Hope you’ve gotten your fill crafting and battling in My Time At Portia because Pathea Games have plans for you to spend time somewhere new next year. They’ve announced the sequel My Time At Sandrock which will launch in early access in March 2021. They’ve kicked up a crowdfunding campaign as well with hopes to develop a multiplayer mode for the sequel.

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There’s something innately relaxing about farming games like Stardew Valley. They let you take life at your own pace, where the only mission objective is to make a place your own in whatever way you see fit. It’s the reason why so many of us have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours playing Stardew Valley, which is arguably the best farming game you can play today.

Sometimes, though, you want to branch out and try something new – sow some new seeds, so to speak, while still getting that wholesome, cosy feeling you get from playing Stardew. That’s why we’ve come up with this list of the best games like Stardew Valley for farming and life sim fans looking to broaden their horizons. Whether it’s intense agriculture action you’re after or the moreishness of its gentle RPG elements, these are the best farming and life sim games like Stardew Valley you can play right now.

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Humble’s Monthly games bundle will be morphing into the more expensive Humble Choice at some point before the end of the year, but until that happens it’s business as usual for the monthly subscription service. In what’s quite possibly going to be the last Monthly bundle as we currently know it, the early unlock games for December have now been announced as Yakuza Kiwami, My Time at Portia and SoulCalibur VI. You’ll need to be a Humble Monthly subscriber to get them, of course, but if you’re not you can join up right now for $12/month.

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Harvest Moonesque> wholesome life simulator My Time At Portia just got an injection of romantic side-quests in celebration of this week’s Chinese Qixi Festival, also known as China’s Valentine’s Day. In the words of my country’s greatest poetess of love Celine Dion: Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that free updates are bon (“good” in French).

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It s hard to keep your eyes off the horizon in My Time At Portia. Its valleys live in the jagged shadow of broken high-rises, buildings draped with moss and towering factories splitting apart at the seams. I needed to concentrate on the group of adorable pastel coloured llamas ahead. My presence didn t interrupt their frolicking for a second, but I wished they d at least try to maul me a little bit; it would make what I was about to do feel less icky. With tennis racket in hand (it was stronger than my wooden sword) I slaughtered them all, collecting what bits and bobs remained to craft a hoodie in a lovely shade of blue. One commission down, and what felt like a million more to go.

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Judging by the Steam charts, players have been enjoying their time with My Time At Portia. The same can’t be said for the voice actors, who have spent the past year dealing with poor communication and inconsistent payments by devs Pathea Games. Yesterday Pathea acknowledged their mishandling of the situation, claimed they were currently in the process of ensuring everyone was properly paid, and promised to do better in the future.

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Don’t be scared. It’s OK. I’ve got you. Hold my hand. Tighter. Come on. We can do this together. You and me. Lets… Steam Chart.

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The game which sounds like summer hols at your posh boarding school gal pal’s chateau spent riding horses and investigating the secrets of the grandmother who lives in the attic but is in fact a build-o-farm ’em up, My Time At Portia, today launched properly. A bit like a 3D take on Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon and such, it’s about farming and fighting and crafting and grinding. Fraser Brown found that tedious when he played Portia shortly after its early access launch, but player reviews do seem positive a year later.

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Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the (well-tended agricultural) wilds of early access. This week, Fraser s taking a break in My Time at Portia, a crafting sim with shades of Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley.>

Tirelessly exploring early access games takes its toll, so this week I m off somewhere relaxing: a post-apocalyptic town. Portia is more Ghibli than Fallout, thankfully. It s a brightly-coloured, charming place, surrounded by vast green fields and gargantuan ruins from the time before the cataclysm. A perfect spot for a holiday, then.

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Aw MAN! Just when I’d started up a great new running gag for the appearance of GTA V in the charts, this week it’s fallen out! And Divinity: Original Sin 2 has finally failed to make the grade for the first time this year. However, you’ll be relieved to learn CS:GO and Plunkles don’t let us down and wearily continue their infinite reigns.

Meantime, there’s quite a nice mixture of fresh and more recently popular scattered within. (more…)