Something you haven’t often seen here on the blog are posts to do with entertainment (although this has been changing recently), specifically, gaming. This isn’t to say that we never have fun here at Castle View Academy – of course we do! But now that the kids are growing it’s becoming a little more of our lives as they come to know the recent trends. And games have changed a lot over time as well.
Maximum Games contacted me to see if we were interested in trying out Farming Simulator 17. I had a little look into it and thought it looked quite interesting; especially for a homeschooling family. It also appealed to me as my uncle was a grain farmer and my children could learn about all of the work, skill, and knowledge that goes into running a farm.
We chose to receive a code for the PC version of this game, it’s also available in Xbox One and PS4 (affiliate links are included in this post). Phil did the honours of installing it through Steam and then we were good to go. I had a little practice run myself one night while the kid were tucked up in bed. This week Tristan came down with a cold so I didn’t want to take him out and around to spread the germs, so playing a little Farming Simulator 17 was a good distraction from feeling miserable.
Okay…maybe I’m starting to show my age – but Tristan was able to hop right in and get going and find out more information on how to play and get things moving along that I was! New to this version is the choice between either a male or female character (yeah!), and we could decide upon the colour of checked shirt for our character to wear.
There are dozens of tractors to choose from and you learn how to attach implements to them and drive around the fields tilling, planting, and harvesting. You need some patience for this as it does take a while….but not as long as in real life! If you need a little something to keep you awake, you can turn on one of the radio stations in the tractor (or upload your own MP3s).
What type of crop will you plant? Sunflowers, soya, something else? Will you take out a loan to purchase more land? Will the crops be successful this year or fail? Will you get a good price to sell? Will you diversify and raise livestock?
You can play this game on your own or against others online? There are slightly different abilities each way.
Now I’ll hand over to Phil and the kids…..
As I’ve never experienced previous releases I can only say that I love the graphics & game play on this game. You will need a decent graphics card; I run this on a NVidia GT780Ti 4GB graphics card which handles very well. You can use your keyboard and mouse or a control; both are just as easy to use.
I didn’t think I would like this game at all. I’ve never been big on having patience with SIM games, but there is something relaxing and fun about this game. I find myself and the kids fighting over who gets to plough the next field or drive to the next farm.
There are a ton of activities; some of these can take a while so if you have enough money hire some help. We hired a guy to do a field and came back later on to see how he was getting on. My son said, “Why has he only completed half of the field? Fire him!!” Turns out, he was having a coffee break and started up again shortly after.
One of things we love is that you can get into a variety of vehicles and each have their own unique actions. There are trucks, trackers, trains, etc. One word of warning, if you crash your truck into a river it’s a long ride home….
I’m looking forward to getting more in-depth and buying animals, so much fun….
Farming Simulator may be purchased in store or online:
Amazon.com: PS4 | XboxOne | PC
Amazon.co.uk: PS4 | XboxOne | PC | PC Special Edition
If you’d like to know more or would like to follow Maximum Games, you can connect with them through their website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
