Farming Simulator 22 launches for all major platforms on November 22, 2021. The game is going to be the latest entry in the Farming Simulator franchise. This series has taken the Farming Simulation genre from the lowliest of lows as a broken and janky game that streamers used to play as a joke and turned it into a franchise played by thousands. Farmers come home from a long day in the fields to play this franchise, and now they’re getting to play this entry, which totally changes everything anyone has ever known about the games. This article covers every reason you need to play even if you hate farming.
It’s Simulated Farming
The main reason to play Farming Simulator 22 is that it’s a full farming game. You don’t need to head outside into whatever weather awaits you, you can just play it all from the comfort of your own home. That’s the beauty of these games. This is an incredibly intense job that some people work 18 hour days for. All you have to do is play though, and you can stop when you’ve had enough. It’s a much more relaxing form of farming, and one that many farmers themselves like to play. The simulation is so accurate that they like playing the game because it makes them feel like they’re doing something they love.
IF you’ve never played a simulation game based on farming, then this is the place to start. It’s the best franchise for this sort of thing, with all the mechanics you could hope to need under the hood. There’s also a lot going into it based on user feedback and developer scrutiny. Every entry has been improved upon to make the next game feel more realistic. This game is the culmination of years of hard work, and it shows.
A Host of Machines to Drive
Everyone who plays these games goes into them with no understanding of what goes into farming. They believe that they know how it all works. Once they’re in the game though, everything hits them like a tonne of bricks. Farming is so much more complex than anyone gives it credit for. This franchise replicates farming to a ridiculous degree, meaning that you’ll be working as a real farmer would be in your time with it. That might not sound like fun, but in practice, it’s actually fantastic. There’s something great about knowing how close to real life the game is, and that includes the machines.
There are all sorts of tractors, diggers, lorries, and more to drive here. This is all part of living an authentic farming life. That’s why every single vehicle a farmer would ever use has been rendered in-game. It’s all about making the best experience possible for gaming fans and newcomers to the series. Some people will only get into the game to drive tractors, and that’s one of the first things you get to do. If that sounds good to you, it’s worth diving in.
Production Lines
The biggest new feature in this latest entry is the Production Line. Players can cultivate a crop, harvest it, and then make it into something before selling it. In older games, you’d simply sell your harvest. This is always done directly to merchants who will sell it wholesale to big companies. That’s how it’s done in real life, so it makes sense that the games follow the same pattern. In this game though, you can do a little more and carve out a slice of life in a new way.
For example, if you grow wheat, you can process it into flour and bake it into cakes with milk and eggs from your cows and chickens. The result is a product you can then sell to a wholesaler, or take things one step further and set up your own shop. It’s a new business venture that you weren’t able to achieve in past titles. The production lines addition here makes the game even more engrossing. Suddenly, you have more options with your crop than you ever did before. You don’t have to settle for the price of grain, you can make a cake and sell that for a reasonably stable price. It gives the game much more business simulation to get on with, and that’s always a good thing.
Relaxed Simulation
Of course, the biggest draw of this series is how relaxing it is. People play it for hours on end because they can do small tasks that will lead to them making money in the future, but they don’t have to put too much thought into it. In real life, farming is incredibly stressful. In these games though, it’s possible to sit back and enjoy your life while you lazily drive a tractor around a field. There’s a potentially huge business to be mastered here, you just need to put the effort in and find out where the profit is to be made.
You’re also not just hopping from tractor to tractor. You’re able to walk around your farm and care for livestock too. This is all part of the overarching gaming life that the developers want to allow you to live. It’s something that most simulation games don’t get right. They all go for a big single experience that players can enjoy for a moment and then overdo it. These games have a much longer tail to them that works extremely well for those who want an elongated experience. It’s so much more than a gimmick.
Ultimately, this is a game that’s going to keep you going for years. Giants Software is well known for providing years of support and DLC for its games. It’s not something that you’ll get a few days out of and then leave to die. The game will consume you, it will become all you know, and that’s why people play it. For those who want more from their games in terms of time, there’s really nothing better for value for money. At a time when triple A games struggle to provide enough content, these games break down the doors and open you up to a world of incredible simulation.