Febrile Forums: Farming Sim 25 and Sea Power hit Steam

The Steam forums of Sea Power and Farming Simulator 2025 are as busy as midsummer beehives at the moment. Given that both titles launched yesterday, abuzz messageboards are probably a good sign even if, currently, a fair portion of the buzzing is emanating from aggrieved apians.

Sea Power’s Early Access price tag – £42 (£38 until November 26) – has come as a shock to some. Deficiencies signposted in Triassic’s roadmap and feature-list, have proved too much for others. SP has launched without campaigns, interactive tutorials, or – by the sound of it – an AI capable of using some assets properly.

As I predicted, early adopters without recent/extensive experience in the subgenre are finding the game’s plethora of sensors and weapons difficult to navigate. When should I switch on this radar? How should I deal with that threat? What’s the best formation to use in this situation? There’s guidance in the video tutorials added shortly before launch, but sitting through five thirty-minute presentations when you’re raring to dive into a new purchase, obviously isn’t ideal.

Unfortunately, like me, many new Sea Power players are likely to get their first taste of action via the demoralising Dong Hoi, the only ‘one star’ scenario in the NATO folder. Asked to bombard shore targets in North Vietnam with two destroyers, a cruiser, and a frigate, few novices will have what it takes to survive attacks by suspiciously proficient VPAF MiG-17s. Putting a couple of less demanding ‘one star’ challenges nearer the top of the mission list would have been oh so easy.

The fact that Farming Simulator 25 has generated fifty pages of Steam comments in the past 24 hours says more about the staggering popularity of the franchise than the current state of the sim. That said, the rash of red thumb reviews and critical comments shows not everyone is convinced FS2025 innovates and improves with sufficient vigour.

For some, novelties like ground deformation, baby animals, and Asian agriculture, and tangible progress in areas like helper intelligence, are offset by complacency and backsliding elsewhere.

In particular, fans fond of precision farming (not an option in FS25), crowded equipment showrooms, and deeply-modelled tractors, don’t seem over the harvest moon with the new version. Stuttering and framerate complaints figure in a surprising number of grumbles too.

I don’t have the series experience necessary to draw meaningful comparisons between FS25 and its predecessor, but having spent a pleasant few hours harvesting rice, tending mushrooms, and solving The Kärcher Konundrum* yesterday, I’ll happily put together a ‘first impressions’ piece if the Corner wishes it.

* After harvesting the three fields of ripe rice you get if you choose to begin a game with an established farm on the Hutan Pantai map, I was reluctant to put away my Iseki tankette without giving it good clean first. Realising I didn’t have a powerwasher, I popped to the local store and purchased one.

The next forty minutes were spent pleading (in my head at least) with the store owner to deliver said powerwasher, and, when my entreaties fell on deaf ears, figuring out a way to get my new toy home. Eventually a combination of a leased forklift, a Piaggio Ape, and some inelegant manhandling got the job done.