11/20/2024
So how do we feel after a week of the initial sting setting in of FS25?
First off I would like to say I never expected my original post from a week ago to blow up like it did. In 7 days that post had a reach of nearly 566k people. 🤯 Is that good or bad? I think for the most part good. You have people making valid arguments on both sides. The bad portion I attribute to those just make senseless comments.
After spending some time with the game and logging some hours over the last week I want to share my opinion and give some deeper context to some of my points made in that original post. Some points good, some points bad, and some points if I am being being honest, some points I am really unsure of ( I will see how far the good and bad goes and may not dive into the un-sures).
First off let’s talk about probably one of the most used previously mentioned senseless comments that was made in the original post. “Well no crap you think it stinks comparing modded out FS22 to the brand new game” Lord help me on this one 🤦🏼‍♂️ No, nope, no way, no how. Modder’s are looking at the canvas, what do we have to work with, what needs to be done from scratch, what has been implemented into the game from the previous title that we no longer have to worry about? So if you’re one of the ones saying this, just stop, it’s not the case, never been the case!
Let’s start with the good.
Graphics: overall great improvement. I think once Nvidia drops drivers with support of the game, some simple Nvidia shaders will really dial the looks of the game in. Sometimes the game looks deep and crisp, other times the lighting makes it look a little cartoonish.
Physics: maybe the most improved of anything from 22 and dare I say the largest improvement we have ever seen even combing all previous titles together dating back to LS08. Maybe that racing title that Giants is helping out with did payoff. The feel of equipment and how it interacts with the environment in all aspects feels great. The ability to stack bales with out fearing the smallest micro-movement send the stack flying to Saturn is awesome. Pallets more of the same. Even the trees act a ton better. I could go on and on on this improvement, but anyone that has played the game knows exactly what I am talking about.
Sounds: another great improvement. It’s all in the small details from hydrostatic whine on combines, cutting sounds of mowing hay, chirping of belts when firing the sperator up, hydraulic cylinders no longer sounding like electric over hydraulic doors, every time I run a piece of equipment I am picking up something new.
Ground deformation: great, looks cool, adds more realism not really sure what else to say about it. It is what it is, glad it’s finally here.
GPS: I am going to throw this in the middle of good and bad. Nice to see they implemented it finally! But here is my opinion on it, it’s not GPS, it’s an AI hired helper improvement, and a GREAT ONE AT THAT! But it’s not gps by a far shot. It’s essentially a stripped down version of course play, not essentially; it is. Great for consoles, pc guys you know who the king of GPS is for Farm Sim and he should have been brought in to implement it! 🫶🏻 Whopster
As for the bad
Bugs: I have had the texture glitching like most. A lot of of variables on this one. CPU Gpu combinations etc. it’s to be expected
Bugs are not concerning to me if they are fixed in a timely manner.
Precision Farming: if they are keeping it a mod, great, cool, but where is it? This is game #3 for it, no excuse it’s not here, again going back to a 3 year cycle. This should be ready.
Seasons: always cool and make the game realistic to a small extent, but why still so stripped down from what it was as a mod. I mean something as simple as adding hay drying and bale rot would have been an improvement. Heck make it a setting and let players choose.
The American map: all I am going to comment on as it’s the only one I have played, seen the other maps in various vids and they look good, very fitting of their regions. The American map however, I am not sure where these guys ever base their American maps on but it isn’t America. The terrain is cool but I would put good money down that nobody could tell you where in the country this map came out of. Out of the several American maps that have been done for base game releases 2 were decent, the rest I am not sure that words even exist to describe them. It’s time, it’s time that you all scoop up one of these American mappers and let them do what they do well.
Passenger Script: again 0 excuses not to be here 2 years after its release in the kubota dlc. Definitely should be base game by now. Kubota machinery in game soooooooo????
Tornados: the thought is cool, personally I think they missed the mark, is a tornado that randomly spawns, moves across the map acting as a cultivator, cultivating crops under. Looking for crop devastation? Try pests, diseases, floods etc. this could have really been something in my opinion, instead it’s something kids can drive around screaming ramping cars off stuff in game running away from the big scary tornado. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Store options or the lack there of : Lord knows I could go on for a mile on this so I will try to keep it short. This is absolutely atrocious, some of the same base game vehicles from 22 maybe even the majority of have less options or even none. What?
US-EU option: again atrocious, did it correctly for a few machines, the other few that it is even an option on, all that was done was switching out flashers and the eu placards for a slow moving vehicle sign, leaving the European hitch system! Why even bother at that point? It’s still a euro spec machine with an American sign stapled to it.
Axle mount duals: this probably is the pinnacle of the laziness that I referred to in the original post. Everything is in the game files needed to put axle mount duals on the tractors and yet nada. I can’t go further on this one without exploding. Lazy Lazy Lazy. Jesus thinking of it all the really had to do was pull the xml code from the thousands of 22 mods with axle mount duals. 🤦🏼‍♂️
Vehicles: the store just feels so empty. There are some very nice new brands and equipment, all very nice models but again 3 year cycle, where are the as we will call it “lost boys”?
Standards: it’s extremely frustrating, and this is coming from someone who refuses to submit anything to the modhub due to my feelings of console hindrance to the overall game. But it is extremely frustrating to watch Giants set standards (standards are good, not bad) and then do not follow their very own standards. There is quote that I like “lead by example” and if that is the case the example set is pretty p**s poor. Whether that be functionality of a machine, a simple check of store options, missing files or textures. Where is the QA process? It’s evident that there YouTube hype clowns aren’t reporting much if anything in their early access. Maybe it’s time to take that back internally, maybe pick some modders out for early access that are familiar with the process? Regardless there are options here, much better options.
Giants Editor: seriously, where is it? I don’t think I even have to say anything more than its absence is ridiculous at this point. A week? Looking back average release time is 2 days past game release. I won’t go any further, enough people have their pitch forks out at this point on this one.
Overall the game has a ton of potential, the problem is that that potential is hindered by the lack of well ^^^ read it all again. I get the feeling a week in and 40 hours of gameplay later, that we are going to look back at this game and say “what could have been” if we didn’t have to start where we are and rather started where we should have been. To put it in perspective I only logged 800 hours in FS22’s entirety, and the majority of that was testing mods, so to say I haven’t spent any time in this game would be a bold face lie. I guarantee I didn’t spend 40 hours playing base game 22, I didn’t even spend half of that! I am trying to find the good, and I have found some, the problem is well ^^^
The door has been open for quite a while, in my opinion though people have just been too afraid to step through it and talk about it.
I am not going anywhere though, I am not built that way, time to pull the boots up, strap the belt a little tighter, and find a little bigger scoop shovel is all. I and many others have poured too much time and love into this series over the last decade and a half, just not ready to hang it up quite yet. But in the famous words of John Coffey “I am tired boss” ✌🏻
