as they could probably change some things with the practice sessions. On the bright side, we've finally gotten driver transfers!

Graphics wise things have gotten slightly better, the tracks have a way better environment and you can definitely see this on certain tracks such as Monaco. More podium effects/animations have been added and you also have the official F2 commentators for F2 races. I personally think they should look into laser-scanning the tracks for better accuracy and realism some tracks are still lacking in realism.

The game's UI has changed along with the font which now uses the same font TV/Formula 1 use in real life. You can now place a full session timer on your screen for Practice/Qualifying, the in-game UI is also customizable if you'd like to move things in other places.

ERS/Fuel Mix systems seem quite similar, I still personally think this should change to a better system as it is quite unrealistic.

Game physics seem to have changed with regards to braking, it is easier to lock the car up now. Sometimes the game can be more unforgiving on Traction as well and you will spin out where you previously wouldn't. The in-game AI feels slightly more aggressive this year although there can still be room found for improvement (It seems to give you space all the time if you divebomb them). Sadly the lap 1 line AI issue is still a thing as with most racing games.

Sounds for F1 cars could use some improvement, at maximum RPM the engine sounds a little bit underwhelming, F2 cars sound near perfect however. They still need to improve the replay sound though, all the cars seem to sound the exact same.

New highlights system is a 50/50 sometimes it captures close moments perfectly other times the camera just randomly rolls by, eitherway a pretty nice feature but a little bit underwhelming from what they claimed it would be.

Multiplayer, Ranked is looking very similar so far, 5 lap or 25% races, One-shot qualifying, seems like there is more importance on Matchmaking as there are less discrepancies between ranks (I still had a game or two with Golds though). For now, the possibility to invite your friends in Ranked has been removed.

Ultimately if you've owned F1 2018 you are not going to see a massive difference but at least things have started to get better, Driver transfers and the F2 Career concept are something which Codemasters will hopefully build upon further in next year's game.