8r4d One of the few perks of living on a bus route is that we are first in the queue to having our streets cleaned after the #snow falls.

gamerdad I’m reluctantly optimistic that my first year on this farm will be productive. During the tutorial the game encouraged me to plant for crops of canola. I did. And now in later November with the threat of snow just one game cycle away, I’m not sure the canola will do much more than wilt in the field.

I hate to be nitpicking but this is just one of the little details in the game that could use some work from the developers.

About 32 hours into my save I’ve encountered a lot of great things, but a few other not so great features. The driving AI for example is laughably bad at navigating the town. If—big if—it accepts my request to drive from point A to a carefully selected point B often just roughly in the vicinity of where I need it to go—if—if—about half the time it will crash into a bridge railing, get hung up on a fence, or try to drive through an arch for which fitting would be an optimistic dream.

I get the little message—or don’t get any message—and drop what i’m doing to go supervise.

Ugh. Is like a management job or something.

8r4d Scenes from some ordinary day in November. Part 3.

8r4d Scenes from some ordinary day in November. Part 2.

8r4d Scenes from some ordinary day in November. Part 1.

adventuredog This again, huh? #snow

gamerdad Another sick day and yet another day on the couch exploring the land of Skyrim. This one may almost think from looking at my screenshots today that I was in full on tourist mode.

In fact, I worked thru a good chunk of the opening act, made it all the way to a second major city, and bought myself a home in the first one. Even so, there were a lot of pretty sights along the way.

The last time I played this game was on the Nintendo Switch, a lesser console but very portable. And even that was an update from my first play thrus on PC and PS3. I knew there had been upgrades applied for current generation consoles, but while a lot of the little things blend in I do think the spectacular landscape showcases the improvements from that effort.

I’ve written this here before but I’m not a graphics-first guy. I will play graphically inferior games without hesitation if the gameplay is good. So, while a lot of folks lose their minds over frame rates and resolutions and such, those things are more of my cherry on top.

Even so, everyone loves a cherry. And between slaying rogue wolves and picking potion ingredients and sneaking up on bandit camps, it’s nice to get a great view too.

gamerdad In an effort to balance out some of the farming simulator stimulation I have been bouncing between the world of Skyrim for what I am going to call my sixth official attempt to play this game. I have made real progress in the past, but have actually never beat the game.

Can it be beat? I mean, does it actually have an end or do you just eventually run out of things to do? I honestly don’t know.

The Special Edition with a bunch of packaged DLC was on a crazy good sale a while back and I couldn’t resist a new attempt. So. Here goes…

gamerdad Ah, so between some sick time on the couch and a few days of I’ve kinda gone a big overboard with this game.

In fact, at just a week since launch I’ve logged a full twenty four hours in game and have made some serious progress in building out my little farm. Should I be proud? Or a bit embarrassed?

The dynamics of the game tweaks that have added some new features to the game, along with a few years of experience playing previous versions, has me digging in and churning through a lot of contracts and expanding my operation. I’ve set some basic rules for my game play and I’ve been trying to avoid cheats or crazy manipulation on the simulation aspect which a lot of people who post online seem to lean into maybe just to make their videos but maybe also to wheel past the slow grind of the agricultural simulation which can be a bit tedious if you don’t multitask and diversify your efforts from the get go.

On the other hand, I’ve also been leaning into the quirkier aspects of the game, like the fact that you can literally kinda sorta go for a trail run through the woods… call me silly but It’s a vibe.

8r4d Uh oh #winter #running had officially begun. We hit the suburban trails for a ten-ish klick run on the first really chilly morning of the season

8r4d The creep factor was raised to about a nine point fine for this evenings #running adventure. Dark, chilly and #autumn but without the comforting glow of an early snow to make it seem less haunted.

gamerdad Ah, well. Call it a break from farming or whatever but between my efforts of school bus spotting and actually doing the farming bits, I may have accidentally gone for a run.

Backup. Ok. So I’m a runner. In real life. If you are just stumbling on this and looking for a short short bio. I run. It’s my other hobby.

Running is a vibe. All those other games make running look like effortless sprinting, you know? Run in No Man’s Sky for example and your avatar is bounding and striding and galloping It’s not realistic. It’s simply utilitarian and fast.

I didn’t expect much for Farming Simulator 25 but between the nature trails and the bird sounds and the sluggish and basically awkward jog by little Farmer Brad, this game has the vibe. You know. It feels like trail running. It sims it better than most. Call me crazy but there’s something there.

The video started as a gag, a bit, but there’s something there. Really and I had to share it up.