Latest news with #FarmingSimulator
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Farm Simulator: 16bit Edition review – the simple joy of ploughing your own furrow
When I got my first job in games journalism 30 years ago, I arrived just too late to review games for my favourite ever console: the Sega Mega Drive. Although a few titles were still being released for the machine in 1995, the games magazine world had moved on and all anyone wanted to read about were the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It was a bitter blow. Fast-forward to 2025 and a resurgent interest in producing new games for vintage home computers and consoles has led to Farming Simulator: 16bit Edition – a Mega Drive instalment in the hugely successful agricultural sim series. The passion project of Renzo Thönen, lead level designer and co-owner of Farming Simulation studio Giants Software, the game has been written using an open-source Mega Drive development kit, and manufactured in a limited run of genuine Mega Drive cartridges. Slotting this brand new release into the cart of my dad's ancient Mega Drive II console felt ridiculously moving and I thought the game could only be a letdown after that. But I was wrong. Farming Simulator: 16bit Edition takes the basic rhythms of its stablemates – sowing, harvesting and selling crops – and puts them in an isometric environment where workable fields are interspersed with useful buildings such as fuel depots, seed stores and garages. You begin with basic tractors and harvesters, but as you carefully work the land, you grow and sell wheat to earn money, thereby opening the prospect of upgrading your machinery and buying more powerful vehicles. Eventually, you make enough money to unlock new farm areas, but the basic game play is always the same: you slowly and carefully drive your tractors over your land, ploughing and sowing and harvesting as the seasons pass. In this reduced format, the sedate pace of the farming simulator games should become a dull repetitive chore; robbed of intricately detailed 3D visuals, real-time weather systems and supplementary activities, all you're doing is effectively mowing the lawn. Over and over again. Let's be honest: transferring the complex, multilayered 3D sim into a console that launched at the same time as the world wide web and the first mass manufactured Nokia mobile phone was always going to be a technical challenge. But somehow, the system still works. Perhaps it's the nice chug-chug sound effects of the tractors, or the amusingly precarious steering that often sends you crashing into a tree; or maybe it's the sheer nostalgia of the rugged 2D visuals. I don't know. I just know that I've kept playing. Veteran Mega Drive owners may be reminded of the Desert, Jungle and Urban Strike games or the isometric strategy delights of Populous or General Chaos. But what's really fascinating is seeing a modern game genre on this old machine and wondering, what score would it have received from contemporary gaming mags such as Sega Power or Mega? Perhaps, this is one for Mega Drive nuts like me who thrill at the idea of running something new on their beloved artefact – like playing a 4K Blu-ray movie on a Toshiba video recorder. It's also going to be tough to secure one as only 1,000 are being made. However, Giants has previously released a Commodore 64 version of the game, Farming Simulator C64, which is now available to play for PC, and perhaps an emulated version of this one will also find a way to modern machines. And yet, like a deluxe half-speed remaster of some old vinyl album, there is emotional value in the format itself. This is why Giants isn't alone in producing new carts for the old consoles. The excellent puzzle platformer Tanglewood appeared for the Mega Drive a few years ago and a promising shooter Earthion is coming later this year. Limited Run games has also made a whole range of new SNES carts for classic titles. I wish my dad were around to see me reviewing a new release for the last console we played on together. As someone who spent all his boyhood summers staying on a farm, he certainly would have loved this game. For now, I will keep ploughing these fields and selling wheat, enjoying the tranquil cycle of nature as rendered on a machine as out of date as an ox cart. Farming Simulator: 16bit Edition is available now, £43
The Courier
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
King Creosote on keeping 'dark forces' at bay
'I sometimes get clocked in the chip shop queue in Anstruther, wiping dog s*** off my shoe,' says Kenny Anderson, aka Fife musician King Creosote. 'But most of the locals don't notice me, other than as Billy Anderson's son, or as a dad picking up their kid from school. 'I've never had the look of somebody in a band, and yet I'm reminded that Fence (the revered Fife musical collective) was renowned for the beard-wearing beanie hat brigade.' Having requested an interview in person with Kenny, we were informed he'd prefer to communicate via email. The reason? He's focused on the 'quiet life', and would rather share his thoughts via iPad. Which in itself is pretty surprising – because Kenny lives without WiFi and has no mobile phone. But just for us, he gets himself along to fellow musician and partner HMS Ginafore's house, where he types up his replies on her tablet. 'Musically I hit the ground running with a few less confrontational songs written in the dark of January alongside my usual outpouring of directionless synth noodling,' he says. 'Spiritually I've done my best to keep the collywobbles at bay by focussing on the moment, rejecting both the past and the future. 'Being outdoors helps. And thankfully my newest boss of five-and-a-half years (his daughter) keeps me from dwelling on the dark forces that I see playing out.' Hobby-wise, Kenny has been reading – a lot. Never less than six books at the same time. 'The problem is I easily slip into the mindset of each author, speaking in clipped brutal facts one minute to surreal technobabble the next,' he says. He's also, surprisingly, an addict of Farming Simulator – and has been since 2016. The video game allows him to simulate growing crops, breeding livestock, operate huge machines – all while sitting at home. His eldest daughter sorts his socials, manages his tours, and sorts merchandise, but his 'non-musical life' is a different story. 'It's no TV, long-wave radio, no WiFi, no Bluetooth gadgets, patchy intermittent mobile phone signal on one or two window sills. I kept my landline. 'I make a trip to St Andrews or Dundee to do banking stuff for I'm cash and cheque only, and seem to be paying over and above by insisting on paper bills. 'I can't buy anything online, not having a mobile phone to receive the required security code, the plus side being that I only shop locally.' There are others benefits to avoiding tech, too: 'I have no idea what folks' opinions are. 'I don't read criticism of my gigs or records unless they make it to print. My pals have no way of changing their plans last minute, nor do I.' Avoiding tech means Kenny is able to lives quietly – and as someone who suffers from tinnitus, that's a blessing. His house, he says, is as 'EMF-free' as it can be, and devoid of pinging phones. Knowing Kenny has a boat, I'm curious as to where, if anywhere, he travels in it. 'It's open deck. I haven't been out since a wave crashed over the side and soaked me from the waist down,' he says. 'In Lerwick recently I saw an upturned boat of a similar size made into the roof of a garage. That got me thinking…' It seems Kenny wasn't cut out to be a seaman – he struggles to tie bowline knots, and finds tide times, charts and vectors tricky to fathom. However, he says there are less 'chemtrails' at sea, although whether he's joking, I can't be sure. For those who've never listened to King Creosote's music, how would Kenny describe it? 'Heartfelt, self-deprecating nostalgic cynicism dressed up in the same four chords?' he offers. The upcoming tour, Any Storm in a Teacup, is the follow-up to last year's Any Port in a Storm, which Kenny says was set up to help make his return to gigging as stress-free as possible (he'd taken time out after Covid). 'We set out to find smaller venues in off-the-beaten-track coastal towns, playing only at weekends, home again for Monday's afternoon school run. 'Any Storm in a Teacup employs the same cast, but it's more spur of the moment, freestyle, with more potential to come off the rails.' Kenny says fans can expect a relaxing first half hour of ambient music from KY10 – an experimental side project. This will be followed by 75 minutes of King Creosote songs old and new, with accompanying visuals. 'I'm still a bit unsure of myself in the role of entertainer, so there's a wee bit of bumbling about on my part, and disjointed banter,' he says. 'But my voice has behaved itself thus far and I'm enjoying singing more than ever, losing all sense of time, place, self. Result.' He hopes fans will be able to 'forget their own woes for a while' by indulging him in his. What does being immersed in music do for Kenny, though? Bring him peace? A sense of catharsis? 'The writing of it is mainly a way to give my worrying, overthinking brain a rest. 'The lyrics are often just a cry out to be understood on some level,' he muses. 'My music relies more and more on the accidental syncing of off-kilter tape loops with flakey synths and wonky accordion playing – a reflection of my life I suppose. 'Playing live has become the most successful distraction from constant worry. It gives me a sense of purpose.' During a recent interview with KT Tunstall, the star commented that Kenny was one of her 'biggest mentors'. 'She's very kind to give me a shout out at gigs and in interviews,' he says. 'But have you heard her impersonation of Felicity Kendal?' The mind boggles. He's playing a few summer festivals, and has set himself goals including ridding himself of clutter and finishing DIY jobs. He's also looking forward to taking his daughters on holiday. 'Our youngest is obsessed by the Loch Ness Monster. And ducks. It used to be owls. 'Hopefully I'll not be swimming the loch with a couple of dark green umbrellas so's not to disappoint her.'
