Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 18/Dec 02:41

Farming Simulator 25 – Review

Simulator games are quite hot right now, and there’s no point denying it. Nowadays, there is a simulator title for everything, be it a city-building sim, one where you manage a fast food joint, or even one where you are a goat. Granted, some are intended as a silly outlet, but there are quite a few that mimic real-life professions. Take Lawn Mowing Simulator, for example, where you manage your own lawn mowing company. Today we’ll be looking at a behemoth in the genre, namely the newest iteration of Farming Simulator. This latest entry built upon the foundation of the previous one and added some new elements to the mix. Story While the game revolves around you taking over your grandfather’s farm, there is no real story to speak of. Sure, there are some NPCs to speak with, but that’s about it. While a fleshed-out narrative could be fun, we didn’t mind just managing our farm(s) without a real overarching story. There are different ‘themed’ locations to choose from, putting you in a different setting each time. In the end, it’s all about the simulation experience, and that’s also where Farming Simulator 25 shines. Graphics Farming Simulator 25 is a great-looking game, for the most part. While the character creation screen is quite limited, you’ll notice that the (branded) clothes have a lot of detail. The same can be said about the game’s vehicles and most of the environments. For example, your crops will react when walking or driving through. Vehicle animations are handled impressively, and you constantly feel like you’re doing an actual farmer’s job. Sadly, not everything is great. All characters, including your own, have emotionless faces and dead eyes, and they all look a bit rough around the edges. The same can be said about many of Farming Simulator’s buildings. When looking through the windows, you’ll see a poster-like image depicting the building’s interior. When looking down, you can often still see the grass growing inside as well. Another example is when you’re inside a vehicle cockpit, in first-person view, you’ll basically be invisible, making it seem as if the cockpit is actually empty. In terms of accessibility, things aren’t that great either. Menu text is ridiculously small when you’re not sitting very close to your screen. We would have loved a few font sizing options here. Some UI items are also unclear, and it takes some time to learn how to navigate all the different menus. Sound The overall sound design is quite good. The environmental sounds, the noise from the machinery, and of course, the commotion from the animals, all sound very realistic. It’s the minor details here that truly make the experience, such as hearing the roaring engine of a tractor when you’re in the third-person view as opposed to hearing muffled engine sounds when you opt for the cockpit view. The exact opposite happens when you turn on the radio inside a vehicle, as the music becomes a lot more clear in the cockpit view. While these are only minor examples, the attention to detail is still impressive. We do have to mention that the soundtrack is fairly limited. One thing that clearly wasn’t a top priority is the actual voice acting in the game. Granted, there are only a handful of NPCs that aid you in your mission to become a farmer, but all deliveries sound a bit phoned in. The characters lack emotions, which is also further heightened due to the aforementioned dead eyes of the NPCs, as well as their lack of facial expressions. Gameplay If it wasn’t clear by now, Farming Simulator 25 is exactly what it says on the tin. In the game, you’ll be managing your very own farm that used to be owned by your grandfather. Depending on your starting conditions, you can opt to build things from the ground up or even choose to already have a successful farm up and running. These are basically different difficulty options, as starting from scratch proves to be a lot more difficult compared to when you already have available resources at your disposal. Even so, while the offset here is very straightforward, coming to grips with all the different mechanics will take some time. We could delve into the finer mechanics of the game, but that would take us several pages just barely to scratch the surface. Farming Simulator 25 added new crops, animals, vehicles, and a new location for you to live your digital farmer’s dream. While the new items may be a bit different than some of the old ones, in terms of mechanics, veterans will find their footing easily, while newcomers best stick to playing through the tutorial first. As we played the game on PS5, we were a bit worried that the controller wouldn’t be up to the task for a game this elaborate with a variety of actions to perform and machines to handle. It’s easy to say that we were pleasantly surprised. The shortcut menus are easily accessible and everything feels very intuitive. As mentioned above, however, the UI isn’t great and gamers with less than optimal eyesight might not be able to enjoy the game as much due to this. All in all, Farming Simulator 25 provides gamers with the ultimate realistic farming sandbox experience. You can choose whichever direction you wish to go, and the game doesn’t punish you too badly for slacking off at times. Even so, there’s a learning curve and while this is in many ways still a casual experience, it does take you a while to get the hang of things. It’s easily accessible for those who are curious about the franchise if they are still willing to commit some time to learning the finer mechanics of it too. You can still opt to keep things basic, by selecting a fairly easy farm setup, but you can also create a blooming farming empire if you so desire. If you’d rather just do contracts for neighboring farms, that’s fine too. Conclusion If you’re still enjoying one of the previous entries, by all means, make sure your farm there is well-managed and take your time to get here. In Farming Simulator 25 you’ll simply be treated to more of the same, albeit with the current generation of consoles in mind. If you’re ready to take the plunge, however, be it as a veteran franchise enthusiast or as a new player, Farming Simulator 25 is a blast to play. While you won’t be diving into high-speed action here, you’ll be treated to a fun grind with a lot of vehicles and machines for you to try out. Tending to animals and doing other farm-related tasks rounds things out to offer players the full package. While the graphics are a bit rough around the edges here and there, as far as simulators go, this is probably one of the best ones out there. If you can find a group of friends to play with, things get even more fun.