14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Focus Home Interactive has announced that Farming Simulator 14 is coming to the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita handheld gaming consoles this summer.
Developer Giants Software's agricultural mayhem simulator has become a genuine bestseller, scoring over 2 million units sold across the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac platforms, and as such the powers that be decided that it's time to take the Farming Simulator phenomenon one step further.
The handheld platforms will get to taste the joy of working the land with motorized vehicles starting June, allowing gamers to step into the shoes – or rather, boots – of a virtual farmer. The game presents all the challenges of modern farming, allowing players to raise livestock and grow crops.
The action is complemented by the management and selling of increasingly complex products, culminating with the players constructing their own veritable farming utopia, set in a vast and colorful world.
As players progress through the game, they will be able to unlock a wide assortment of machinery and vehicles suited for agricultural work, faithfully reproduced to mimic actual vehicles from major manufacturers such as Case IH, Lamborghini, Kuhn, Amazone, Krone, Deutz-Farh and many others.
The main challenges that players will have to face in Farming Simulator 14 on the handhelds will be using the new vehicles and machinery in order to develop their farm complex, cultivating fields and managing livestock.
Players will also have to sell their produce on a dynamic market, in order to acquire new equipment, new vehicles and fields, and to hire workers to assist with a wide array of daily tasks.
The locations in the game are based on various American and European environments, and budding farmers are free to explore and grow what they want and invest their money however they like, in order to create a solid farming enterprise.
There is no information available on any new features that the handheld ports of the game will introduce to the classic formula of mundane drudgery and operating heavy equipment, but one thing is certain: neither the 3DS nor the Vita will have access to the wealth of community-created content that is available on the PC, and that made the game such an unexpected hit.
Farming Simulator 14 will become available both in stores and as a digital download from the Nintnedo eShop and the PlayStation Store, on June 5 in Europe and on June 24 in the US, for the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming systems.