Farming Simulator 19 Review

Save A Horse, Ride A Farmer
By Lee Marcussen
Reviewed on Xbox One
Released on November 20th, 2018 for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch
Developer: Giants Software
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

Giants Software has raised the bar in Farming Simulator 19. This year’s edition has some big changes including all new machinery and updated equipment, as well as the addition of John Deere selections, which has been a desire by fans over the past editions. Along with addition of new equipment, new animals have been added too. In past editions the raising of cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens was available but in FS 19, horses now add a fresh dynamic to animal production. New land purchasing systems and a redesigned mod hub featuring new additions added and DLC set to release throughout the year gives FS19 everything we want, and it seems it will keep producing.

Staring out your new farm in FS19 is slightly different than that of some of the past editions. You still have to purchase fields to work in, but with the new land purchasing system, you not only purchase the actual field you are going to be planting, but the surrounding areas around said field as well. This allows you the rights to work the field, place buildings on the land, and the timber rights to the trees on the property. You can also sell land you own. This is a change from FS17 where you could place building and cut down trees on any areas. You can purchase all working fields and areas that don’t contain any fields (which can be used for the timber.) The building placement system is similar to previous editions but the changes now allow you to pick where you want your animal enclosures to be placed at instead of a fixed place on the map. This helps to keep your animals close to where you are growing their food.

The new animal addition In FS19 brings a different style of animal production than we are used to with the pigs, cows, and chickens. Typically you just feed and clean out their enclosures, but for horses you not only have to feed and clean out their enclosure but you must ride them for exercise to fully develop them in order to get top dollar for their sales. The new addition makes you purchase the actual animal enclosures and allows you to place them where you want. You also have to transport your own animals from the store to their enclosures. The start menu displaces the production efficiency to keep an eye on how well your animals are being treated. Successful animal production comes with good machinery to produce their food, which the new added machinery and new brands do just that.

The addition of the world-famous John Deere brand to the FS19 had a lot of fans, including myself, excited to see what was in store. They added five tractors and two harvesters with attachments along with a Gator UTV which helps bring a nice touch of green color to your farm, but in all honesty that’s all they are. Nothing incredibly special compared to the other fast machinery brands. New crops added also bring different styles of machinery, with cotton harvesters, sugarcane harvesters, and associated planters, and of course harvesting attachments. Along with planting crops, the fertilizing and weeding aspects bring newer fertilizers and weeding attachments. The shop also brings in more customization of equipment, allowing the changing of everything from tires, tire brands, tracks, to color and additional attachments. Also available to purchase from the store are placeable items such as buildings, animal enclosures, silos, and farm houses. This features is really nice so you can place everything where you want. Not much changed in the form of forestry equipment or forestry harvesting.  Trains are still located on both maps that released with the game and allow you to transport cargo around the map in big quantities.  With the Mod hub, new equipment, attachments, placeables, and maps are released regularly. An update that just came out on 12/17 is the landscaping mode where you can change the texture of areas to gravel, dirt or pavement and the ability to raise or lower ground levels to help shape and design your farm.

Overall FS19 is a very solid game that brings back what I enjoyed from FS17 and adds more to make it just as interesting. New animals, crops, machines, features, and the mod hub help liven up the game for console players. Some small issues I have the helper system have improved but still showcases some big errors, which are pretty stupid when it comes to harvesting or plowing. The land purchasing system is nice but it limits some gameplay until you purchase the area. I ran into this issue while trying to dump grass cuttings in a bunker silo for silage in the bio gas plant, as I couldn’t dump my grass to make silage until I purchased the land. Another instance was transporting eggs to the market on a trailer where I couldn’t dump the trailer full of egg boxes because I didn’t own the area where the market selling point was located. The smaller vehicles, such as the trucks, have a crazy tendency to just flip over from the smallest bumps whereas the tractors don’t have such an issue, but are able to be worked to flip themselves back over. Along with this, you are able to reset your vehicles to the shop but the map system is hard to locate and navigate for finding your vehicles to reset. The map filter system on the other hand is nice for seeing crop types and growing rates. My complaints are small compared to the fun I’ve had while playing. This is a great game to unwind with and a nice change up. FS19 brings a lot of new and great things to the table and allows you to be a well-rounded expansive farmer right from your couch!
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*Note: A copy of the game was provided for the purposes of the review.

Final Score: 8.5/10

+New machines
+New animals
+New mods

-Physics slightly off
-Radio has corny
music
-Helpers are dumb