‘Farming Simulator’ fans rejoice Giants Software has brought another instalment of our favourite Farming Simulator back to life with ‘Farming Simulator 2025’ and there have been some great additions to this year’s title. Needless to say, I was super keen to throw the gum boots on and start planting some fields. 

I’ve been playing and have been a fan of Farming Simulator for a long time now and none of the others have even felt close to what this title has to offer this time round. Running on the new ‘GIANTS Engine 10’ everything looks and feels so real and polished with a super authentic feel. The rate the developers are going with these games I’ll need to upgrade my PC soon or I won’t be able to run them. It runs that smoothly. There are all the same elements we loved in previous titles; from doing jobs for people around the map to making sure you’re growing and selling your hard-made produce but of course, driving your favourite farming equipment, but there is much more than that. 

There have been some unreal updates, with the first ones being the three new maps you can explore and find the best ways to farm the land. The first map is ‘Riverbend Springs’ which is located in North America. Or you could start your adventure in ‘Hutan Pantai’ which is a new East Asian map that is absolutely stunning. if you are more into the Central European scene, you could start your farm on the returning map from a ‘Farming Simulator 2022 DLC: Zielonka’, a more serene countryside area. All these maps have different energies and are absolutely stunning regardless of the season or current weather. 

It’s quite clear the developers have been listening to the community as there have been some significant changes this year. The weather is one of the biggest ones. It can now spoil your whole plantation with the addition of twisters and hail which now makes you plan your crops a little better and ensure you are not losing money, making for a more strategic playstyle.

There are some serious repercussions now for just driving around your property with ground deformation and degradation being added which is something we have been asking for as a community for a long time. We no longer will need to add mods for erosion, a nice little touch.

The new additions don’t stop with the weather or maps. There have been some new crops implemented into the game also, which has now increased to a total of twenty-five crops being able to be grown. The developers went ahead and added rice fields which are something different and a lot of fun to set up and grow on. With your vegetables, you have the likes of spinach, peas and green beans also being added which gives you some more variety. If you have a green thumb and like getting into your greenhouse game you have lots of options there for small crops that you don’t necessarily need a full field of like chillies. 

If you are a little like me and love animal farming you are in for a treat with some new additions such as buffalo and goats also being added; now enabling a wide variety of different species to roam your paddocks. Included are also the ever-so-endearing baby animals that I will openly admit are super cute and make you want to pick them up but you are unable to, unfortunately. Come on Giants Software, surely you release an update where we can have little petting zoos with cute animals, just an idea. 

They’ve not forgotten about the machinery lovers and rev heads out there, with now over 400 authentic vehicles and tools from more than 150 authentic real-life brands. Damn, do they look good and damn do they perform well. There have been some great implementations to the vehicles and how they behave in this title with improved GPS-assisted steering and improved NPC automation which I noticed straight away whilst hiring people to plant the fields.

I’m a huge truck fan and seeing some new trucks added to the game for customising was something that motivated me to want to play more. I’m at the point now where I own each truck just for the hell of owning each truck to look at in my now-packed barn. 

If you are chasing something simple with controls then simulators are not designed for you. The controls are complex enough that you need to know what you are doing but not too complex if you are a returning player. You can have the on-screen prompts to tell you what to press which helps a lot. You can use a controller if you want but it’s far easier with a keyboard and mouse personally with you being able to do all the different functions without remapping lots of controls.

The controls felt like they had been fine-tuned a little more, with smooth and lag-free inputs when steering; it didn’t feel like a constant fight to turn or move. The critique I do have though is developers have added a motorbike to the store which in previous years was just a mod you could download which was so clunky and this didn’t feel much better with the keyboard or controller. 

The first thing I did was turn the audio down majorly. The music was blasting my ears and it could be because I have most things turned right up in the audio department but this was super loud and I was not sure what for. The sound effects though in the actual game were fantastic. The sounds of all the machinery starting up and revving up a hill down to the sounds of your animals bleating in the background made me feel nostalgic for living back up North on the farm that I grew up around as a child.  It was the farming live atmosphere down pat.

I was blown away by the improvement in graphics. It looks absolutely stunning from the sun rays coming through the trees to rolling fog shifting along the fields. Everything looked absolutely beautiful and so real. The textures put into the machines or even the texture put into the dirt and mud was so finely tuned it. Very immersive, making it one of those games when you look away for 5 minutes you’ve been playing for 6 hours as you delve into every little detail. 

I put on the farming boots and will it took me awhile to get established was not disappointed by Farming Simulator 2025. With the new additions, it will keep you amused for hours and who knows you might even be able to join my farm one day and learn how to not farm the land. The developers did an amazing job with creating just a great atmosphere and what feels like a brand new game from previous ones and I’m keen to keep sinking hours in. 

Written by: Hayden Nelson