The best agricultural games give you the impression that you’re actually wearing overalls and nibbling on a piece of wheat. They awaken your inner farmer and consume your every thought – you’ll be worried about water-to-soil ratios while eating your breakfast. Farming games understand that there’s something extremely fulfilling about watching your own farmland develop and prosper. Add a couple of cute farm animals to the mix, and you’ve got yourself a gaming genre that will keep you smiling.
The best farming games are the ones that keep you engrossed in fence layouts and sprinkler configurations for hours on end. Whether you’re looking for a simple game to dip in and out of or a realistic agriculture sim, there’s something for everyone on this list, and you’re bound to find something that grows on you. Here is our selection of the greatest agricultural games available right now.
Stardew Valley
You’ve landed at this page in search of three of the best farming games to play right now, but you should probably quit after the first one. You’ll lose hundreds of hours here, in the warm embrace of Stardew Valley, available on an increasingly hazardous number of platforms, patiently fixing up your grandfather’s old farm, naming your animals, selling your wares, mining, collecting, flirting… You get my drift. Everything is presented in a bright top-down format. And, if you think you’ve already paid your (Star)dues, the new ‘Everything’ upgrade might pique your curiosity. The free patch is now only available on PC, but it includes 60 new products, fishponds, personalized banking in multiplayer, and new haircuts, among other things.
My Time At Portia
If the top-down approach of Stardew has always made you feel a little disconnected, fear not: My Time at Portia immerses you completely in the wholesome farming and villag-ey action in stunning 3D. As you might guess, moving into a dilapidated old shack is a little depressing at first, but once you arrive in Portia, you’ll find yourself with a slew of new friends and a peculiar fascination with a game called Cross Five with a guy named Isaac. My Time At Portia, which is more than simply a farming game but also includes a lot of growing and watering, can be frightening at first as you come to know its vast resource options, but that doesn’t last long.
Farmville 2: Country Escape
If you have pleasant memories of a Facebook game nearly wrecking your university education, it’s certainly time to revisit this time-hungry crop-filled giant. Farmville 2 has been around since 2014, but it doesn’t make it any less deserving of a spot on this list. It’s hard to argue with more than 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone. Country Escape, like the original, has something terribly engrossing and now gloriously touchable about it, and you shouldn’t be too hungry to put your hand in your pocket if you’re happy to dip in and out of milk and crop production during the day. Just keep an eye on your inventory space, as Zynga might just push you over the brink there.
