Microsoft Flight Simulator mod blocks Suez Canal with a cargo ship

Depending on who you ask, it's either art that imitates life or the other way around. When it comes to simulators, however, it's clearly the former and it probably comes to an almost comical degree with Microsoft's latest iteration of Flight Simulator. Popular for its almost realistic virtual representation of real-world planes, instrumentation, and locations, one modder has taken that to the extreme and has decided to give the virtual Suez Canal its own version of the notorious EverGreen cargo ship Ever Given that is causing real headaches and financial loses in the real-world.

Microsoft Flight Simulator, which got its latest sequel last year after nearly 14 years of no releases, is a ginormous game. It is both popular and notorious for its bent towards realism, supporting weather and traffic data taken from the real world. The developers have tried to recreate as much of the real world as they could faithfully can but, of course, they can't really adjust to real-world events that change the course of history or, in this case, transportation.

Thankfully, the game is also open to modders and one, in particular, took great pains to recreate a critical real-world scenario that has countries and businesses scrambling to figure out how to deal with the consequences of a single but gigantic ship blocking one of the world's most important shipping waterways. That's EverGreen Line's now-notorious Golden-class containership Ever Given that has blocked the Suez Canal for five days, also blocking the traffic of cargo in both directions.

"Technical adviser to the CEO of Microsoft" Mat Velloso shared a video clip of the mod in action. The clip tries to recreate an almost realistic pilot's voice-over, calling passengers' attention to the Suez Canal before noticing the Ever Given stuck in the middle. The mod can also simulate the traffic jam the incident has caused but only if you have the Global AI Ship Traffic mod installed.

The Ever Given has become an Internet meme in the past few days but, comical as it may look, it has caused no small amount of delays in shipping and businesses around the world. Fortunately, at the time of this writing, the ship has been freed from its prison and has started to float again.