Farming Simulator Message Board

Giants Software's down-home blend of wheat-harvesting, livestock-breeding action makes its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 debut with today's digital and retail release of Farming Simulator. This week also marks the release of the latest series entry, Farming Simulator 14, for iOS and Android devices.

Farming Simulator has remained a staple on PC platforms since 2009, though the series didn't make the jump to consoles until recently. Giants Software tested the waters with a PlayStation Vita digital release in July, and the Xbox 360 version saw an early launch in Europe and Australia earlier this year.

Despite its niche appeal, the Farming Simulator series is supported by a dedicated community on PC platforms, with many users taking advantage of its modding capabilities to add new vehicles and other in-game elements over the last several years. Giants Software revealed that it will release many of Farming Simulator's most popular user-made creations as downloadable content on consoles.

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Farming Simulator launch today at $29.99. Trophy hunters take note: you can earn an easy gold trophy by starting up your tractor, cracking open a beer, and honking 100 times.

It's harvesting time! Manage your farm, breed animals, sell crops, and buy hundreds of vehicles to develop your dream farm.

Back in 2007 when we started to work on the first version of Farming Simulator, no one at GIANTS Software would have expected to have this huge success. This week, the success story continues with the launch of Farming Simulator in the United States. We at GIANTS are very proud of the fact that Farming Simulator has finally arrived on consoles. As a developer, it was always our dream to release our game on the platform where high-profile games like GTA, Uncharted, and Gran Turismo live.

With the console version, we’re bringing a whole new experience to Farming Simulator. Besides the European setting, we’ve created an entirely new American world. Inspired by typical American farms, this new and monumental terrain represents a total change of scene, with new locations, fresh development opportunities for your farm, and even bigger fields suitable for the largest agricultural machinery available.

Farming Simulator also offers new vehicles, providing a huge selection of equipment the player may use and drive to develop their farm. These vehicles, from famous constructors such as Case IH, Deutz, Lamborghini, Krone, and Horsch, will allow you to complete your tasks with increased efficiency… most notably on the new environment and its large fields.

We’ve added new elements like first-person mode, open world gameplay, and intuitive controls to improve the overall experience. By simplifying the gameplay, we’re able to reach a wider audience of players which would never be possible with a complex, hardcore simulation game.

Besides the gameplay, we knew since the beginning about the importance of a gaming community. Only with a big and dedicated user community is it possible to keep a game alive year after year. This brings in another important feature of Farming Simulator: its great modding capabilities. Right from the beginning, it was possible to modify the game by, for example, creating and adding new machines to the game or modifying the game world.

Farming Simulator on PS3 will also benefit from additional content that will add new vehicles to renew and extend the incredible experience provided by the game. We’re happy that we’re allowed to release some of the best mods as downloadable content.

Farming Simulator is out tomorrow for $29.99. Grab your controller, build up your farm, and face the challenges of a modern farmer. Don’t hesitate to visit our official website if you need some more info!

Game Dev Story developer Kairosoft launched its latest creation, Pocket Harvest, on Android recently. The game costs $4.99 (£2.99 in the UK) and is in the same style as Kairosoft's other creations. The farming simulator has players planting and cultivating produce like strawberries and lettuce as well as raising animals like sheep and chickens to create wool and eggs.

The game also challenges players with refining their crops so they win awards, which attracts local grocers that opt to place orders with their farms. Like other city and life simulators, players can develop attractions to bring tourists into town, building on their farm's bottom line. After developing a top-tier racing team, a game development studio, a soccer team and now a farm, we wonder what "story" Kairosoft will place us in next.

Yes, it’s the Farming Simulator Titanium Edition trailer. What does that mean? It means a bunch of new farming machinery, new vehicles, and the capacity to have a more American-looking farm.

TITANIUM.(more…)

Farming Simulator graces European and Japanese consoles today. If you're in either of these two regions, you can now officially head out and grab the game for Xbox 360 or PS3. Those in North America will have to wait a bit longer for their copies, which will be here "shortly." Until then, here's the launch trailer.Read more...

Farming Simulator, the enhanced console version of Giants Software's ubiquitous Farming Simulator 2013, will hitch up its plow and furrow the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360's fertile fields on September 4 and September 6 in North America and the UK, respectively.

In addition to all of the content present in the PC version (read: cows, tractors, etc), the console port also includes a new American (!!) farm and more vehicles. While we can't really spot any huge geographical differences between the farm in these new screenshots and what we've seen of the game previously, we assume that its Americanness will become obvious once you reach the bald eagle husbandry portion of the game.

What's that? There's no bald eagle husbandry or buffalo roaming? Well then.

Here, we get to witness a rather extreme approach to farming (at least compared to the Farming Sim 2013 trailer). Heck, even the video title on YouTube is in all caps. Must be the effects of making the console leap. In any case, Farming Simulator is hitting PS3 and Xbox 360 in "the first week of September."

The Flare Path lights are dimmed today, the wind socks are at half mast. Jim Mackonochie, one of the most influential, approachable, and well-liked figures in flight simulation died on Tuesday. If you’ve flown a faithfully simulated military jet at any point during the last quarter century, there’s a very good chance you’ve enjoyed a game that Jim signed or nurtured. Though most closely associated with Eagle Dynamics creations like Flanker and DCS World, his combination of unquenchable aero enthusiasm and incomparable industry experience also Pavewayed the way for the Falcon series and the early Rowan sims. (more…)

Unexpected PC sensation Farming Simulator is coming to PS3 and Xbox 360 in September, bringing exciting new North American farms along with the familiar European terrain it features now. " New farming vehicles and many other new features will also make their appearance," publisher Focus Home Interactive reveals about a game that we swear is totally real.

The gameplay involves keeping track of many of the duties of a real farmer: "animal husbandry, crops, harvesting, sales of your products, and of course buying new vehicles and machines."

Perhaps convincing console owners, who don't have the same long history with deep simulations as longtime PC users, to try a game about farming is a tough row to hoe, but this game is all about hoeing rows.

#vehicleporn You city slicker video gamers think farming simulation video games is nothing but updating the roster with the latest GMO corn from Monsanto and slapping the Indiana State Fair champion cow on the cover. Well, there's a lot more to it than that. Equipment changes every year, the same as in any sports league. And the big equipment in farming can be seen in that video above. More »

Joe Martin is not a farmer. Not even a simulation of a farmer. But that didn’t stop him from becoming one with Farming Simulator. Here’s what happened.

Farming Simulator 2011 is, on the face of it, not a very interesting game – but if you look deeper you’ll find that it’s actually very badly made too. It’s boring, even to those who resign themselves to tedium in advance, as pointless as a chocolate covered cat turd and built on physics so unnatural I genuinely suspect it to be haunted. So, you can imagine my excitement at sitting down to write a modding guide for it. Even after I’d grabbed ten of the weirdest mods I could find, from deployable crates to driveable corpses, it was still drearier than a car-load of wet Mondays and utterly unable to hold my attention. Eventually however, using one of the smaller mods I’d downloaded, I found a mission that imbued the game with much-needed purpose. The mod was called Bottle Finder.(more…)

Mother Nature is up to something. In my neck-of-the-woods cuckoo pint and dog’s mercury have begun appearing amongst the leaf litter. The bare treetops are abuzz with avian Morse code. If I didn’t know better I’d say a Big Push was in the offing. Gaia is going to try another assault with her Elite Photosynthesizers. It’s as if she doesn’t remember how it ended last year. How it ends every year.

If war should come, you won’t find me anywhere near bursting buds or strafing butterflies. I’ll be ensconced in my Hans Christian Anderson shelter preparing pieces like this week’s GIANTS interview and Microsoft Flight report. (more…)

Mildly perturbed by the lack of Panzerkampfwagen references in The Sunday Papers? Feel that Bargain Bucket needs more locomotive love, Cardboard Children less Parpellimony misinformation*? You’re in luck. Every Friday from now until Ragnarok, I’m going to be presenting a ragbag of news and reflections covering all-things simulated and wargamey.

If a game features wings, wheels, war, or windlasses, and so much as nods in the direction of realism there’s a good chance it will eventually appear in The Flare Path.

*The idea that an airliner engine could function with fewer than three Parpellimonies inside it, is – as all serious simmers know – absurd. (more…)