Assume the role of a young farmer, as you experience the 18 hours-a-day lifestyle of running a busy farm in the middle of beautiful, rolling countryside. You start the game by choosing from a small collection of basic vehicles and machinery to explore your fairly spare farmland which measures a mere 4 km2. Playing in Career mode, your aim is to whip the farm into shape, expand your fleet of farm machinery and become a successful farmer. As you progress, you’ll need to visit the local agricultural machinery store to trade in your old vehicles and equipment for newer kit...

Farming Simulator 2009 allows you to organise and run your own farm. You can play in career mode, in which the aim is to make a commercial success of your business, or play a number of mission based levels. There's an array of missions and tutorials and four different crops which you can grow and harvest (barley, corn, canola and wheat).

You start the game with several vehicles - enough to make a go of farming. But once the money starts to flow in you'll be rewarded for buying more efficient machinery.

There are 17 missions for you to tackle (some of which are made up of tutorials that will help you overcome more complex aspects of the game) or you you can play in career mode where you have free reign to do what you want.

The game is quite easy to get used to and also quite good fun. When tackling jobs like collecting the harvest you'll have to chose which combine harvester to use (assuming you have more than one) and then driver over to the large cutting mechanism and attach it to the front. Then off you go to your field and cut your crop. When the combine harvester is full you'll need to bring a tractor and trailer into the field and then collect the crop and take it to a silo - you can later sell it at a grain station.

Other things to watch out for is that your fuel doesn't run low (there is a tank on your farm for refueling) and that the weather is suitable for whatever jobs you are planning (you can check the weather forecast on your PDA).

You can choose between seven tractors, four combine harvesters and over 20 tools such as a plough, seeder, baler and a self loading wagon. If this still isn’t enough, you can download a vast array of vehicles, equipment and other modifications.

This is a fun game that will provide endless hours of fun.

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Nick Smithson