Microsoft Flight Simulator is a popular game developed by Microsoft.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a popular game developed by Microsoft.
The initial 150GB download seems sufficient. Features needing constant internet, such as live map streaming and real-time weather updates, can be turned off. However, since these online-enabled options enhance realism, your experience will be greatly reduced without an active connection.
Yes, the full worldwide map can be accessed for offline use.
Depends on the level of detail you want to cache. As I understand it, it has a base detail level (fsx level, not that great) that's part of the 150Gb install, and you can cache additional areas locally at low, medium, or high detail levels, but it can eat space like hotcakes. So, in theory, if you've got enough disk space, you should be able to cache everything at high detail. But, even in the FSX days, high resolution regions took up quite a lot of space. As in, if you bought, say, TrueEarth's United States package, they would ship it to you on a 4TB harddrive. They would even include a return shipping label, in case you had enough local storage and wanted to ship the drive back for a $100 discount on the shipping. Game pass for PC is $1 for the first month, so if you're really on the fence about it, you can feel free to try it and see what happens, though I suspect your disk will run out of space, pretty quick...