Update 12/31/24: I reconsidered after I found Farm Sim 22 Platinum on CDKeys for $17, I have yet to play it more, I will update you here soon. For far in the Winter Sale, Farm Sim 22 is $30 and Farm Sim 25 is $50, no discounts and no discounts on DLC either, just a bundle discount.
For now I’ll say, the original article below stands, if you’re buying Farm Simulator 22 or 25 just because you can use your already existing steering wheel there, you’ll be disappointed. Read on…
I played Farming Simulator 22 for maybe half an hour and I returned it.
It looks like a really neat game, but I bought it for the integration with my PXN V9 steering wheel / pedals / shifter (paid link). I am into American Truck Simulator and the Steam Autumn sale is going as a write this. I found that while the wheel setup works with the game with minimal hassle, the game isn’t really about driving.
And think about it. In American Truck Simulator (ATS), we are accustomed to having a free range across the western United States. Sometimes we are limited to seeing the scenery along the highway pulling a heavy load. Other times we’re running without a trailer. We’re able to go check out all the backroads in the game, unfettered by an ungainly trailer.
So let’s try to translate that experience to Farming Simulator — it falls short. Sure there’s a truck driving module in Farming Simulator, but we already have ATS which is far superior. No, if you were going to spend all your time driving, you’d spend your time driving around farms.
I have to say I started plowing a field thinking I was meant to do that kind of work. It was fun playing with the wheel and clutch / shifter on a tractor. But where was I going to go? Go drive around a field? That would get boring fast. It did.
Then I realized there was a way to hand the job off to the “AI” in the game. The more I read about the game, it sounds like the game is more economic simulator than driving game. You automate most of the jobs and manage the supply chain.
Now this sounds like a perfectly good game if you really want to manage all the details of being a farmer. It’s seems like it offers endless equipment combinations, and there’s certainly a lot of equipment where I’d have a learning curve to even begin to understand what it does.
So, in short, I decided that using a steering wheel setup is not the main aim of Farming Simulator. Once I realized that menial jobs were meant to be handed off to AI (and thank heavens because the menial jobs are pretty boring) I realized my original aim in buying the game was not met.
I guess now I can go look at some other driving games, I have Dirt Rally 2.0 and that’s a lot of fun the with wheel. Otherwise, I’m gonna stick to American Truck Simulator, and Euro Truck Simulator as well. These games provide endless interesting interactions with the environment, that will keep me busy. Maybe I’ll pick up WRC on sale, but I read negative reviews about the game quality.
If you made it this far I’ll mention that I stream MWF at 5pm Eastern on YouTube at youtube.com/@truckandtrain as well on Twitch at twitch.com/truckandtrain. I play ATS/ETS Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Saturdays I use stream a train simulator game.
Image credit “Benton farms HDR” by thaddselden is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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