A few weeks back, one of the announcements I was hoping for finally revealed itself. Not the speedy hedgehog or blocky space adventure, but the sedately paced business management game. After skipping out on a release last year, the new game is coming this year, numbered as usual with the year after its release.
For a series I’ve only been playing since 2019, it’s massively captured my attention, keeping me invested like no other game I can think of (except GTA Online, of course). 17 on the Switch has seen the most attention, obviously, but with both 17 and 19 on the Xbox, I’m close to the hours I’ve put into the Switch version. Still a massive distance away from GTA Online, but I have been playing that longer.
Enough talk of playtime, though. The new game has been announced, and I want to talk of it. For the first time within the base game, we’re getting seasons. There’s a mod that allows such in both 17 and 19 which the team at Giants were inspired by. I’ve got no experience with that mod, but seeing the world change across time is something I’m ready to experience, and will do so with the new game.
Seasons can also have an effect on how long things take to grow if such gets implemented, along with weather effects. Rain would be more likely in both Spring and Autumn, with the obvious being snow in winter. I’d hope we’re able to choose which season we start in, as I absolutely will start in winter no matter how much of a disadvantage that puts me at.
As for those maps, there’s the usual new American and European maps coming, along with an updated Erlengrat map – which released last year for 19. This updated map I hope will fix a few things with it that makes it awkward to deal with, such as a few very tight spots created through parked cars. I’ll be looking out for info on what they update with the map, though of course, I’m more interested in what those new maps hold.
I loved how much more verticality the maps of 19 had, along with the detail featured within them. While not every map needs to have such verticality, I’d love for the level of detail to remain the same, and that seems to be the case from what little is seen of them in the screenshots released in the announcement article. Seems weird for a game about farming, but I’ll more than likely just be exploring for an entire in-game day before deciding where to set up.
As per the norm, there will be pretty much new everything, with some new cows seen within one of the screenshots. And speaking of that screenshot, that pasture has a pretty modern building within it. Least by what we’ve seen in previous games. It does make me wonder if animal handling is going to be a bit more involved this time. Improved AI behaviour includes animals, right?
Giants are certainly going all-in with this one, it seems. The engine upgrades are said to bring greater performance to the game, utilising plenty of optimisations the series hasn’t seen before which should allow for greater looking worlds. What I’d also hope to see is improved auto terraforming when placing buildings, as doing so in 19 presents some… interesting changes that you might not want.
From the latest podcast from Giants, there’s more news in the upcoming weeks, so I would guess we’re getting news either during the tail-end of this month, or maybe even E3. With more features promised to be announced from that initial article, there’s some mystery in regard to this next game.
Images Taken From:-
Farming Simulator 22 Announcement Article
