I realize simulators of this nature are not everyone’s cup of tea, but any fans out there?
I bought a set of these games from Bundlestars a while ago, maybe last summer. It was like 5-6 of these simulator games for like 49 cents or something crazy cheap like that. I admit I have yet to install or run any of them, but I bought them because I was curious about them.
I bought Euro Truck Simulator at some point and did play it. Decent game for what it is, but the maps and cities were all too small and too much the same for my liking.
Anyways, what can you tell us about them? I’m not really even sure what kind of game they are. I mean, obviously, they’re simulator games, but I don’t know what the gameplay is like. Is it just driving around, or are there missions and goals? Are you managing the farm or do you just work there? Is there a day/night cycle, and season progression?
My 12 yr old son enjoys driving the harvesters, tractors, trucks and cutting down trees with chainsaws. The first person machine operation aspect is impressive, but I find the game’s greatest strength to be the way it holds up as a good business simulator. The economics of running a farm are interesting and the game involves the level of detail you’ve come to expect from this particular game franchise: e.g. leasing and buying equipment are both purchase options, equipment maintenance costs increase over time, crop/commodity prices follow fairly reasonable predictable trajectories given supply and demand, etc
And yes, hooking up slurry tankers to spread the manure one’s pigs created has its own charms too…
I’ve noticed that FS 15 is significantly cheaper than 17, and there’s been a lot of reviews saying that there’s not much difference in the two, anyone care to chime in on whether this is true? I’ve been liking American Truck Simulator a fair bit, and might fancy a bit of farming
17 features day and night gameplay. I haven’t seen/played it personally, but I understand there is a season mod available. One can raise money a number of ways: growing one’s own crops, operating equipment at other farms, raising livestock, harvesting lumber, plus a variety of passive methods that generate modest levels of income such as constructing beehives, greenhouses, wind turbines or solar panels.
Is there an option to be sued by Monsanto? 
Seriously, does it have options for pesticide free and/or failed crops due to weather and other variables? I’m not interested in farming, usually, but you made it sound like something I would like.
I started playing in FS 13, through 15 and now 2017. I don’t play it often, but find it a good “unwind” game where YOU set the pace (there are time speed-up controls).
2017 seems to have more fine-tuning options/configuration than 15, which I like. Regarding “pesticide free”, I don’t believe pesticides are in the vanilla game per se (although there are sprayers capable of it), but there are mods that may add that ability. You can control fertilization options and frequency.
There are no crop failures, unless you simply fail to harvest the crop at the appropriate time.