FS25 is clogging up my tyres with dirt – and I love it

It’s early morning. As a hard-working farmer, I’m already sitting on my tractor and driving to the store to pick up some machine. I’m absolutely enveloped by fog, I can barely see a few metres ahead of me. A car heads towards me. Its headlights illuminate the fog so strongly that, completely blinded, I drive over a road sign and end up in the ditch. How cool is that? Not for the sign, mind you, but the new fog and haze effects in Farming Simulator 25 look so realistic that I’m initially stunned. That’s a good sign.

Farming Simulator 25 is committed to visual realism. Since the core of the game series always stays the same, I’ll concentrate on the new features in this review. If you aren’t familiar with Farming Simulator yet, read the following section for a brief introduction to the series.

Farming Simulator: more than just tractors

Farming Simulator (FS) from Swiss studio Giants Software has fascinated millions of hobby farmers across numerous versions since 2008. In that time, FS has become so much more than just a tractor-on-farm simulation. The series is now tending more towards an economic and urban development simulator.

I take over a farm and cultivate my fields. Hundreds of agricultural machines and equipment from real brands are available for me to buy and use. Fans of Fendt, John Deere and co. will continue to get their money’s worth when ploughing, cultivating, sowing and harvesting.

I use the proceeds from my work to expand my farm and start breeding animals or forestry. I sell my products on or process them further. I can also buy up factories and businesses on the map and supply them – or I can simply build them directly on my land. Through production chains, for example, I specialise in making all six ingredients for delicious strawberry cake from my own bakery.

An Asian map, at last

As with every new version, there are also new maps in the FS25. In addition to European and American plains, Giants is venturing into Asia for the first time. The Hutan Pantai map captures the clichéd flair of a large Asian city and successfully transfers it to a small harbour area in the game.

When I first enter the town at night, I feel like I’m in a game like Cyberpunk 2077. Narrow alleyways with neon signs flash at me from all sides. How cool! I certainly didn’t expect that. However, there isn’t much else going on, with only a few NPCs dotting the area. But that doesn’t matter, conjuring busy cities isn’t the core of a farming simulator.

Players who don’t like too much bling-bling will find a small village with narrow, steep streets and traditional houses just outside the city. Just a shame that the map doesn’t look much like the Far East otherwise. NPCs look western, the signs and businesses have English lettering. I searched in vain for palm trees, which I saw on artwork for the new map.

Still, the other two maps are also worth a drive. Giants isn’t stingy with details. In Zielonka, an Eastern Europe town, storks clatter down from their nests, flying between old windmills and prefabricated buildings. On the American map Riverbend Springs, I’m very pleased to see, among other things, a functioning car ferry.

No quantum leap in gameplay terms

Predecessor FS22 brought major innovations to the game series with production chains and the calendar, which integrated seasons into the game. FS25 adopts all of this, but has no such changes to the gameplay itself. Instead, Giants tweaks details such as the visuals and expands on what was already there.

Rice cultivation and field irrigation are now available to match the Asian map. A pump at the rice field ensures there’s always enough water available for the needy plants. However, I have to switch it on manually every day – otherwise it won’t work. I think it’s a bit of a shame that the pump just works by itself too. It requires neither electricity nor a connection to water.

In addition to rice, there are three other new plants to grow – spinach, peas and bush beans – but they don’t come with any new mechanics. The range of animals is also growing in the form of goats and water buffalo. And of course, a few new production buildings, such as the canning factory and potato processing plant, can’t be missed.

Construction orders from the Platinum Expansion DLC in FS22 can also be found in FS25. On each map, I can help the city with its construction projects by delivering necessary timber building materials from the sawmill to the construction site. In Hutan Pantai, for example, there’s a large temple construction site.

Giants has also added more greenhouses to the game, where I can grow mushrooms and rice seedlings. I enjoy sprucing up my farm, and the additional greenhouses give me even more freedom to beautify it.

Weather, water and dirt

Major changes have been made to the graphics and physics. FS runs on the in-house Giants Engine. A new version of the engine polishes the visuals, thus improving the realism in FS25. Wafts of mist in the morning or after rainfall and cones of light in the haze are amazing. Under a covered sky, clouds now cast shadows over the landscape – beautiful.

Giants has also finally tackled the issue of ground deformation. So far, even the heaviest agricultural machinery only left visual traces. Full of anticipation, I jump into my waiting tractor and make a few circles across the field. Lo and behold, it actually sinks in a few centimetres and produces furrows. And yes, when I drive across the furrows, my tractor rattles nicely over them. However, it doesn’t seem to matter which vehicle I use: the furrows are always the same depth.

It’s even more fun in the rain: if I drive on a wet field for a while, mud collects in the tyre tread. After a few metres on the road, dirt slowly falls off again. This looks fabulous – just like the puddles that form on the road when it rains, reflecting surroundings.

Giants has so far completely avoided the topic of water physics, although rivers and lakes have been around for a long time. The water simply didn’t react to me or my tractor. FS25 now makes decent splashes when I drive my tractor through the rice field or across the beach. Waves spread out on the surface of the water.

Short hailstorms and tornadoes are also new. These extreme weather events can jeopardise the harvest. I do experience hail, but luckily for me it’s winter and I haven’t planted anything at this point anyway. Tornadoes are said to occur very rarely, but they do cause hay bales to disappear and trees to topple. If this is too much stress for you, you can switch off destruction effects and watch the storm in peace.

Baby animals: omg, so cute!

Animal husbandry has also remained essentially the same. What’s new and long overdue is that herbivores such as sheep in FS25 don’t necessarily have to be provided with hay or grass immediately. Grass growing on the pasture already provides a small supply of feed. In old versions, my sheep had to starve even though there was enough grass in their pasture.

However, there’s a new purely visual difference in animal husbandry: Giants has introduced three different age models for each animal species in FS25. In previous versions, freshly born piglets looked like adult animals. I immediately fell in love with those cute little animals in FS25.

What makes a real difference is that I have more influence over the pastures. Previously, there was only one stable with an attached, firmly defined rectangular outdoor area. Now I can mark out the fence for the outside area myself or even build a pasture without a stable. I was missing this in FS22. And the best thing: the larger I mark out the pasture, the more animals have space.

Talking NPCs don’t knock my socks off

In FS25 there are now also some NPCs that I can interact with. They’re spread out on the map and do nothing but wait for me. When I speak to them, they tell me about the old days, explain how the game works as a talking tutorial and sometimes give me orders.

Giants highlights this feature as «getting to know your neighbours». It’s a good start, but could be expanded further in future FS versions. NPCs standing around quietly and chattering away mindlessly when you interact with them is just so 2010.

Farming Simulator 25 will be released on 12 November, 2024 for PC, Mac, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game was provided to me by Giants Software for testing purposes.