Cattle and Crops Gameplay Trailer

A brand new Cattle and Crops Gameplay Trailer was released today.  If you’ve been holding onto your pennies in anticipation of the new Cattle and Crops farming simulation game releasing this year versus pre-ordering Farming Simulator 17, then go ahead and place that pre-order for FS17 TODAY!  Cattle and Crops will not….I repeat, WILL NOT release in 2016.  Yes…this is disappointing news.  But in the past few hours we’ve learned a lot about who’s behind Cattle and Crops and a much better idea regarding their plan.

First, please direct your attention to the brand new game play video which was released today.

I must admit, I’m still mostly captivated by what I see from Cattle and Crops (CnC).  For me, this has been the case from the very first video they released.  However, it’s all starting to make a little more sense to me.  Just as I mentioned earlier in the week when I posted the CnC news regarding the upcoming gameplay trailer, we haven’t heard much from CnC and I had started to hold little faith that we would see this game title actually release in 2016 despite what they stated on their website.  The software business (including the gaming world) is all about marketing.  We’ve heard practically nothing from CnC compared to GIANTS and their upcoming release of FS17.  But again, it’s all making sense now.

I do applaud the CnC folks for not rushing this product out the door.  If it’s not ready….then it’s not ready!  While I’ve often thought the whole CnC concept was vaporware (not real, just a hoax) I’m now convinced this is an actual product/concept and I will continue to follow its progress.  But we still have many unanswered questions.  In my opinion, wonderful graphics is only part of what goes into a true simulation based game.  The short gameplay trailer really didn’t demonstrate anything more than that.  Time will tell just how much focus they have dedicated to produce a more realistic simulation versus an arcade experience.

The Cattle and Crops website has been updated to include much more detail regarding CnC, the people behind CnC and the future plans (including the Kickstarter campaign).  Please visit the Cattle and Crops website for more information.  When you view the actual Kickstarter page (and I hope you do), please pay close attention to what they are calling “Season Pass”.  You’ll find this starting at the €44 level.  I really don’t know what this means, but it looks like….sounds like…some sort of subscription “pay for play” model???

In closing, I don’t need to worry about my attention being pulled away from FS17 later this Fall or early Winter.  As I’ve stated, I pre-ordered FS17 a few months ago and am looking forward to sinking my teeth into all that is new and different.  At this time I’m undecided if I’ll participate in the Kickstarter campaign.  I’d really like to better understand what they are attempting to achieve with what they are referring to as a “Season Pass”.  I’m certainly not a cheapskate, I support GIANTS (and others) by purchasing most DLC made available for their titles.  My advice to CnC is scrap the “Season Pass” concept and just produce affordable, quality DLC (like GIANTS) but please don’t become another Train Simulator.

Until next time…

Happy Farming!

Jerry

P.S.  In the long run, it’s probably very smart for CnC to delay their release until the Fall of 2017.  After all, at that point FS17 will be a year old and unless GIANTS changes their highly predictable release schedule, FS19 will be a long one-year away.  This could mean the audience (you and I) will be ready to try something new.  If CnC is successful in accomplishing all they hope to accomplish, it should also drive FS19 to be that much better.