All my childhood favourites are returning to Microsoft Flight Sim. Oh and the dropship from Halo

With the Warthog from Halo making a cameo in Forza Horizon 5, it only seems fitting that we'd get the Pelican dropship from Halo Infinite in Microsoft Flight Simulator. I mean what's better than trying to land an Airbus A320 at Gibraltar airport on a windy day? Flying a flippin' spaceship around the world's most impressive monuments.

One of the best parts about Microsoft Flight Simulator when I was a kid was modding a space ship into the game. I'd just whizz around in an impossibly nimble space ship and ignore all those slow terrestrial Boeing jumbo jets—what can I say, I had a short attention span. Now, in the most impressively large-scale flight simulator to date, you get something potentially better.

The Pelican dropship from Halo Infinite should be a super exciting addition to the game. I can't think of many planes in the game today than would outmanoeuvre a space-faring ship from the year 2500. And probably few that are as hardy. So long as it's not as finicky to fly as the Warthog is to drive.

The Pelican will arrive as a free add-on for the game, and that's available from today in the in-sim marketplace for owners of the game and Xbox Game Pass members. There is more on the way, though, as a part of a wider free upgrade for the game for its 40th Anniversary. This game really has been a mainstay of gaming for generations of gamers, and the free upgrade looks to be bringing back some "beloved planes".

• Wright Flyer
• Ryan NYP (“Spirit of St. Louis”)
• Douglas DC-3
• De Havilland Canada DHC-2-Beaver
• Bell-407
• Guimbal Cabri G2
• DG Flugzeugbau LG8-18
• DG Flugzeugbau DG1001E neo
• Airbus A310

I was always dreadful at flying helicopters, but I used to absolutely adore taking the old-school wonders to the sky again. I can't remember if they used to be tough to get off the ground or I was just bad at trying. Still, I'm so pumped for this update and figuring out how to fly these beauties all over again.

These new planes will arrive sometime in November this year, just over two years on from Flight Sim's original release date. That's 40 years on from the first Microsoft Flight Simulator, which launched back in 1982 for the IBM PC. Now that's a legacy going all the way back to PC gaming's very first beginnings.