Farming Simulator players, you probably haven't missed out on the announcement of a new farming simulation game, especially if you're hanging out on Facebook where development videos are rife. The game in question is Cattle and Crops, literally “Cattle and Crops”.
Is Farming Simulator resting on its laurels?
Farming's 2017 vintage is recent. Released at the end of October, it brought a lot of new features and consolidated its leadership position in a market that is little, if at all, competitive. Apart from a desperate attempt by the publisher Visual Imagination Software, author of all-out simulations (firefighter, construction, heavy goods vehicle, etc.), who produced a " Professional Farmer 2017 »Plagiarized up DVD cover but very far from the original title, nobody had come to walk on the flower beds of Giants Software. But sometimes, from the shadows springs the light ...
One more German title: Deutsche Qualität?
Cattle and Crops ... Under this not very sexy name hides a serious contender for the Giants title. It is the very young German studio " Masterbrain Bytes“, In which we find experienced coders and agricultural specialists, who have been in charge of development for 4 years now.
Developed "in the shadows", the title reproduces the strengths of Farming Simulator and even has the luxury of improving them (see the overview a little lower). Since the end of September, the team passes the second and set up a crowdfunding campaign Kickstarter which made it possible to provide financial support of € 175.
Does he have a chance to win?
Farming Simulator has been in the virtual farmer landscape for almost 10 years now. The title is refreshed every 2 years and has a system of "mods" which allows the functionality of the game to be extended over time.
Although it enjoys careful work, on specialized forums, it is always the same story: the publisher is criticized for not correcting certain faults and the contributions from one version to another are too thin to wait 2 years each time. In addition, the graphics and physics are often below expectations, and that, at Masterbrain Bytes, we understand it, since the first elements of Cattle and Crops to be unveiled are precisely the passages of tractors in the fields. where you could see the earth sagging under the tractor wheels.
Cattle and Crops displays many qualities, despite its Alpha status: the videos visible on the channel dedicated to the game make your mouth water. But one choice of size could prevent the game from making a place for itself at the top: the engine of the game.
Develop by Terathon Software, the engine with the sweet name of the explosive “C4”, released in 2005, did not stop evolving… until 2015 when the company ended its career to the detriment of a new game engine, the Tombstone (it's very cheerful… after the explosive, the tombstone…).
We can already tell you that this very complete engine is only compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac… and PS4. No Xbox One on the horizon, which takes away a potential of 30 million players around the world. Regardless, Farming Simulator 2019 will have to raise the bar even higher, at least graphically.
So we discover this game?
Yes, we will find out. In March 2017 for those who contributed via the Kickstarter fundraising campaign. The title has just been postponed when it was announced for November 2016. Given the scope of the project, we will not complain. And then that gives us time to play Farming Simulator a bit while we wait.
Here are some features announced by the publisher:
- Breathtaking graphics: play of shadow and light, lively and living environment with grasses, crops and trees shaken by the wind, vehicle modeling, backlighting in the cabin of buttons and screens, doors and windows that s 'open, wheels that crush crops, ... all without mods.
- Crops: corn, cereals ...
- Environment: we are promised "realistic" cultivation techniques. Are we to understand that there will be fertilization, management of plant cover, etc. ? In principle yes.
- Breeding: cattle, pigs, management of each animal, you can give your cows little names. And for the moment we have very little information ...
- Climate: management of the seasons! finally a snowy setting !!!
- Workers: a real interface for employee management, with planning, management of tasks to be performed ... artificial intelligence apparently well advanced.
more info on Cattle and Crops
- Platforms : Windows PC / Mac OSX / Linux / PS4
- Trip of the final version: November 2017.
- Website: http://www.cattleandcrops.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cattleandcrops/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CattleAndCrops
- Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIt1wXyE863uE_H-EtXQijw
- Kickstarter campaign if you want to support the project