I’ve been busy. Actually…that is a lie! I’ve been extremely busy. But this is just how the summer months are for me. Plus my wife and I are just a few weeks away from our European vacation. She and I both have jobs where we are the only individuals who do what we do. Meaning….we have no backup. We work extremely hard before a break or vacation and then work extremely hard once we return. Anyway…
Yesterday, Giants released a video preview (well they call it a trailer) for the upcoming Farming Simulator 17. When I first watched it, I had just come back from a two hour long meeting (that translates into two hours of wasted time which I’ll never get back) and I thought WOW….but then I realized it was all CGI or computer generated imagery. Sigh….
Like you, I’m excited about the release of FS17. I really am. While FS15 was my introduction to this franchise, I’ve read forum posts and blogs from frustrated fans who expected a lot more with FS15 than Giants delivered. So….I’m somewhat skeptical in exactly what FS17 will be when it releases towards the end of October.
FS15 is a great game. But it has issues. Will these issues be addressed in FS17? What is really new with FS17? These are valid questions but you won’t find the answers in the below preview. BUT….Giants is certainly willing to take your money now. Of course, we can speculate right?
From what I’ve seen, it looks like there could be a few new things with FS17 that wasn’t included in FS15 (at least without mods). It appears we will see a few new equipment brands in FS17. We may also see some new animals (perhaps pigs) and it looks like a few new crops may also be added. But these are all things that we had in FS15 through the modding community. But wait….I know folks who play on the console platforms don’t have access to mods. However, it appears this may be changing with FS17. “Among the many new features to be announced in the coming months for Farming Simulator 17, we are happy to unveil that modding support – which is exceptionally popular on PC – is making its grand debut on consoles!” WOW….this is great news for console gamers.
OK…I realize the end of October is still over four months away. But I’d really rather see video of actual game play instead of the CGI preview they released. Yes, the CGI stuff looks amazing. But I really, really, really doubt FS17 is going to look anything like this CGI preview. What will it look like? I think it will look like FS15, but hopefully slightly better.
Bottom line. I think console players will be over the moon with FS17. I think those of us on PC will be less impressed only because we’ve had access to mods all this time and we all know that mods are really what makes Farming Simulator beyond awesome.
Enjoy the preview. I’ve got to get back to work now.
The very highly anticipated map update to include the US State of Arizona was officially made available yesterday (Monday, 6 June) for American Truck Simulator. In addition to this new US State, several features and enhancements were also included for both ATS and ETS2.
I’ve had a really busy last couple of weeks and my blogging efforts have suffered. I did not participate in the Arizona beta as I was busy and two, well…I just typically steer clear of beta projects. It simply reminds me too much of my real world job. Anyway, I did manage to take a short drive from Las Vegas, NV to Page, AZ. I would have spent more time exploring Arizona, but I spent about an hour tinkering with my Logitech G27 as it seemed to have forgotten it was a steering wheel controller.
Thankfully the issue with the G27 WAS NOT due to the Arizona update but was an issue caused by a recent Microsoft Windows 10 update. Many other users who have the G27 and run Windows 10 are reporting the same issue. I think this update must have dropped about a week or so ago as I began noticing some really odd behavior from my G27 at that time. Simply, normally when I boot up my sim PC my Logitech G27 will make a few movements as the software identifies the device and calibrates it. But about a week ago, the G27 wheel would turn and pause, turn and pause…over and over and over. It seemed possessed. But I was spending time flying and just eventually unplugged the G27 until last night.
The fix for me was simply to uninstall the Logitech Profiler software (for the G27 it is version 5.10) and re-install. This corrected the issue and I was 100% back in business. However, as I’ve been reading on the Steam forums this morning, other users haven’t been so lucky.
If a simple uninstall and reinstall of the Logitech Profiler software does not fully resolve your issue, then you may consider following the steps below. These were posted on the Steam ATS Discussion Group page. Please note that I’ve not tested the below steps, so your mileage may vary.
**** ALL CREDIT TO USER AGENTZ86 ON LOGITECH FORUMS FOR THE FIX *****
Re: G25/G27 is detected as Driving Force – FIXED – SOLVED [ Edited ]
Here is my fix: – Works on Windows 10 too
Turn off / exit the GS 5.xx software
•Go to – Control Panel / Hardware Sound / Device Manager
•At the bottom of the device list you will probably see a item shown as (Universal Serial Bus Device) This will show you USB devices
•One of them will be the G27 (it might be in another location on that list but usually in (Universal Serial Bus Device)
•Right click on the G27
•Select (update driver software)
•Select (Browse my computer for driver software)
•Select (Let me pick from the list of device drivers on my computer)
•There will be a list of a few things perhaps G27 or even some assistant thing showing up in there (just fyi)
•The one you want is (USB device). This will remove that assistant thing that is creating this paradox.
** NOTE: If there is no choice for a USB device then (uncheck the option for *show compatible devices)
This will show a huge list of manufacturers etc.
From here scroll to the top of the list and select (Standard system devices)
Then on the right you scroll down to select (USB input device)
This will cause the Driving Force which gets selected by the assistant device to be removed and all association with it.
Now the G27 will show up under the (Human Interface Devices) Instead and will work perfectly without forgetting who it is.
Turn on your GS 5.xxx profiler and BOOM all should be well no rebooting and no reloading anything at all.
Well that is all I have time for at this time. Of course, multiplayer will not currently work with the ATS update. TruckersMP are working hard to update their multiplayer servers and software to accommodate all these changes (including Arizona). No timeframe has been given on when the update will be made available. I think the last major update (custom wheels) took TruckersMP about a week. So just be patient….enjoy Arizona in offline mode and multiplayer will be ready when it is ready!
In closing, I’m sure the Steam Discussion groups will soon begin to fill up with questions regarding what the next state will be. While I have no official knowledge, I think we can be assured the next state to be released for ATS will be one of the following: Oregon, Utah or New Mexico.
