Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am a farmer, September 13, 2004
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I live on a large dairy farm my self and I am a teenager. We have 1500 cows and 900 of them are milked 3 times a day. I deal with every day chores such as feeding the calves, and mostly field work.
For those of you who were wondering the equipment does really cost that much in real life. In fact we happen to own some of the equipment in the game. This game is very realistic. I havnt found any bugs on my computer and ive played it alot. People when on auto will not use equipment because it is a decision making process. The help guide says they wont use equipment on auto.
This game really simulates a farm well. You have to have accuarate timing when planting, spraying, cultivating, and tilling the land. We have 900 acers of corn and 800 acers of hay. It generally takes 2 weeks to harvest each. Our hay is so good we can get 4 harvests of hay a year.
One thing I dont like about the game is you cant get stuck!! haha in real life you get stuck in the mud every so often especially when harvesting corn. I think improvements to the game should be getting stuck is working the field with high water content.
I think that the game is very good and I love it. Haha but real farming isnt as fun so enjoy it! I would recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a fun challenge.
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Farmer's life is neither glorious nor easy...., July 25, 2004
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
...and this game demonstrates that very well. More often than not, if you ask city-folk where their milk, meat, and produce come from the answer you'll hear is 'The store.' An answer that is far from the truth!
This game provides an interesting look at farming life, the costs and work involved, and provides an opportiunity to see what goes on before our food hits the grocery store shelves. You can choose to play one of a number of scenarios (pre-designed farms with set goals) or choose 'free play' and design your own farm (the only goal being to operate a profit-making farm). You can grow grain crops (corn, wheat, soybeans, or sunflowers) or raise livestock (beef cattle, dairy cattle, or hogs). You can add buildings, purchase more land to expand your farm, and run a roadside vegetable/flower stand. Once you've got the money coming in, you can add leisure items - such as a barbeque, swiming pool, or trampoline - or such luxury items as a 100' statue of Paul Bunion or a solid gold tractor! Watch out, though, as there are many things that can go wrong: your animals can get sick, your crops could be invaded by pests, or everything could get blown away by a passing twister! And, there's always those pesky relatives who drop in unexpectedly when their lives get bad and they need a place to stay for a while.
I'll be the first to admit that it's not an action-packed adventure (like so many other games on the market), but I believe that's because this game is based on a reality that - let's face it - can be quite monotonous.
I think this game is best suited for kids, however adults (like my dad, who's a 'frustrated city farmer') should enjoy it too. It's educational without going into great detail (i.e. it doesn't address what happens after you sell those animials that are fattened up for market), but there's enough realism to keep it from being too 'sugar coated.'
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some flaws, but a classic, August 6, 2004
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm not a farmer by profession, though possibly one day owning a farm has always interested me. When I first saw this title I was a bit skeptical that a 'farming' game could actually work as entertainment, but all in all John Deere: American Farmer does a fine job of providing an enjoyable and interesting simulation of farming.
So what do you get? Well you get some prepackaged scenario's dealing with goals ranging from having to harvest nearly 2,000 acres in one year to situations where you must turn around a farm heavily in debt. You get a free build mode and also a map editor and scenario maker. All the scenario's are fun and interesting to get to grips with.
You begin to learn what kinds of crops grow best in which type of soil and moisture level, you can also choose the type of seed that you use, do you go for the budget brand or do you go for the genetically modified varieties manufactured by Pioneer. Its always a balance between the cost of planting and the associated cost of crop dusting with pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that determine ultimately your profit margin. The same applies for animal husbandry, you can raise hogs, beef cattle or create a dairy, whichever you choose you must monitor the market price levels and try to buy cheap and sell during high price spikes. Concerning the crops you can store your harvests in silage for the time when you can sell at the highest possible price. This sounds easy, but in practice it isn't; frequently to expand the farm you must borrow money to buy land and equipment and hire more staff, which means that sometimes you have to sell your produce for lower prices to maintain your commitments. Thus any expansion you do must be carefully planned out so that you can get out of debt.
The vehicles available are all John Deere, and whilst I don't mind that, one of the problems is that you cannot buy used vehicles or even rent them. Considering a new heavy duty tractor is in excess of $200,000 this makes expansion of farms of this size much more problematic where new equipment is rarely purchased. I feel the game should have given more choice in this regard. The other element which is lacking concerning the vehicles and the economic model in the game is that you can run a combine for 30 years and it never costs you anything in maintanence. Likewise one aspect of farming is the cost of diesel, in the game you never pay these costs, which in reality alternate with the market. It would have been interesting had the developers added this feature.
As was said earlier your family memebers can come and live with you on the farm and work for free. It is possible to keep them on the farm indefinately provided that you can rotate their jobs and give them rest breaks and good living conditions with some leisure structures. Usually a mix of 75% family and 25% hired employees can run a farm remarkably well.
The graphics are quite good and are from a 'birds eye' perspective of the farm, the crops are illustrated ripening, the livestock gets bigger as time goes on, you seen the rain and darkness on cloudy days and brightness on sunny ones as well as twisters and thunder and lightning. The weather is also well modelled and shows how much the farmer is truly reliant on good weather for high yields, the game models droughts which can vary in length, and this of course can ruin all your crops.
My final critical note is that the characters in the game could have been made more interesting. The game models them all as kind of dumb hillbilly sterotypes from the southern states. Considering the game is set in three geographic locations (The Lake States, The Great Plains and the Corn Belt) this is a bit stupid and gets boring.
Bottom line is this is great game, which is highly original. Clearly if you only like action packed games it may not be for you, but if you like strategy, including war games then this is for you. I hope they make a sequel
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