Farming Simulator (C64)

Summary

Farming Simulator C64 Edition is nothing more than a 15 minute curiosity that you are unlikely to go back to. It’s a shame, it could have been so much more.

Overall
46%
46%
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User Review
3 (2 votes)

Hey there! You look like good farming material. How do you fancy going out in the hot summer sun, hopping onto a tractor and ploughing a field all day long? If this sound like fun to you then GIANTS Software may have what you’ve always been looking for all this time…Farming Simulator C64 Edition.

The basic premise behind Farming Simulator is that you are to accumulate as much wealth as possible by sowing plant seeds and harvesting the grown plants and that you need to do this without running out of fuel, money or seeds. You get to play around with 4 different various farming vehicles, which include:

  • a Case IH Magnum (Tractor plow);
  • a Fendt 700 (Seeder)
  • a John Deere T560 (Combine Harvester); and
  • a New Holland T7 (Truck with a trailer attached)

The game controls are straight forward. The F Keys are used to select the vehicle you want to control. Use the joystick to accelerate, brake and turn and the FIRE button to activate the equipment attached to the selected vehicle.

The game is set out in an isometric viewpoint utilising multi-colour graphics. Each vehicle has their own distinct look and motor sound, providing the initial impression that a high quality title is on offer here. But a closer look at the overall production will reveal that Farming Simulator looks something closer to what you would experience from a ‘Budget’ title from the 80s.

Other than the farming vehicles and the grain fields, everything else is static. Outside of the tractor motors’ droning sounds (just like the real things), there is no other in game sound or music. Only two vehicles are visible at any one time and the vehicle animation is general poor if not non-existent.

So what do you actually do in Farming Simulator? Well, you first need to plow the field to get it ready for planting. Once you’ve done this, bring out the Seeder to plant your seeds. Let your crop grow and when ready bring out the Harvester to harvest the grain until its full, at which then you want to back up your trailer over to the Harvester to transfer the grain across to it. Once you have done this, the final step is to drive the trailer to your farm and sell your grain at the Silo to obtain cash. While you are doing all this, make you have sufficient quantities of seeds and fuel, both of which can be purchased using your hard earned money.

There are no economic or weather variables, there is no choice of crops to grow, no specific objective or goal, there is no real strategy or engaging game play. Once you have gone through one cycle, you have pretty much played the whole game and there is nothing really to keep you playing.

The C64 is capable of better sound, graphics and objective based game play and strategic simulation. There have been some amazing new C64 titles released over the past 12 months, which put Farming Simulator to shame. The game is nothing more than a basic gimmicky demo, designed to promote Farming Simulator 19 and for GIANTS Software commercialise this demo at the price point they have selected is disrespectful to Commodore 64 gamers.

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