When the trailer is full, I unload grain near my silo. Wait a minute, I guess, first you got past a shed in your pickup where you could sell corn. So I load the trailer again and bring the grain there. I get 6,500 euros for this.

Walking back to their farm makes me think of Franziska and Bernd and how they influenced the game in real life. Farming simulator always accompany you on country roads, he said. “When you look at the machines on the streets, you look at them with a completely different look now.”

Bernd told me how his behavior on the roads changed when real farmers’ large farm vehicles were driving in front of him. “I used to try to overtake a column and keep pushing myself between the machines,” he said. “Now I know how stressful it is for a farmer when another vehicle comes there and you have to brake a 25-ton vehicle.”

I drive my pickup to my yard. It’s afternoon at the game. what can i do? I read in a message from Giants Software that in addition to larger vehicles and wide farms, new tasks have been added with Farming Simulator 22. For example beekeeping.

I want to try this and buy three beeswax. And because I see that there is still money left, a chicken coop and a dog too. I think the animals make the farm a little livelier. Because the buzzing and incessant shouting quickly got boring for me, I set the radio to the game menu. Light rock music plays in the background.

When I spread rapeseed on a freshly plowed field with my tractor, built an additional grain silo and set up a cowshed, the first day was over. I feel like I have achieved a lot. Like after a hard day’s work.

Yet, even after the second and third day, I am still missing something in Farming Simulator. For a long time I wondered what it might be like when I plow a field for another farmer in a fictional town in France. Lane by street I have time to think about it. I turned off the music again. In the long run, totaling was very annoying for me.

I flew in real time from Berlin-Tegel to New York with Microsoft’s flight simulator in an Airbus A320. I stayed there for more than nine hours. Submarine simulation was a big passion of mine for many years and I spent hours with torpedo lead calculators to get the right angle to sink my target. And with the cowboy game Red Dead Redemption 2, I sat on the banks of lakes and rivers fishing for rare fish.

So I have nothing against simulation, so why am I not really happy with Farming Simulator? Answer: I am reminded of the excitement I experience in a flight simulator when the machine takes off or lands. I miss the excitement of the submarine simulator, lurking underwater at the depths of the ocean tube as the torpedo moves toward another ship. And I miss the feeling of freedom like Red Dead Redemption when I fish my fish as an outlaw in the Midwest, with no time pressure or financial background.

At the same time, I can understand the allure when players plow through Haut-Bellaron in southern France with tractors at sunset. Or cut down trees for our own thatch factory in Rupiner Heed. I can also understand how great it feels to be able to buy even bigger and more powerful machines with the money I earn.

Or how exciting it would be to discover a new map in South America created by the community after several hours of farming in southern Germany. Because if there is something missing in the farming simulator she lovingly takes care of it. She regularly releases new modifications to the game. Giants Software itself also releases new expansions with additional vehicles and territories. The almost inexhaustible world of agriculture.

And finally, Franziska and Bernd still had an answer to the question of whether they too would sit in an actual farming machine. “Sure, sit in and try it, yeah,” he said. “But working with these things all the time? No. You’re stuck there all day.” It would be overkill.

Farming Simulator is available for all common systems PC, Mac, Xbox One and Series S and X, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita, Android and iOS.