With the right hardware at the right settings the game looks, plays, and sounds incredible. I understand what you are talking about! The sense of suspended disbelief is omnipresent. Especially at the beginning of the game.

Seriously, people don't bother playing it on last-gen consoles and GTX-class GPUs. You'll be doing yourself a disservice. The game is a hardware monster, Flight simulator-level monster. Either wait for a next-gen patched version or play it with a ray-tracing capable system.