Microsoft Flight Simulator World Update 3 arrives: What to expect

As promised, the team at Asobo Studio has rolled out World Update 3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Most Flight Simulator players already know where we're headed in this update, but in case you missed the months of build up to this release, World Update 3 adds a long list of points of interest to the United Kingdom and Ireland. As with most updates, we're also getting several bug fixes and optimizations, but the main draw will definitely be those new points of interest.

In fact, there are so many new points of interest that it's hard to list all of them here. However, they are listed over in the patch notes Asobo Studio has published for World Update 3 over on the Microsoft Flight Simulator website. You can also see a few of the new locations depicted in the trailer for World Update 3, which we've embedded below.

All told, Asobo Studio says that it has added "over 70 custom landmarks and points of interest to the game," but that isn't all that's being added. We're also getting "high-resolution 3D photogrammetry" for Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, London, and Oxford. There are also new airports – Barra, Liverpool, Land's End, Manchester-Barton, and Out Skerries – that have been "meticulously hand-crafted."

Players will also be able to participate in an Iconic Flight in the Northern Isles and new Landing Challenges on the Shetland archipelago and in Southeast England. As far as fixes are concerned, Asobo Studio says that it has fixed a number of crashes, quashed some terrain spikes, and has fixed a host of issues concerning the game's recently-launched VR mode, among other things.

World Update 3 is live now for Microsoft Flight Simulator, so update your game and then head to the marketplace to claim the UK & Ireland bundle, which is free for all players.