First off this is not a review of FS25 but rather some thoughts on the game and what I would like to see in future iterations of Farm Sim - I feel that I have spent enough time with the game to be able to share what I think about the latest instalment, particularly as a relative newcomer to the series.
Straight off the bat I really like it, my first taste of Farm Sim came very late in the life cycle of FS22 and FS25 has certainly seen positive changes and overall improvements to the whole experience. Is it perfect? absolutely not but the groundwork is there. I love the building mechanics, in particular the options to build your own farmhouse from scratch, and I hope this is something they build upon and refine moving forward. Third person is also a welcome inclusion but some work needs to be done there - at present characters feel a bit stiff with their animations and we really need a walk option rather than the super slow-mo run action that we have at the moment.
I play on the Series X and it does not feel well optimised at times - lots of graphical glitches that whilst not game breaking do take you out of the immersion of the gamed and the pop up is very very noticeable, I can be driving along and having fences draw in as I pass them and buildings rendering in as I am literally on top of them. With the power on Series X this should not be anywhere near as noticeable as it is.
The basics are. I feel, on point - by that I mean the "day to day" farming aspect of the game. And yes I have heard/read critiques around that part of FS25 - all I can say about that is that this is my opinion and, again, having come to the series very late perhaps I am not as well qualified to comment on that as people who have been with the Farm Sim series a lot longer than I have.
In terms of other improvements/features I would like to see a phot mode introduced - that would be a real boon to content creators and given the announcement trailer I am still hopeful we will get that in one of the DLC packs.
I want 4X maps on console - I am not a game designer but surely the power of the Series X and The PS5/PS5 Pro can handle this, there are plenty of other open world games with MUCH larger maps out there. Perhaps that comes down to the engine and console optimisation but please Giants make this happen.
This one is more for the moders - please bring RV's/Motor Homes and RP centric mods to console.
I really don't know how doable this one is but how about interconnectable maps - I want to be able to drive from Riverbend Springs to Goldcrest Valley or Silverrun Forest as an example.
But the thing I want to see most of all is maps that feel more alive. Where are the other farmers? Why do I not see fields being ploughed as I am driving round the map? Why is the Farmers Market always empty/ Why do we not have people wandering around the Riverbend Springs maze?
Lets make these maps more dynamic - If I go to the sawmill for example let me see workers there doing sawmill things. If I visit the dairy let me see tankers coming and going. Is this something we will ever see? possibly not but I really feel that this could be the big hook of the next Farm Sim game.
Also - just a little thing but let me be able to take a boat out onto the river and engage in a little bit of fishing while I am at it.
Farm Sim is a game that I really, really enjoy and I can see so much potential in it - again I don't know how feasible some of my requests are but fingers crossed we get at least some of this in future updates/games.
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